¹ Strauss, G., Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century (Bloomington, Ind., 1976), p. 79.Google Scholar

² For a discussion of sacred music in a German city see Krautwurst, F., ‘Musik im Mittelalter’, Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg, ed. Gottlieb, G., Baer, W. et al. (Stuttgart, 1984), pp.233–7Google Scholar.

³ For mention of horns for the towers in Nuremberg see Nuremberg SR (GR), 1381, fol. 14 (‘von eine horn’); 1385, fol. 173; 1391, fol. 449. For posaune as a different instrument see SR (GR), 1388, fol. 323; 1389, fol. 335. See below, note 11. For a discussion of Flemish development see Polk, K., ‘Wind Bands of Medieval Flemish Cities’, Brass and Woodwind Quarterly, 1 (1968), pp. 102–9Google Scholar. In Basle (and perhaps in some nearby cities) there may have been a closer relationship between watchmen groups and pfeifer bands than was the case in Bavaria; see Ernst, F., ‘Die Spielleute im Dienst der Stadt Basel im ausgehenden Mittelalter’, Basler Zeitschrift fur Geschichte und Altertumskunde, 44 (1945), pp. 138–45Google Scholar.

⁴ For Ulrich in Augsburg see Augsburg SR (BB), 1482, fol. 62' for service with Maximilian i, also in Augsburg SR (BB), 1505, fol. 27; for service with the Bishop of Salzburg see Layer, A., ‘Augsburger Musikkultur der Renaissance’, Musik in der Reichsstadt Augsburg, ed. Wegele, L. (Augsburg, 1965), p. 63Google Scholar. The comments of Pietzsch, Gerhard, ‘Von der Zuverläs-sigkeit literarischer und archivalischer Quellen der Späten-Mittelalter’, Musicae Scientiae Collectanea: Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, ed. Hüschen, H. (Cologne, 1973), pp. 441–50Google Scholar, in which he points out ‘errors’ of scribes (in that the same musician was sometimes associated with different instruments in different accounts) should be read with some caution; these different terms may sometimes have been deliberate, Caspar Egkern was called a trombonist in Augsburg in 1509 (SR (BB), fol. 24), a pfeifer in 1510 (SR (BB), fol. 28), and a geyger in 1515 (SR (BB), fol. 28). These terms, I believe, were not errors; after about 1515 Egkern was consistently registered as a string player, before that a wind player.

⁵ For Munich in 1434 see Munich SR (KR), fol. 36; for 1500, SR (KR), fol. 66.

⁶ Such scholars as Gerhard Pietzsch, Franz Krautwurst and Raimund Sterl have understood the chronology quite well. Zak, S., Musik als ‘Ehr und Zier’ (Neuss, 1979), p. 108Google Scholar, on the other hand, compares instrumentalists from Parma in 1321 and from Siena in 1536 as though similar conditions would have been in effect for both dates. It must be added, however, that Zak's discussion of patronage and the notion of magnificence, and the discussion of music from the thirteenth century, are among the best informed in the field.

⁷ Cited in Valentin, C., Geschichte der Musik in Frank furt-am-Main (Frankfurt, 1906), p. 18Google Scholar. Dr Edmund Bowles brought this passage to my attention (the translation is his). The original text reads ‘Auch hat ez sich also vurwandelt mit den pifen unde pifenspel unde hat ufgestegen in der museken, unde ni also gut waren bit her, als nu in ist anegangen. Dan wer vur funf oder ses jaren ein gut pifer was geheissen in dem ganzen lander, der endauc itzunt net eine flige.’ See Maschek, H., Deutsche Chroniken (Darmstadt, 1964), p. 101Google Scholar.

⁸ See Polk, K., ‘Ensemble Performance in Dufay's Time’, Papers Read at the Dufay Quincentenary Conference, ed. Atlas, A. (Brooklyn, 1976), pp. 64–71Google Scholar.

⁹ For Osnabrück see Salmen, W., Geschichte der Musik in Westfalen (Kassel, 1963), i, p. 85Google Scholar. For Wesel see Wesel SR, G, vol. i, p. 144. The Munich reference is to be found in Munich SR (KR), 1360, fol. 48, that for Frankfurt from Valentin, , Geschichte, p. 15Google Scholar; that for Hamburg in SR (KR), K, i, p. 1; for Dortmund, DC, p. 52; for Augsburg, SR (BB), 1373, fol. 140; for Nuremberg, SR (JR), No. 1, 1377, fol. 109'.

