(Fr. cervelas; Ger. Rackett, Rankett).
A double-reed woodwind instrument of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Renaissance or ‘pirouette’ type, though never in widespread use, appeared sporadically in central Europe from about the middle of the 16th century to the middle of the 17th. Its structure is ingeniously compact: within its squat cylindrical body (fig.1), nine parallel bores drilled lengthwise (consisting of eight ranged concentrically around one) connect at alternate ends to form a continuous undulating tube as shown in fig.2; into the central bore is inserted a short staple bearing a bassoon-type reed, surrounded by a large ornamental pirouette of a kind peculiar to the instrument. The double reed causes the cylindrical bore to function as a stopped pipe whose fundamental sounds an octave below that of an open pipe; thus the racket, in spite of its modest size, was rivalled only by the organ in the depth of its compass.
The nomenclature of the instrument is involved. An alternative though less used name is ‘rankett’, a word also applied to an Organ stop. This register on the organ, first noted as Rancket in 1564, bore a confusing resemblance in both tone and construction to the racket. Sachs (1922) derived both names from the Middle High German ranc, meaning ‘to and fro’, ‘crooked’. However, Seidl (1959) argued that although after 1800 the two terms became synonymous, before that they were well differentiated in meaning; he derived Rackets from the Italian ‘rochetta’, a rock, distaff or spinning bobbin. Early forms of the word found in inventories include ragget, rogetten, Raketpfeiffen and Racquetten (which might suggest ‘rocket’; see Baines, 1966). The French name cervelat(later cervelas), first used by Mersenne (1636–7), appears to be derived either from cervelet, meaning ‘cerebellum’ or little brain, or from cervellato, an earlier Italian word for a small sausage: whence the German Wurstfagott, anglicized as ‘sausage bassoon’. Other early names, cortalli and cortaldi, derive (like courtaut and Kortholt) from the Latin ‘curtus’, ‘short’. Later German names include Stockfagott and Faustfagott.
The oldest extant account of the instrument is that given by Praetorius. He described and illustrated four sizes of Racketten and defined a consort as consisting of seven instruments, each with a range of a 12th: two Diskant, c12 cm (G–d'); three Tenor-Alt, c25 cm (C–g); one Bass, c18 cm (F'–c); and one Gross Bass, c35 cm (D'–A or C'–G). Three instruments of the type described by Praetorius, which may be termed the Renaissance or pirouette racket to distinguish it from the later type, have survived, two now in Vienna and one in Leipzig. They are all made of ivory rather than the less durable wood and appear to originate from the same workshop (the catalogues of Mahillon, 2/1909, 1912, and Schlosser, 1920, give details of their construction). Those in Vienna are a matching pair of descant rackets (fig.3), already listed in 1596 in the Ambras Collection (there are facsimiles in Brussels, New York and Biebrich). The configuration of the bore in each of these instruments is the mirror-image of that in the other. The body of each is 120 mm high and 48 mm in diameter; the nine ducts, each 6 mm wide, are plugged to form a bore totalling a little over a metre long. At intervals along this inner bore 17 holes are drilled at various angles, meeting up to form 11 external orifices which are stopped by the fingers and also three that vent the lowest note. There is also a water hole connecting through the bottom of the first duct. The positioning of the fingerholes enables the player to hold both hands at the same level on either side of the instrument, and to use the middle joints (phalanges) as well as the tips of the fingers where necessary. Each end of these instruments is covered by an ivory plate; through the centre of the upper plate is inserted a tapered metal staple on which the reed is fixed, surrounded by an ornamentally perforated, sleeve-like pirouette with an elliptical slit on top through which the reed-tip protrudes. The third surviving pirouette racket, in Leipzig (fig.4), corresponds to Praetorius’s Bass Rackett. The pirouette of this instrument has a thin, flaring rim 51 mm wide like an eggcup; 20 holes in the bore are arranged to produce 12 fingerholes and four vent-holes. Kinsky (1925) ascribed this instrument to the same unknown maker of the Viennese pair; its base plate (now missing, but illustrated in de Wit, 1903) bore the name and crest of Carl Schurf, a court official of Ferdinand of Tyrol, active at Ambras in 1596. A replica of the instrument is in Brussels.
The pirouette of the Renaissance racket represents a further stage of development from the wind-cap of the crumhorn (where the reed was entirely outside the player’s direct control) and from the pirouette of the shawm (against which the player pressed his lips, allowing the reed to vibrate freely inside his mouth). With the racket, the player’s lips control the reed blades but are supported and helped very effectively by the pirouette to produce and maintain the loose embouchure demanded by the low tessitura; this device also adds, surprisingly, a considerable degree of resonance to the tone. No original reeds survive; Seidl (1959) recommended one modelled on a surviving Vienna crumhorn reed: medium arch, rather soft without spine, with a blade about 30 mm long and about 18 mm wide at the tip.
A suggestion of an additional, different technique of blowing can be found in Praetorius. He indicated that, although the number of notes would usually correspond to the number of holes, an expert could produce more notes with a good reed, but that ‘falsetto’ playing was seldom used. This suggests that, by using a harder reed and forgoing the support offered by the pirouette in order to control the reed entirely with the lips, an expert player could extend the range upwards by overblowing; it is known that this more modern technique was already coming into use about this time on the shawm. An ivory carving by Christof Angermair in Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum; see fig.1 above), datable 1618–24, shows the instrument apparently being played in this fashion. Another roughly contemporary source has recently come to light which shows the same technique. Here the more decorated model of instrument has body and pirouette covered in tooled leather, while the ornate tips and base plate are of gilt bronze. It is perhaps significant too that Mersenne in 1636–7 showed the racket, which he called the ‘cervelat harmonique’, without any pirouette at all. Using this technique Seidl claimed to obtain almost an extra octave.
