(Fr.: ‘Poitou oboe’).
A straight wind-cap shawm (oboe family; see Wind-cap instruments). It was described by Mersenne (1636–7), who illustrated three sizes and stated that ‘the range of each of these hautbois is similar to that of the shawms’, instruments with a range of almost two octaves. Wind-cap instruments do not normally overblow, being restricted to a range of about a 9th. The three sizes illustrated by Mersenne apparently had as their lowest notes d' (or c'), f and F (or E); the bass had a bore which doubled back on itself like a bassoon. These three instruments and a small bagpipe with one drone called a ‘cornemuse’ (not to be confused with the wind-cap Cornamusa (i)), which doubled the descant hautbois de Poitou, formed a regular consort in the grande écurie of the kings of France until well into the 17th century. Indeed this consort survived at least in name throughout the ancien régime, though it probably no longer functioned as a musical unit in the 18th century. In both Harmonicorum instrumentorum and Harmonie universelle Mersenne included a composition for this combination of instruments by Henry le Jeune, one of the French royal composers. The hautbois de Poitou survived in France as a folk instrument into the 19th century.
MersenneHU
M. Mersenne: Harmonicorum instrumentorum libri IV (Paris, 1636); pubd with Harmonicorum libri (Paris, 1635–6) as Harmonicorum libri XII (Paris, 1648/R, 2/1652)
B.R. Boydell: The Crumhorn and other Renaissance Windcap Instruments (Buren, 1982), 342ff
HOWARD MAYER BROWN/BARRA R. BOYDELL