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The Sackbut, Its Evolution and History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
Extract
That the Sackbut was the predecessor and counterpart of the Slide Trombone of the present day is a matter of common knowledge, but, when we come to unravel the origin of the name, we are landed at once into the region of wild conjecture. Some writers have wisely passed the subject over in silence; others have propounded solutions more plausible than probable. Nares, for instance, in his Glossary (1822), writes: —“The modern Sackbut is a complicated instrument with sliding tubes answering the purpose of stops. Sackbut is corrupted from Sambuca, used in Latin for the same instrument (see ‘Coles’ Dictionary ‘).” Of this mistaken identification we shall speak presently. Kastner suggests a French etymology for the word, viz. : “saccades bouter,” to give little jerks, alluding to the movement of the slide. One of our latest dictionaries has again returned to a French derivation, giving the O.F. “saquier,” to pull, and “boter,” to push, as the source of “Saqueboute,” the French form of the word. But those writers seem to be nearer the truth who look for its origin in Spain, where the name, under the form Sacabuche, first appears. The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana (1848) so traces it, but gives a ludicrous, yet very generally accepted, explanation of its meaning. Sackbut is from “Sacar del buche,” “because they who use this instrument draw up their breath with great force, and blow with all their might.” Skeat (Etymological Dictionary, 1890) adopts the same derivation, explaining it literally as “that which exhausts the chest.” We pass by the suggested derivations from the Latin “Sacca-buccis” (chubby-cheeked), or that sac is “a bag” and bouche is “the mouth,” as due to the contortions of inexperienced players; but the following may perhaps recommend itself as a legitimate interpretation of the word. As several recent writers have reminded us, the word Sacabuche is also the name of a form of pump, the first half of the word being evidently derived from Sacar, “to draw out “; but while others have derived the rest of the word either from “buche,” the chest or maw, or from Boccine, a corrupted form of the Latin Buccina (neither of which meanings are applicable to the pump, which is apparently the older appellation), I would suggest that “buche” is identical with “bucha,” the Spanish form of the Latin “buxus,” used in the sense of a tube or pipe originally of boxwood, but even in classical days employed without reference to its material. This view is confirmed by the fact that in Portuguese the word is “Sacabuxa,” and the English equivalent would be “draw-tube” or “draw-pipe,” a meaning which also will apply to a pump, the body of which was often made of boxwood. The application of the word to the musical instrument first appears in Spain in the fourteenth century possibly as a nickname. At the end of that century we find it in France, but under the form “Saquebute,” a change due either to linguistic action or by confusion with a very similar word—“Saqueboute”—already in use as the name of “a lance armed with an iron crook, and employed for pulling a knight off his horse in an encounter.”∗ The word appears in England towards the end of the fifteenth century,” when it is written” Shakbusshe,” more in accordance with the Spanish pronunciation, therefore, than the French; early in the following century it takes the form Saykebud, Sacbut, or Sagbut.’ In Belgium the French form is used; in Germany and Italy the word is unknown.
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- Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1906
References
Les Danses des Morts, 1852, p. 216.Google Scholar
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2 Longfellow (Tales of a Wayside Inn, Prelude), has unfortunately added popularity to this idea of the antiquity of the instrument by the following reference to ancient history :—
“As if in vision or in trance,
He heard the solemn sackbut play,
And saw the Jewish maidens dance.”