¹⁰ See Salmen, W., Der Spielmann im Mittelalter (Innsbruck, 1983), pp. 86–9Google Scholar, and Zak, , Musik, p. 108Google Scholar. The views on the poverty and lowly status of musicians of both Salmen and Zak may be reconsidered on the basis of the more ample documentation now available, especially in relation to the fifteenth century. See below, note 36.

¹¹ For Flemish groups see Polk, ‘Wind Bands’; the focus of this effort, however, was on the fifteenth century, and the observations from the period 1350 to 1400 must be reconsidered. For a current survey see Strohm, R., Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford, 1985), pp. 74–101Google Scholar. For developments in Florence see Polk, K., ‘Civic Patronage and Instrumental Ensembles in Renaissance Florence’, Augsburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft, 3 (1986), pp. 51–68Google Scholar. See also the excellent survey (now almost a hundred years old), Zippel, G., I suonatori della Signoria de Firenze (Trent, 1892)Google Scholar. For a concise general survey, see Zak, Musik.

¹² For Nuremberg see SR (GR), 1381, fol. 20; Augsburg, SR (BB), 1388, fol. 35; Ulm, SR, 1388, fol. 83. For medallion payments see, for example, Augsburg SR (BB), 1390, fol. 62'. German cities for which we have evidence of subsidised pfeifer ensembles by about 1390 include Aachen, Augsburg, Basle, Cologne, Constance, Dinkelsbühl, Donauwörth, Essen, Hamburg, Memmingen, Munich, Nördlingen, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Rothenberg, Straubing, Ulm and Wesel.

¹³ Augsburg SR (BB), 1402, fol. 66; pfeifers did not return to the payroll lists in Munich until 1413: Munich, SR (KR), fol. 44.

¹⁴ See Bowles, E., ‘Iconography as a Tool for Examining the Loud Consort in the Fifteenth Century’, Journal of the American Instrument Society, 2 (1977), pp. 100–21Google Scholar, and Polk, ‘Ensemble Performance’. The scholarly efforts and standards in iconography of Dr Bowles are simply splendid. His concentration on illustrations, and lack of familiarity with primary archival sources, lead him to be rather too conservative on the issue of the trombone. He also applies terminology to ensembles (especially in the use of the term ‘buisine’) which is not concordant with literally thousands of archival and financial accounts of Flanders, Germany and Italy, particularly in the period 1380 to 1450.

¹⁵ For a summary of this development and previous work see Höfler, J., ‘Der “Trompette de Menestrels” und sein Instrument’, Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekges-chiedenis, 29 (1979), pp. 92–132CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Polk, K., ‘The Trombone in Archival Documents: 1350–1500’, Essays on Ensemble Music of the Fifteenth Century (unpublished typescript, available from the Music Department, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire)Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Downey, P, ‘The Renaissance Slide Trumpet’, Early Music, 12 (1984), pp. 26–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁷ See Polk, ‘Ensemble Performance’, pp. 64–71, and Bowles, ‘Iconography as a Tool’. For a refutation of Downey's argument based on the structural and musical capabilities of the instrument see Duffin, R., ‘The Trompette des Menestrels in the 15th-century Alta Capella’, The Early Brass Journal, 2 (1985), pp. 2–9Google Scholar.

¹⁸ For the trombone in Ferrara see Valdrighi, L. F., ‘Capelle, concerti e musiche de casa d'Este’, Atti e memorie delle Regie Deputazione di Storia patria per le Provincie modenesi e parmensi, ser. iii, 2 (1883), p. 417Google Scholar. The Florentine documents can be found in the Archivio di Stato in Florence, Provvisioni Registri, no. 94, 1443 (n.s. 1444), fol. 173, and Notario de Camera, no. 4, 1446, fol. 52.

¹⁹ Wright, C., Music at the Court of Burgundy (Henryville, Ottawa and Binningen, 1979), pp. 41–2Google Scholar.

²⁰ Tusiani, J., The Age of Dante (New York, 1974), p. 42Google Scholar.

²¹ Nuremberg, SR (GR), 1388, fol. 323'; 1389, fol. 335, 365'.

²² Augsburg, SR (BB), 1368, fol. 22' Cologne, SR, K, p. 79.

²³ Schröder, H., Verzeihnis der Sammlung alter Instrumente im Städtischen Museum Braunschweig (Braunschweig, 1928), pp. 39 and 67Google Scholar.

