Cornamusa (i)

(It., Sp.; Fr. cornemuse).

A wind-cap instrument of the 16th and early 17th centuries. It was like a straight, quiet Crumhorn. The use of the word ‘cornamusa’ in some languages to mean bagpipe (see (ii) below) suggests that the wind-cap cornamusa may have been developed from a bagpipe chanter (see Wind-cap instruments, §3). It seems to have been more or less restricted to Italy, though the lack of firm evidence and the ambiguities in nomenclature indicate that even there it cannot have been widely known. The rare records of apparently similar instruments in practical use in Germany do not call them by that name; it is remarkable therefore that the only known description of the instrument is given by Praetorius (2/1619), who described it as a straight wind-cap instrument, having a covered bell with ‘small holes on the sides through which the sound comes out’. He mentioned five sizes, each with a range of a 9th: Bass (lowest note F), three Tenor and Alt sizes (B, c, d) and Discant (b) (there being no logic in making an instrument only in these sizes, his description may be based on instruments belonging to two or more sets); ‘they sound like crumhorns except that they are quieter, gentler and very soft’. These instruments evidently had a cylindrical bore like the crumhorn, and Praetorius stated that they were similar in appearance to his Schryari. His use of the word ‘cornamusa’ is unique in German sources (though Troiano, writing in Italian, used it in a treatise published in Munich in 1568); however, apparently similar instruments called ‘straight crumhorns’ are listed in the inventories from the court of the dukes of Saxony at Dresden (1593) – Praetorius may have based his descriptions on these instruments, for he is known to have visited the city – and the castles of the Rožmberk family at Česky Krumlov (1599) and Třebon (1610).

Cornamuse are mentioned in various Italian sources, including the treatise of 1592 by Zacconi (from whom Praetorius may have taken the name), who listed them among the consort instruments and the tongue-articulated woodwind, and said that ‘sordoni sound like cornamuse’. Rognoni (1620) stated that the compass of the bass cornamusa could be increased by means of keys, which is reminiscent of the extended crumhorn.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PraetoriusSM, ii

PraetoriusTI

M. Troiano: Discorsi delli triomfi, giostre, apparati (Munich, 1568, enlarged 2/1569)

L. Zacconi: Prattica di musica (Venice, 1592/R)

F. Rognoni Taeggio: Selva de varii passaggi (Milan, 1620/R)

A. Baines: ‘Crumhorn, Racket, etc.’, European and American Musical Instruments (London, 1966/R), 95–9

H. Moeck: Zur Geschichte von Krummhorn und Cornamuse (Celle, 1971)

D. Macmillan: ‘The Mysterious Cornemuse’, EMc, vi (1978), 75–8

B.R. Boydell: The Crumhorn and Other Renaissance Windcap Instruments (Buren, 1982), 291–313

K.T. Meyer: The Crumhorn: its History, Design, Repertory, and Technique (Ann Arbor, 1983)

BARRA R. BOYDELL