3 Originum (Etymologiarum), Liber III. 21.Google Scholar
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6 Since the above was written, I find that Buhle (Die musikalischen Instrumente in den miniaturen des frühen Mittelalters : Leipzig, 1903) arrives at the same conclusion, describing it in his note (p. 36) as an “absolute Phantasiegebilde,” and, so far as the history of the Sackbut is concerned, worthless. See also his note, p. 48. And M V. Mahillon, in his monograph “Le Trombone” (Bruxelles, 1906), p. 22, takes the same view, describing it as “une erreur profondément enracinée déjà.” M. Félix Cresson, keeper of the Boulogne Library, who kindly showed me ' the MS, described it as “of the early eleventh century.”Google Scholar
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1 Psalm 98, v. 6. Pliny, in his Nat. History, speaks of aes ductile, “hammered metal.” In a French Psalter (twelfth century) we read “Chauntez à notre Seigneur en harpe et en voix de psalme: en estiva mesnables et en voiz de estive de corn.” Estive is the French rendering of Tuba, being derived probably from the Hebrew Chatzotzeroth. “Mesnable” means “of beaten metal (ductilis),” as in the French rendering of Exod. 37, 19: “El fist une channdelabre mesnable de or très net.” In a twelfth century translation of Psalm 98, 6, we read “bouzignes. mesnables.”Google Scholar
1 Amongst the relics discovered at Pompeii, and now in the Musæo Nazionale at Naples, there is a long musical instrument described as a Trumpet. It consists of four separate tubes of different size inserted into each other, so that when placed together a straight tube is formed nearly six feet in length. At one end there is a bell similar to that of the trumpet, and on this section (which is longer than the other three put together), the tube tapers from the bell to about half its distance; it then becomes cylindrical, as also are the other sections. On the smallest section there are three holes, pierced probably for the fingers, which can easily be covered by two fingers of one hand and a finger of the other; the end of this section is finished off by an ornamental knob. Though called a “Tromba,” it appears more probable the instrument was played with a double reed, and, if so, the sound would be very deep when the finger-holes were closed. The diminishing sizes of the four sections show that the Romans were well acquainted with the construction of sliding tubes.Google Scholar
Mr. Neville Rolfe, British Consul at Naples, has most kindly furnished me with details and a photograph of a form of Roman Trumpet depicted in a fresco at Pompeii, uncovered in 1892, and which he considers shows the use of the slide. As regards the latter point, I do not think it assists us much, but it clearly shows that the Romans had a form of Trumpet with a “folded” tube similar to the modern military Trumpet—a discovery as interesting as it is novel. See Plate I. fig 1. With this compare a Roman “bugle” in terra-cotta (probably a votive offering) found at Carpentras, South France, and now in the British Museum. It is similar to the small circular post-horn of the present dayGoogle Scholar
2 The word appears in many forms : Buccine, bocine, buxine, buisine, bosine, buze, buzune, pusine, puzune. In Spain the straight trumpet was called Anafil, a corruption of the Arab Nefer, whence the Indian Nafari, a straight trumpet with a cylindrical tube. Some of the busines must have been at least six feet long.Google Scholar
1 Cf. Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, Part I., Vol. I.; also Kastner, Manuel General de Musique Militaire, p. 76. In the French Metrical Romances of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, “Cors sarrazinois” are often mentioned as well as the Busines, described as “buisines d'arein.” Amongst the musicians attached to the service of Philip, Count of Poictiers (c. 1300), was Raoulin de Saint-Verin, “ménestral de cor sarrazinois,” his companions playing trumpets and drums (naquaires). Lavoix, Histoire de l'Instrumentation, Vol. I., p. 15Google Scholar
2 In a French romance of about this date “Cors crocus” (crooked horns) are mentioned.Google Scholar
3 In 1297 the Trumpet makers of Paris (amongst whom is named Roger l'Anglois) were incorporated by Royal ordinance with the coppersmiths and braziers (chaudronniers), and two years afterwards those of Rouen followed their example Lavoix, Instrum., Vol. I., p. 22 Bonanni (Gabinetto Armonico, Edition 1776, p. 57), claims the new invention for Tuscany. Horman (1519) says : “A trompette is straight but a clarion is wounde in and out with a hope.” There were trumpets and clarions in the English army at Crécy (1346).Google Scholar
4 Rambosson, Les Harmonies du son, 1878, p. 500. Day, Musical Instruments of South India, 1891, p. 154. Laborde (Essai sur la Musique, 1780), has an illustration of a folded Trumpet in use in Egypt. The name Surme given to it is the same as that of the Arabian Oboe Zamr, or Zourna, and it is difficult to say whether the shape of the trumpet is in any way ancient. No such Trumpet is figured or described in earlier works. The generally accepted statement that the folding of the tube was invented by the French trumpeter. Maurin (c. 1498) is, of course; untenable.Google Scholar
1 Uffizi Gallery, Florence.Google Scholar
2 National Museum, Florence.Google Scholar