²⁴ Dortmund, DC, p. 52; Deventer, SR (CR), D, vii/2, p. 19; Aachen, SR, L, p. 292. Another special event which probably involved the performance of the city pfeifers with trombone in Dortmund occurred during a visit of the Emperor Charles iv in 1377. The emperor had entered St Reynold's church for mass, where during the service ‘while singers sang joyously, the shawms and trombone(?) sounded’ (‘tunc inter cantancium clericorum iubilacionem tubarum fistularumque clangor resonabat…’); Pietzsch, G., Nachlass, ii, p. 159Google Scholar.

²⁵ Florence, , Archivio di Stato, Provvisioni Registri, 1386, fol. 143Google Scholar.

²⁶ See above, note 3. For a discussion of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century terminology for the trombone in Flemish, German and Italian sources, see Polk, ‘The Trombone in Archival Documents’.

²⁷ ‘scale avevano artificiose, che il maggiore pezzo prendea l'altro a modo della trombe’; Villani, F., Cronica de Matteo e Filippo Villani, Biblioteca Enciclopedica Italiana 30 (Milan, 1834), p. 390Google Scholar.

²⁸ Schuler, M., ‘Die Musik in Konstanz während des Konzils 1414–1418’, Acta Musicologica, 38 (1966), p. 165CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A few other instances of what might be ensembles which included trombones have been cited in the literature. Höfler, ‘Der “Trompette de Menestrels”’, p. 94, cites, for instance, ensembles with trombones in Essen in 1380 and in Dordrecht in 1398. Both are problematic (and are drawn from secondary sources). In Essen, a volume of accounts (Stadtrechnungen) for 1380 has not, in fact, survived; the account volume from 1381 lists only two pipers and no posaune (Essen, SR, 1381, fol. 7'). The source for the citation, via mentions in several other works, can be traced back to Feldens, F., Musik and Musiker in der Stadt Essen (Essen, 1936), p. 23Google Scholar, who suggested only that the town had two pipers resident in the city, as well as a trumpet maker (a trumpensmet). We music historians apparently garbled this to be an ensemble. Essen might have had a trombonist, but I found no record of this in the few surviving accounts. The mention in Dordrecht is similarly not reliable, because the town had engaged both a shawm band and watchmen who played signal instruments. When one looks at the original accounts (not secondary sources) it appears obvious that the accounts are ambiguous. In Dordrecht it was not explicit that the ‘trompette’ mentioned is a musical (rather than a signal) instrument, nor is it clear whether the scribe intended to describe an ensemble of shawms and trombone. He may have been describing two separate units, one a shawm band, the other the one of two watchmen playing signal instruments. The situation there is further complicated by the practice in southern Holland of interchanging the terms pijper and tromper. A trombone may have been present in Dordrecht (and also in an ensemble in Leiden in 1399 which Höfler also cites). I am, in fact, inclined to believe that this was the case, but the evidence is not sufficient to be reasonably certain.

²⁹ Reproduced in Page, C., ‘German Musicians and their Instruments: A 14th-century Account by Konrad of Megenberg’, Early Music, 10 (1982), p. 198CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Konrad was, apparently, more concerned with a display of command of ancient authority and thought on music than with a lucid description of the ‘vulgar’ realities of professional instrumental music of his own time. His discussion of wind instruments, at any rate, is so garbled that his direct familiarity with shawm technique appears highly questionable.

³⁰ Nuremberg SR (GR), no. 7, 1427, fol. 74' that one player was a string player, the ‘stadt vidler’ (!), see Krautwurst, F., ‘Musik des 15. und i. Hälfte des 16.Jahrhunderts’, Nürnberg: Geschichte einer europaischen Stadt, ed. Pfeiffer, G. (Munich, 1971), pp. 211–18Google Scholar, and Sander, P., Die reichstädtische Haushaltung Nürnbergs (Leipzig, 1902), ii, pp. 430–1Google Scholar. For support of organists in Nördlingen see SR (KR), 1410, fol. 44; 1430, fol. 41' 1432, fol. 44; 1468, fol. 38' 1479, fol. 37. For a brief discussion of the Augsburg tax lists see Layer, A., ‘Augsburger Musikpflege im Mittelalter’, Musik in der Reichsstadt Augsburg, ed. Wegele, L. (Augsburg, 1965), pp. 22–3Google Scholar. Layer, however, cited only the modern indexes to the tax records, not the tax books themselves, see below, note 36.

