progenitor of the spinet is the plucked psaltery, whereas the piano forte
(the earliest form of which appeared about 1709) is a descendant of the
dulcimer in which the strings were struck.

Wind Instruments.

One of the most ancient of wind instruments is the panpipe, which used to
be familiar in the Punch and Judy show of our childhood, when it was
accompanied by another ancient instrument--the drum. The panpipe
consists of a row of reeds of graduated lengths which are closed at the
lower end and into which the performer blows, much as we used, as
children, to blow into a key and produce a shrill whistle. It is
illustrated in an Anglo-Saxon Psalter of the early eleventh century,
which is preserved in the Cambridge University Library. The whistle
which we have all made in our childhood by removing a tube of bark from a
branch in which the sap is rising, is an advance on the panpipes, since
it includes a method of producing a thin stream of air which impinges on
a sharp edge, whereas in the panpipes we depend on our lips for the
stream of air. These whistles are closed at the lower end, and yield but
a single note. But in the tin penny whistle the tube is pierced by six
holes for the fingers, and on this instrument one may hear the itinerant
artist perform wonders. An instrument of this type, known as the
recorder, played a great part in the early orchestra. It differs from
the penny whistle in being made of wood, and in having eight instead of
six finger-holes; the additional ones being for the left thumb and the
little-finger of the right hand. The recorder seems to have been
especially popular in England, indeed it was sometimes known as the
_fistula anglica_, _i.e._ the English pipe. The instrument was made in
different sizes; and I shall not easily forget the astonishing beauty of
a quartette of recorders played by Mr Galpin and his family. In Plate
VI. are shown the great bass recorders, in regard to which the author is
careful to point out that the bassoon-like form shown in No. 1 and No. 5
does not alter the pitch of the instrument, which depends on the length
of the tube measured from the fipple.

[Picture: Plate VI. Recorders]

Mr Dolmetsch, in his book _The Interpretation of the Music of the XVIlth
and XVIIIth Centuries_, p. 457, writes:--

"At the first sound the recorder ingratiates itself into the hearer's
affection. It is sweet, full, profound, yet clear, with j