3 Borso Bible, see Leichtentritt, Sammelb. Internat. Musik Gesellschaft, year VII., p. 335. An early instance of the folded Trumpet in an English work is found in an illustration in a metrical Life of S. Edmund, written for Henry VI., c. 1433 (Brit. Museum). A striking illustration of many straight Busines is also found in a Latin Apocalypse of the early fourteenth century (Brit. Museum).Google Scholar
4 This form is figured by Virdung (Musica Getutscht, 1511), who calls it the Thurnerhorn (see below, p. 12), and a very early English example (fourteenth century) is to be seen among the choir stall carvings in Worcester Cathedral. The folded Trumpet he calls Felttrummet in its larger form, Clareta in its smaller. In the Pompeian fresco the parallel tubes of the Trumpet where they overlap are closely joined, as in the modern instrument.Google Scholar
5 At a fête given in the Court of the Bastille by Francis I., 1518, brass instruments are described as “instruments d'arain à la mode milanaise” Pierre, Les facteurs d'instruments de Musique, p. 393.Google Scholar
6 The Trombone was known in Italy as the Tromba Spezzata, which in French appears as the Trompette brisée or rompue.Google Scholar
1 It seems very probable that, at any rate in its later stages, the straight Busine also had a sliding tube by which the pitch of its sounds could be altered. The Chinese Trumpet Lapa, already alluded to, even with its slightly conical bore, is capable of producing several distinct gradations of sound by means of its slide, and it will be observed∗ in the Busine of 1460, (Plate III., fig. 1). how easily on its cylindrical tube, pieced together in short sections, an efficient slide could be formed. We find, too, in many of the later illustrations that the instrument is held downwards during performance, and, while the right or left hand is placed on the upper part of the tube, the other grasps the instrument lower down in a way which suggests the movement of a slide Père Bonanni, moreover, tells us in his Gabinetto Armonico (1722) that in his day a straight Trumpet with a slide was in use among the country people of Italy—a simple instrument which he dignifies with the name of “Tromba dritta spezzata “—cf Psalter of René II. of Lorraine, Arsenal Library, Paris Illustrated in Musée rétrospectif, Paris, 1900.Google Scholar
2 V.d., Hardt, Magna Concilia, Vol. V., p. 183.Google Scholar
3 Trombone players of German or Low Country extraction were at the court of the Duke of Milan in 1469 (Van der Straeten, Les musiciens' nederlandais, p. 26).Google Scholar
1 Christusbild, Antwerp, c. 1450.Google Scholar
2 In the church of S. Maria Sopra Minerva. An illustration is given in Lacroix, Le Moyen âge. It was painted in 1487.Google Scholar
3 Herodias, c. 1475. An illustration given in Lacroix, Le Moyen âge.Google Scholar
4 Rettberg, Zur geschichte der Musikinstrumente, Nurnberg, 1860. Euting, Zur geschichte der Blasinstrumente, Berlin, 1899, p. 34. I am indebted to Dr. Euting for his suggestive pamphlet. In the Town Hall at Nuremberg there is a mural painting by Albert Durer, representing the Nuremberg Town Band at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The band comprises two players on Shawms, two Trombonists and a Cornetto player. The Fife and Drum players are in the background, but are not performing. The principal Trombonist, who occupies the seat of honour, is an elderly man in official robes and very probably represents Hans Neuschel himself.Google Scholar
5 Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte, Berlin. Jahr. IX. p 149 ff.Google Scholar
6 Among the “extraordinary charges” of Trinity College, Cambridge, for the year 1595–96 is the following:—“Item for a Sackbutt and the carriage iiij li.”Google Scholar
1 Hans Neuschel had already made silver Trombones for Pope Leo X.Google Scholar
2 Illustrated in the catalogue of the International Music Exhibition, Vienna, Italian section. Anton Schnitzer was apparently succeeded in the business by Jobst Schnitzer (see page 17), and he in turn by Birckholtz, one of whose Trombones, bearing the Imperial crown, is in the Paul de Wit collection, dated 1650. A Trumpet by Anton Schnitzer, dated 1599, is in the Conservatoire Museum at Paris.Google Scholar
3 Kappey, Hist. of Military Music, p. 14. Virdung writes Thurnerhorn for Thürmerhorn.Google Scholar
1 Lavoiz, L'histoire de l'instrumentation, Vol. I., p. 181.Google Scholar
2 Brit. Mus. Ad. MSS. 7099, and printed in Excerpta Historica.Google Scholar
3 In the inventory of the instruments belonging to Queen Isabella of Spain, c. 1500, appear the following: One “Sacabuche” of silver, with the tubes and mountings gilded, in three pieces. Another “Sacabuche grande” of silver which has two pieces, with the ornaments and crooks gilded, and on the larger [piece] two little chains, one to each crook [cavo]. Small chains seem to have been used to bind the crooks more firmly to the instrument (see Praetorius, Theatrum Instrumentorum; Pedrel, Organografia).Google Scholar
1 Van der Straeten, Musique des Pays Bas, Vol. VII, 272.Google Scholar
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3 In the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII. are the following entries : 1531. Ap. 24. Paied in Rewarde to John Bolenger one of the Sagbuttes, xl s
Nov. 8. Paied to Barba John and Peter Maria Shakbuttes at ther departing into ther contreys, xx li
Paied to an other of the Sagbuttes at his lyke departing vi li. xiii s. iiii d.