³¹ For pauken in Augsburg, SR (BB), 1368, fol. 36; 1378, fol. 283; in Nuremberg SR (GR), 1385, fol. 180; 1389, fol. 323' in Ulm, SR, 1388, fol. 83 and 157; 1398, fol. 89. The bagpipe was another instrument which had occasional spurts of popularity as an ensemble instrument. One such period was during the mid-fourteenth century, another was in the last two or three decades of the fifteenth century. Usually the bagpipe (alone or in ensembles of two or three) was an instrument of the country folk, more tied to peasant festivals than to cultivated art music. Perhaps the periodic vogues of the bagpipe, that of about 1480 for example, were a reflection of a self-conscious rustic atmosphere — which may have been the case especially in relation to dance music.

³² Anglès, H., ‘Musikalische Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und Spanien in der Zeit vom 5. bis 14. Jahrhunderts’, Archiv fur Musikwissenschaft, 16 (1959), p. 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; reprinted in Scripta Musicologica, ed. López-Calo, J., ii (Rome, 1975), pp. 678–81Google Scholar.

³³ For the player in Lucca see Krautwurst, in Numberg, p. 213Google Scholar. For the jailing of the German players see Zippel, , I suonatori, pp. 13–14Google Scholar; for the hiring of Niccolò, see Zippel, p. 15. For the players in 1445 see Zippel, pp. 23–4, which is based on information from the series of records Provvisioni Registri in the Archivio di Stato in Florence. Additional information is available in the series Notario de Camera, which Zippel evidently was unable to consult. See, for example, no. 6 (1446–9), fol. 52, for a complete listing of personnel. For the lute and viol, see Polk, ‘Civic Patronage’, Appendix ii.

³⁴ Pirrotta, N., ‘Novelty and Renewal in Italy: 1300–1500’, Studien zur Tradition in der Musik: Kurt von Fischer zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Eggebrecht, H H. and Lütolf, M. (Munich, 1973), pp. 49–63Google Scholar. For a discussion of the size of vocal ensembles in Germany in the fifteenth century see K. Polk, ‘Solo and Ensemble Practice in the Fifteenth Century’, Essays on Ensemble Music.

³⁵ Augsburg, SR (BB), 1437, fols. 77 and 77'. For a discussion of the Nördlingen accounts see Salmen, W., ‘Quellen zur Geschichte “frömden Spillute” in Nördlingen’, Die Musik for-schung, 12 (1959), pp. 478–84Google Scholar. See also Salmen, W., Der fahrende Musiker im europäischen Mittelalter (Kassel, 1960)Google Scholar.

³⁶ For Claus von Sulgen see Augsburg Stadtarchiv, Steuer Bücher, tax books (SB), for 1146, fol. 6a, no tax; 1449, fol. 6d, tax of 6 gr.; 1454, fol. 6b, 35 d.; 1455, fol. 6b, 8 d.; 1458, fol. 7d, 6 guldin, 26 d.; and 1462, 17 guldin. In 1462 a payment of about 1 guldin or above placed one in the top 14.8% of income levels; only 3.7% declared wealth taxed at 10 guldin or above. See Jahn, J., ‘Die Augsburger Sozialstruktur im 15.Jahrhundert’, Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg, pp. 188–90Google Scholar. Jorig Walch, a colleague of Claus, paid a tax of 1 guldin in 1472 (SB, fol. 12b) and 1477 (fol. 11c); Ulrich Schubinger, his other colleague, also paid 1 guldin in 1477 (fol. 11d) and in 1478 (fol. 12a). Among those who chose to leave were Ulrich Schubinger senior, who was absent from 1471 to 1477, and all three of his musical sons; see below, note 38. For a general survey of the social status of musicians, see the essays by Salmen, Walter and Schwab, Heinrich in The Social Status of the Professional Musician from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century (New York, 1983), pp. 1–19 and 31–59Google Scholar. Salmen's focus is on the earlier Middle Ages, when the social and economic status of musicians were quite different from what they had been in the fifteenth century. Schwab provides a useful general survey of town musicians in German cities from the fourteenth century to the eighteenth. Schwab's documentation is particularly substantial for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Since completion of the initial draft of the present article I have completed another which discusses the social and economic conditions of musicians in more detail. See K. Polk, ‘Music for Peace and War in Renaissance Europe: Patronage and Creativity in Urban Society’, Essays on Ensemble Music.

