Banish the sober fiddles

Konrad of Megenberg observed in about 1350:

Indeed, in modern times the shawms and loud trumpets generally banish the sober fiddles from
the feasts, and the young girls dance eagerly to the loud noise, like hinds, shaking their buttocks womanishly and rudely.

(N.B., this translation and those that follow are based on the transcription and translation of the manuscript presented by Chris Page in this article).

Apart from conjuring up a fascinating image of what 14th century dance may have been like - very different from the image we get from actual dance manuals when they arrive in the 15th century - it is interesting confirmation of shawm+trumpet becoming the standard loud combination in this period. Moreover Konrad gives a more detailed insight into the categories of players of loud winds, which he calls the 'macrofistulus'. He describes four types. First:

The burduna player is the one who sounds a certain elephantine cry on the burduna or on the oliphant. [Burdunicen esc qui in burduna aut in barritona quodam barrito elephantino sonoral] 

I've been looking at a few beautiful carved oliphants recently (see picture), but essentially they are a hunting horn, likely to be used for signalling rather than music per se. However, a nice aside is to find out that Latin has a specific word, 'barritus', for 'the cry of an elephant'.







Second:

The musicen is the one who plays the  musa [pipe] which is also called bombina from its sound. For it buzzes with a great trumpet blast or din of sound, and on this account it differs from the oliphant. The large pipe in some instruments is joined with minor pipes, as in the case of organs, or with the tibia as in the bagpipe. 

The context here seems to be suggesting a single reed pipe, as in a bagpipe drone (although the drone also seems a possible intepretation of the 'burdana' above). The emphasis on volume seems a bit odd, as single reeds are usually substantially softer than double reeds.Also, their use as  a single instrument seems to be much more a 'folk' tradition (e.g. the hornpipe) than something to be found in the courtly scene that Konrad is discussing.

Third and fourth:

The tubicen is the one who makes music with the masculine tuba [trumpet] (it is called 'masculine' because of the moderate coarseness of its sound) . The tibicen is the one who makes music on the feminine tibia [shawm] (called 'feminine' from the thinness and harshness of its sound).

 He can't resist a misogynist dig:

The tuba and tibia do not differ save by the largeness and smallness of their respective sounds, just as the masculine voice—as with many things—is greater by nature than the female voice.

 But then he observes:

These two instruments sound well together according to due proportions in 4ths, 5ths and octaves just as the character of the melody requires.

It seems clear then that the shawm and trumpet combination were playing some form of polyphony, and it becomes interesting then to speculate how the limited notes available on the natural trumpet might have worked in such a context. There also seems to be a close association of this combination with the drum (more so than for later loud wind bands). For example, Konrad notes (admittedly for a different performance context):

Wherefore these three concordant instruments [shawm, trumpet and drum] are most fit to be set and often employed in the first attack of battle to terrify the enemy and encourage allies.