Early bassoons were made out ofharder woods, but the modern instrument is typically made of maple. One of the precursors to the bassoon, the dulcian, was made out of a single piece of wood. A double reed is used to play the bassoon, which is made out of a cane called an arundo don...
In 1581, John Derricke publishedThe Image of Irelande,with illustrations that clearly depict a bagpiper, andWilliam Byrd’sMy Ladye Nevells Booke(1591) includes a piece of music called ‘The bagpipe and the drone’, written for harpsichord. Thanks to a strong culture of passing down music by...