Nov. 9. Paied to Antony the Sagbut for his costes going to Southampton wt the new Sagbuttes, liii s. iiii d.
4 In the valuation of the offices in Church and State held under the Crown, made in the year 1589, amongst the “musicians and plaiers” are Sagbutte 6, whereof 5 havinge £29 6s. 8d by the year and one other at £20. Brit. Mus., Lansd. MSS. 171, f. 248. The names of the English performers are taken from the Lord Chamberlain's Records.Google Scholar
1 Jacquot, La Musique en Lorraine, p. 61. Illustrations of the Funeral of Charles III. in 1608 given by Jacquot show the sackbuts sometimes with the bell section over the left shoulder, sometimes over the right.Google Scholar
2 Pierre, Les Facteurs d'instruments de Musique, 1893, p. 393. In the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII. is the following entry : “1532. Aug. 27. Paied to the frenche quene Sacbuttes in Rewarde by the King's commandements xxviii s.”Google Scholar
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4 Kastner (Les Danses des Morts, p. 213), says that in 1840 at Stuttgardt it was the custom each day for 4 musicians placed on the church tower to play a concert of sacred music on the Cornetto (Zinke) and alto, tenor and bass Trombones.Google Scholar
1 Kindly communicated by the Rev. C. E. Woodruff, Canterbury.Google Scholar
2 Dalyell, “Musical Memoirs of Scotland, 1849,” p. 177.Google Scholar
3 Coryat's Crudities, p 250.Google Scholar
1 Praetorius says that although the Alt-Posaune can be used for the discant, yet for tone the ordinary (Tenor) Posaune is better.Google Scholar
2 About 1817 Gottfried Weber also introduced a Bass Trombone with double slide, and Professor Case has kindly informed me that in 1738 Rowe, of Liverpool, brought out a Contra Bass Posaune with a similar device.Google Scholar
1 It is evident that in doing so the positions of the slide must necessarily have been somewhat lengthened, but I find that on the instrument so lowered it is just possible, with the aid of the lip, to use the seventh position; the rest would be only a matter of memory similar to the difference between the stopping of the violin and viola.Google Scholar
1 Cf. also Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Edition 1800, Vol 1., p 378, Part II. Sect. a. Merab. 3. The simile is applied, in a digression on astronomical and other signs of the air, “to the comets, etc, which show themselves amongst the planets and the moon, now nearer, now farther off, together, asunder; as he that playes upon a sagbut by pulling it up and downe alters his tones and tunes, do they their stations and places.” [See Discussion at end of paper.]Google Scholar
2 Quoted by Randall Davies, Story of Chelsea Old Church, p. 139, and communicated by Mr. Arthur Hill.Google Scholar
3 Kuhnau, Der Musikalische Quackselber, p. 83Google Scholar
1 Sammelbande der Internat. Mus. Gesellschaft, year IV., p. 223.Google Scholar
2 Burney, Account of Musical Performances in Westminster Abbey, etc., Introduction, p 7, 1785Google Scholar
1 A Trombone in which slide and valve were combined was produced by Messrs Besson some years ago The one valve lowers the pitch of the instrument a minor third, so that the more extended positions of the slide are avoided. An instrument with the bell over the shoulder, in a line with the slide section, was in use in Belgium c. 1830, and similar or other bizarre models have been tried from time to time. To the French and American instruments “shake valves” are sometimes attached.Google Scholar