Musette de cour

An 18th-century musette de cour on display at the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum, Germany
Gaspard de Gueidan playing the musette de cour, painting by Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1738, Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France
Drawing of the parts of the musette de cour from the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d'Alembert, ca. 1770

The musette de cour or baroque musette is a musical instrument of the bagpipe family. Visually, the musette is characterised by the short, cylindrical shuttle-drone and the two chalumeaux. Both the chanters and the drones have a cylindrical bore and use a double reed, giving a quiet tone similar to the oboe. The instrument is blown by a bellows.

The qualification "de cour" does not appear in the name for the instrument in original musical scores; title-pages usually refer to it simply as a musette, allowing occasional confusion with the piccolo oboe, also known as the (oboe) musette.


© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search