The racket never had a wide distribution and was rarely depicted; the only other iconographic source of one being played is an illuminated manuscript (datable 1565–70) by Hans Mielich in Munich (D-Mbs; see Lassus fig.4). Three instruments are also depicted on the title page of Praetorius’s Musae Sioniae, 1609 and 1610. References in inventories in Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Italy start to appear in the last quarter of the 16th century, but there is evidence that by about 1630 the instrument had already started to fall out of use, like its other cylindrical relations the kortholt and sordun. Praetorius described the racket’s tone as ‘quiet, almost like blowing through a comb. The effect of an entire consort lacked grace, but when a gamba was added, or one was used alone with other wind and strings and played by an expert, it was an attractive instrument, especially effective in the bass’. Although its depth of compass exceeded that of the deepest shawms and dulcians, it lacked their tonal strength and expression and became obsolete by the mid-17th century.
A modified version of the instrument, called the Baroque racket or bassoon-racket, has survived in greater numbers. In 1730 Doppelmayr wrote that the elder Denner, Johann Christoph (1655–1707), reproduced in improved form the Stock- or Rackettenfagotte already known from early times. A racket attributable to Denner, now in Vienna (facsimile in Brussels), shows what the differences of construction were. The wooden body, 190 mm high and 87 mm in diameter, has ten cylindrical bores increasing in size from 10 mm to 23 mm; the narrowest receives a coiled brass crook (missing here) and the widest in the centre a short pepperpot bell made of ivory. The irregularly conical composite bore, with its ten fingerholes taking the range down to C and with its ability to overblow at the octave, makes the instrument correspond in range and behaviour to the contemporary dulcian. There is a further example in Nuremberg. A Denner racket was among the instruments belonging to the Medici court in Florence (inventory of 1716), and makers in Germany, the Netherlands and France also took up the idea. Specimens survive in the museums of Berlin and Munich (two each; fig.5), Paris, The Hague and Copenhagen. These substitute a pear-shaped or shortened bassoon-type bell for Denner’s perforated capsule; sometimes projecting bushes or ‘teats’ are added to those holes stopped with the phalanges. Some instruments are covered in leather and have two or three keys. The latest, by Tölcke of Brunswick and Wilhelmus Wyne (1730–1816) of Nijmegen (see fig.5) are datable to the end of the 18th century. Macquer (1766) considered that ‘ils sont fort agréables à jouer, et ont des basses très-majestueuses pour un aussi petit volume’. However, such an instrument, being essentially nothing more than a bassoon in racket form, was never more than a curiosity and failed to survive, even as a mention in contemporary reference works. Hawkins reported that one of the Stanesbys made a cervelat according to the dimensions given by Mersenne, ‘but it did not answer expectation: by reason of its closeness the interior parts imbibed and retained the moisture of the breath, the ducts dilated, and broke. In short the whole blew up’.
In recent years modern versions of both the Renaissance and Baroque racket have been available, the former usually fitted with a plastic reed. This instrument in particular, with its deep compass and characteristic throaty tone, has been found useful in performing music of the period.
HawkinsH
Grove5 (‘Rackett’; L.G. Langwill)
MGG1 (‘Rackett’; A. Berner)
MGG2 (‘Doppelrohrblattinstrumente’; A. Masel)
MersenneHU
PraetoriusSM, ii
J.G. Doppelmayr: Historischer Nachricht von den Nürnbergischen Mathematicis und Künstlern (Nuremberg, 1730)
P. Macquer: Dictionnaire portatif des arts et métiers, ii (Yverdon, 1766)
V.C. Mahillon: Catalogue descriptif et analytique du Musée instrumental du Conservatoire royal de musique de Bruxelles, ii (Ghent, 1896, 2/1909); iv (Ghent, 1912) [both vols. repr. 1978 with addl material]
P. de Wit: Katalog des Musikhistorischen Museums von P. de Wit (Leipzig, 1903)
E. Mandyczewski: Geschichte der k.k. Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, suppl. (Vienna, 1912)
J.V. Schlosser: Die Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente (Vienna, 1920/R)
G. Kinsky: ‘Randnoten zum Katalog des neuen Wiener Instrumentalmuseums’, ZMw, iv (1921–2), 162–8
C. Sachs: Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente bei der Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik zu Berlin (Berlin, 1922)
G. Kinsky: ‘Doppelrohrblatt-Instrumente mit Windkapsel’, AMw, vii (1925), 253–96
A. Buchner: Zaniklé dřevěné dechová nástroje 16. století [Obsolete woodwind instruments of the 16th century] (Prague, 1952, 2/1957; Eng. trans., 1956)
H. Seidl: Das Rackett (diss., U. of Leipzig, 1959)
A. Baines: European and American Musical Instruments (London, 1966/R)
V. Gai: Saggi di organologia musicale (Florence, 1970)
H. Moeck and H. Mönkemeyer: Zur Geschichte der Kortinstrumente (Celle, 1973)
H. Seidl: ‘Das Pirouette-Rackett: terminologische, spiel- und bautechnische Probleme’, BMw, xvii/1 (1975), 59–68
WILLIAM WATERHOUSE