In western Europe

European society has long valued wind instruments, from their earliest use in rituals down to the present day. In the Carolingian era, signal horns became closely associated with the military and nobility. The oliphant, an end-blown horn made from an elephant tusk, is prominently mentioned in the medieval epic The Song of Roland. Later, European armies used shawms (predecessors of the Western oboe) and straight metal trumpets (buisines) to sound military calls and to rally troops in battle, following the practice of Muslim military bands. Wind instruments may also have been incorporated into medieval liturgical services, although much of the early evidence supporting this is found in religious art and may refer less to ritual practice than to symbolic or allegorical meanings of the instruments depicted.

Wind bands consisting of shawms, trumpets, and trombones were associated in the Renaissance with the nobility, who sought to demonstrate wealth and power in the musical events they sponsored; court documents and pictorial sources testify to the wide use of winds in processions and other ceremonies. Collecting instruments also may have been considered a mark of wealth and prestige, because some nobles assembled enormous collections, in which winds figure prominently. The household inventory of Georg Raymund Fugger of Augsburg (now in Germany), for example, lists about 400 instruments, including 111 flutes. In England, 272 of the 381 instruments in Henry VIII’s collection were winds.

During the same period, groups of professional wind-instrument players were formed in municipalities across Europe. Stadtpfeifer (“town pipers”), as these musicians were known in Germany, played for ceremonies, for weddings, and sometimes with singers in performances of elaborately scored sacred polyphony (i.e., music with multiple melodic lines). In France during the reign of Louis XIV, the Grande Écurie (an ensemble that provided music for royal occasions) cultivated wind instruments and contained within their group the finest players and wind-instrument makers. At a different level, amateur musicians included the famous English diarist Samuel Pepys, whose love of the recorder was matched only by his devotion to his viol and lute. As public concerts began, contemporaneously with Pepys, the middle classes became further involved in music making. Among the amateurs of note was Frederick II the Great of Prussia, who hired the German musician and composer Johann Joachim Quantz to teach him the flute. Folk music has continued to maintain its share of wind instruments.With the passing of patronage from royal establishments to the public, then, art music found a broader base for support, while amateur music continued to thrive at its own level.

Dissemination

When an instrument is introduced to a different geographic area, any new instrument that develops from it generally retains some connection to its predecessor: a similar name or function, a shared physical characteristic, or an association with a particular social class. Instrument dissemination, then, reflects the relationships between cultures. The dissemination of the zūrnā, an oboe found throughout the Arab world, in Turkey, and in parts of Europe and Asia, is a useful illustration.

The zūrnā first became known in Muslim areas, where it emerged from a synthesis of earlier types from Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia. In its basic four-piece form, with flared body, reed, staple, and pirouette (a disk or cylinder that partly covers the reed), it spread rapidly to lands conquered by the Arabs. It also was known by the 12th century in western Europe (shawm) and later in the Balkan region (zurla). With the spread of Islam, the zūrnā was introduced from the Middle East and Persia to India, Southeast Asia, and China. The Persian surnāy (or surnā), for instance, became the shehnai of northern India and the suona of China. The latter contrasts with the indigenous Han Chinese oboe (guan), which has a short cylindrical tube that does not overblow at the octave.

The zūrnā was first used as a signaling instrument in military bands, but the Arabs later employed it for a variety of functions: to greet important persons, to mark the beginnings of pilgrimages, and to accompany other ceremonies. Some of these functions were spread along with the instrument. Thus, the zūrnā was heard at funerals in the Arab world, as well as in Armenia and Sri Lanka. Other extramusical associations suggest different cultural connections: the serunai of Malaysia, for example, was used mainly for various types of wayang kulit, or shadow-puppet plays, as the zūrnā had been employed in the Turkish shadow theatre (Karagöz). Today the zūrnā survives as a folk instrument in Muslim areas and other regions, including Greece, Cyprus, and Armenia. It is used mainly in festive village music and is played in small ensembles by members of the lowest social classes.

Craftsmanship

The high value placed upon musical instruments within a culture is generally reflected in their craftsmanship. In addition to the skill and quality of materials the maker incorporates into the construction itself, artistry comes into play as the maker decorates an instrument with symbolic designs or with elaborate carvings or inlays. In the case of wind instruments, the form of the instrument may itself be decorative. The symmetry of the suona, a Chinese oboe whose conical shaft terminates in a bell section of brass, is evocative. The tube of the instrument is gracefully indented for each finger hole, leaving the impression of a series of diminishing concentric circles, which are capped by the small brass pirouette and a short reed. The related Arab surnāy may be decorated with inlay. In Europe during the Middle Ages, the oliphant was highly prized not only for the ivory from which it was made but also for its sometimes elaborate carvings.

Similar, if less-striking, attention to design is encountered in European woodwinds. The bulges that typify the profile of the Baroque oboe and recorder are at once utilitarian (they reinforce the joints of the instruments) and artistic. The addition of ivory rings at the joints added to their beauty. Among the more fantastic and ingenious specimens of woodwinds are certain flutes and clarinets of the late 18th and 19th centuries made as functional walking sticks.

Undecorated brass instruments with their pleasing curves demand little additional garnishment, yet even these graceful instruments were frequently embellished with engraving on the rim of the bell or on the bell itself, particularly by the famous Nürnberg makers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Seams and joints in the brass tubing were often reinforced by ornate but functional metal tubes and rings (sleeves and pommels). The most elaborate and fantastic decorations, possibly inspired by the Chinese, emerged in the Renaissance, when unusual brass instruments were commissioned for ostentatious dramatic performances intended for royalty and their guests. Trumpets were made in the shape of dragons, the bell of these (and other) instruments being transformed into the dragon’s head. At times, a tongue was even inserted to vibrate when the instrument was blown, and fishlike scales were painted on the outside. Such extravagances appeared sporadically in the following centuries, especially in late 19th-century Italy. Elaborate key mechanisms have inhibited decoration in woodwinds in the 20th and 21st centuries, and makers of brasses have generally been satisfied with the beauty of the functional design of their instruments.