small bellows
worked by the arm, has as prototype the _musette_ (see fig. 1 (3)), which
is said to have been evolved during the 15th century;[16] from the end of
the 15th century there were always musette players[17] at the French court,
and we find the instrument fully developed at the beginning of the 17th
century when Mersenne[18] gives a full description of all its parts. The
chief characteristic of the musette was a certain rustic Watteau-like
grace. The face of the performer was no longer distorted by inflating the
bag; for the long cumbersome drones was substituted a short barrel droner,
containing the necessary lengths of tubing for four or five drones, reduced
to the smallest and most compact form. The bores were pierced
longitudinally through the thickness of the wood in parallel channels,
communicating with each other in twos or threes and providing the requisite
length for each drone. The reeds were double "hautbois" reeds all set in a
wooden stock or box within the bag; by means of regulators or slides,
called _layettes_, moving up and down in longitudinal grooves round the
circumference of the barrel, the length of the drone pipes could be so
regulated that a simple harmonic bass, consisting mainly of the common
chord, could be obtained. The chaunter, of narrow cylindrical bore, was
also furnished with a double reed and had eleven holes, four of which had
keys, giving a compass of twelve notes from F to C. [Notation: F4 to C6.]
This number of holes was not invariable. After Mersenne's time, Jean
Hotteterre (d. 1678), a court musician, belonging to the band known as the
_Musique de la Grande Ecurie_,[19] in which he played the _dessus de
hautbois_, introduced certain improvements in the drones of the
musette.[20] His son Martin Hotteterre (d. 1712) added a second chaunter to
the musette, shorter than the first, to which it was attached instead of
being inserted into the stock. The Hotteterre chaunter, known as le _petit
chalumeau_, had six keys, whereas the _grand chalumeau_ had seven, besides
eight finger-holes and a vent-hole in the bell. All these keys were
actuated by the little finger of the left hand and the thumb of the right
hand, which were not required to stop holes on the large chaunter. The
_grand_ and _petit chalumeaux_ are figured in detail with keys and holes in
a rare and anonymous work by Borjon (or Bourgeon[21]), who gives much
interesting information concerning one of the most popular instr