A brief history of medieaval wind music
"During the troubadour age, wind instruments were used in music with great freedom. There are hints of segregation of the noisier instruments from those that matched the singer and strings but hardly more. However, in the 14th century, with its greater emphasisis on concerted music, the distinction became binding, and this is the first point to grasp when fitting old wind instruments, or modern substitutes for them, into performances of 14th and 15th century music.
The stricter observance of the distinction may have owed much to late 13th century interest in Arab music-making. There had been nothing particularly Arab about either the provenance or the usage of the earlier "Gothic" instruments, but, now, towards the end of the 13th century, there appeared a fresh group of instruments, this time obtained direct from the Arab civilisation. It included some of the pincipal stringed instruments of Arab chamber music, as the lute, and the Moorish fiddle rubebe: also the Saracen military band equipment with long metal trumpets, the small Oriental kettle drums, nakers, and the band shawm. With the advent of these came also the Oriental strict distinction between loud and soft instruments and music, and to appreciate what it signifies, we may first observe it as it still operates in the traditional music of the East today....."
Woodwind Instruments and their History by Anthony Baines pp230 231...ff
published by Faber Paperbacks
ISBN 0-571-08603-9
The stricter observance of the distinction may have owed much to late 13th century interest in Arab music-making. There had been nothing particularly Arab about either the provenance or the usage of the earlier "Gothic" instruments, but, now, towards the end of the 13th century, there appeared a fresh group of instruments, this time obtained direct from the Arab civilisation. It included some of the pincipal stringed instruments of Arab chamber music, as the lute, and the Moorish fiddle rubebe: also the Saracen military band equipment with long metal trumpets, the small Oriental kettle drums, nakers, and the band shawm. With the advent of these came also the Oriental strict distinction between loud and soft instruments and music, and to appreciate what it signifies, we may first observe it as it still operates in the traditional music of the East today....."
Woodwind Instruments and their History by Anthony Baines pp230 231...ff
published by Faber Paperbacks
ISBN 0-571-08603-9