³⁷ For crumhorns see Nördlingen, SR (KR), 1428, fol. 38 (see also Salmen, W., Quellen, p. 478)Google Scholar For Regensburg in 1467 see Sterl, R., ‘Die Regensburger Stadtrechnungen des 15. Jahrhunderts als Quellen fur fahrende und hofische Spielleute’, Studien zur Musikgeschichte der Stadt Regensburg, i, ed. Beck, H., Regensburger Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 6 (Regensburg, 1979), p. 282Google Scholar, in Augsburg in 1482 see SR (BB), 1482, fol. 20'. For the zinck see the same page in Augsburg in 1482, for 1483 see Senn, W., Musik und Theater am Hof zu Innsbruck (Innsbruck, 1954), p. 16Google Scholar; in Nuremberg in 1487 see SR (KR), no. 20, fol. 219'. Another expansion was the apparent use of mutes with trombones to allow more effective combination with soft instruments, as the instance of a ‘gedempten drompten’ with a lute (‘mil einer luten zu discantiren’) in Frankfurt in 1467 (Froning, R., Frankfurter Chroniken (Frankfurt am Main, 1884, p. 216Google Scholar). Yet another expansion of timbres was the common acceptance of professional women singers in the course of the fifteenth century; Regensburg, Stadtrechnungen, 1429, fol. 18' (‘von maincz singerin’); Nördlingen, SR (KR), 1464, fol. 64, 1490, fol. 40'. For notices of the death of Anna Nuserin of Nuremberg, the king's ‘singerin’ (Conrad Celtis celebrated her skills in two epigrams), see Pietzsch, G., Nachlass, iv, p. 568Google Scholar. She had appeared in Augsburg in 1490, SR (BB), fol. 17'.

³⁸ Woodfield's thesis is most conveniently available in the article ‘Viol’ in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sadie, S., 20 vols. (London, 1980), xix, pp. 791–808Google Scholar. For string ensembles that appeared in German cities see, for example, Munich, SR (KR), 1407, fol. 58' 1436, fol. 58; Nördlingen, SR (KR), 1431, fol. 41' 1469, fol. 38' Augsburg, SR (BB), 1436, fol. 49; 1447, fol. 46. For Ulrich Schubinger, see note 4 above. That Michel was a Schubinger is shown by a payment in 1477, Augsburg, SR (BB), fol. 92', where his full name is given as his departure from the city was noted. He is the Michele Tedesco who appeared in Ferrara in the accounts of 1479, Lockwood, L., Music in Renaissance Ferrara (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), p. 321Google Scholar. See also K. Polk, ‘Vedel und Geige — Fiddle and Viol: German String Traditions in the 15th Century’, Essays on Ensemble Music.

³⁹ For a more extended discussion of these changes see Polk, ‘Solo and Ensemble Performance Practice’, pp. 7–8.

⁴⁰ Florence, , Archivio di Stato, Notario di Camera, no. 505, vol. 20, fol. 7Google Scholar, for Augustein's first appearance in the salary lists. He last appears in 1493, see the same volume, fol. 21. For a listing of German players, see K. Polk, ‘Civic Patronage in Renaissance Florence’, Appendix ii.

⁴¹ For Nagel in Leipzig see Wustmann, R., Musikgeschichte Leipzigs (Leipzig, 1909), pp. 31–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For information on Nagel in Flanders see Polk, K., ‘Ensemble Instrumental Music in Flanders – 1450—1550’, Journal of Band Research, 11 (1975), pp. 18–22Google Scholar.

⁴² For Susato see Forney, K., ‘New Documents on the Life of Tielman Susato, Sixteenth-century Music Printer and Musician’, Revue Belge de Musicologie, 36–8 (1982–1984), pp. 20–9Google Scholar.

⁴³ For Milan see Motta, E., Musica alla corte degli Sforza (reprint, Geneva, 1977), pp. 35–52Google Scholar. See also Prizer, W., ‘Bernardo Piffaro e i pifferi e tromboni di Mantova’, Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, 16 (1981), pp. 154–84Google Scholar; and Lockwood, L., ‘Music at Ferrara in the Period of Ercole i d'Este’, Studi Musicali, 1 (1972), pp. 101–31Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ Litterick, L., ‘On Italian Instrumental Ensemble Music in the Late Fifteenth Century’, Music in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Fenlon, I. (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 125–6Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ ‘Ritratto delle cose della Magna', Niccolo Machiavelli: Opere, ed. Bonfanti, M. (Milan, 1954), p. 490Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Vaughan, R., Charles the Bold (London, 1974), p. 40Google Scholar.