EDITOR'S NOTE: As always, this series of articles is designed to educate the average Elanthian on the real world history and nature of each instrument detailed, to place the instruments in a better context for those who play and use them in the Lands.

The Cornetto

The name derives from the Italian for "little horn" ("corno" - horn, plus the suffix "etto" - small); it is also nowadays often referred to as "cornett" (with two t's to give a distinction from the modern brass instrument, with which it has no connection). Cornetto (French and Italian), Cornett (British), and Zink (German) all refer to the same instrument. The Cornetto was developed around the beginning of the 14th century, making it a contemporary of the early slide trumpets. It remained in common use well into the 17^th Century.

The cornetto is a hybrid instrument with a small trumpet-like mouthpiece and fingerholes like a recorder; it is made in wood and covered in leather, although some surviving historical instruments are of ivory. It was made in several sizes, the most popular being the treble in G. Typically the instrument has an slight curve and an octagonal cross-section, often with a diamond pattern cut into the upper section below the mouthpiece socket; it has six fingerholes and a thumbhole.

It played nearly chromatically, giving it an advantage over many other wind instruments. This had the drawback of making the instrument extremely difficult to play, to keep in tune, and very fatiguing to the performer. The advantage gained by its flexibility outweighed all of this, however; at least until a suitable replacement was found. The cornetto was a virtuoso instrument as was the violin; it was accepted that any music suitable for violin could also be played on the cornetto.

Its heyday was the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, when it was the most highly regarded wind instrument. It was prized for the resemblance of its sound to that of the human voice, considered to be the perfect instrument, and for its suitability for performing elaborate musical ornamentation. Always considered a difficult instrument, it spawned a select group of highly regarded, and highly paid, virtuoso players such as Giovanni Bassano and Girolamo Dalla Casa, both of whom worked at the Basilica di San Marco in Venice.

The repertoire for the instrument covers the Renaissance and early Baroque periods. It was used in both sacred and secular music, and besides pieces such as the Vespers which mention the instrument by name, it would have been a natural choice for most high-lying parts. Thus it appeared in bands playing ceremonial and dance music, as well as in church reinforcing vocal lines and playing instrumental canzonas and sonatas.

Its flexibility in the hands of a good player made it suitable for virtuoso display and at its height it was expected to do anything a violin or a human voice could do. Many works of the early seventeenth century are marked "violino o cornetto" (violin or cornett) implying that either was a suitable choice.

The difficulty of its technique meant that even at the height of its popularity there were relatively few really accomplished players, and the instrument fell into decline during the second half of the seventeenth century as violin technique developed and as other wind instruments such as oboes became more sophisticated.

It has also been suggested that several of the leading players died during the great Venetian plague of 1630, leaving few people to teach the instrument. The use of the cornetto survived longest in Northern Europe; J S Bach calls for it in some of his cantatas, but by this time it would have been considered rather old-fashioned, and by the end of the eighteenth century it had more or less died out.

There were several sizes of cornetto. The treble in G was the most common. The tenor, or lysard, was in C, a fifth below the treble. There was also a cornetto in C a fourth above the treble. The serpent serves as the bass of the cornetto family.

The Lysard
(tenor cornetto)

The tenor of the zink or cornetto family (also known as lizard or lysarden) has the peculiar curved shape of a flattened letter S. Besides giving the instrument its name, this shape helps the player cover the finger holes on this longer zink.

As with the other instruments in the zink family, the lysard is most often fashioned from wood, with holes and keys similar to woodwind instruments. The mouthpiece is similar to that used on modern trombones and trumpets, which technically classifies the instrument as a brass. The holes for each hand happen to be in the portion of the curves closest to the player.

The lysard is a much different instrument than the smaller straight cornetto. It does have a mouthpiece just like the smaller instrument, but it is made in an entirelly different way. Instead of the bored piece of wood that a straight cornett is made out of, the lysarden is made of a block of wood. The wood is cut in half, hollowed out, and then glued back together. The sides are then planed into an octagonal shape and then covered in leather. The lysard has six finger holes and one thumb hole. The mouthpiece is very small, so it is played on the side of the mouth. It can produce different volumes of sound, and takes little breath to play.

The lysard's tone is pleasing, yet rather foggy. It blends well with voices and plays on one of the inner voices of an ensemble.

A Lyserden is listed in the waits' band of Exeter in 1575 and a lysarden appears in the inventory made in 1602 of the instruments at Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, England that belonged to Thomas Kytson.

The Serpent
(bass cornetto)

The serpent was invented in 1590 by Edme Guillaume, a canon at Auxerre. It was used in sacred music to reinforce low men's voices. When well played, it blends with voices and gives a depth to the choral sound. During the two hundred years after its invention, it was used as a military band instrument and later evolved into the ophecleide and tuba.

The serpent uses a mouthpiece similar to that of a trombone and is sounded the same way as other brass instruments, so it is classified as "brass", but it was originally, and often still is, made of wood, covered with leather. Dating from the late 16th century, it gets its name from its shape.

Unlike the bugle and the "natural trumpet", which are limited to the harmonic series one can produce on a fixed length tube, the serpent varies the effective length of the instrument by covering and uncovering finger-holes -- as on a wooden flute, recorder, or pennywhistle.

The conical tube of the serpent is over six feet in length. Its construction is similar to that of the smaller cornetts and it has an elbow shaped crook to bring the mouthpiece to the player's lips. Because the placement of the holes on a straight instrument long enough to play in the bass register resulted in holes no player could actually reach, the instrument was shaped into an S curve.

The wooden body, often walnut, is sometimes made from several fairly short pieces joined together and covered with leather; other times, glued up from two complete halves of hollowed out blocks of wood. Like the lysard, the serpentine shape of the instrument brings the finger holes and mouthpiece within a player's reach. Its range can extend to three octaves.

As with other instruments of the zink family, it takes great skill and practice to get a good sound from the serpent. Every note depends on the player's correct embouchure and pitch accuracy.

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