Crumhorns

The crumhorns, also known as orlos in Spanish, belong to the family of double-reed instruments like shawms and dulcians, but in this case, they fall under the sub-category of capped reed instruments. This is because the double reed is enclosed within a cap into which air is blown. The sound is produced when the air passes through the reed and then into the rest of the instrument. In other words, the reed is never in contact with the player’s lips, unlike shawms or dulcians. It operates in a similar manner to bagpipes, but where the bellows are “human”.

A mouth musical instrument in the shape of a crook, and because the orlos twist around, this instrument was called orlo, for being twisted. Sebastián de Covarrubias, Tesoro de la Lengua Española o Castellana, 1611.

These instruments are unjustly forgotten today, but played an important role in both sacred and secular music. They have been cited in many Spanish music chapels of the 16th century (Granada or Seville), and even in the Salamanca Cathedral, a complete set of these instruments is preserved. Their sound, markedly nasal and rich in harmonics, is outside the current aesthetic of sacred music, so the use of these instruments in this type of music is nonexistent. Paradoxically, the orlo has survived because it has become an organ register based on a metallic reed mechanism.

In Sebastian Virgung’s treatise (Musica Getutscht, 1511), there is an illustration with a set of crumhorns (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass). These instruments are played as an ensemble because their peculiar sound hardly blends with other types of instruments, while together they produce compact and brilliant sounds. These instruments continued to be used in the 17th century, as seen in Syntagma Musicum II (Michael Praetorius, 1619), although they practically became extinct during the same century. Their limitation in not being able to play notes beyond an octave and a third, as well as the evolution of music, led to the demise of this family of instruments.

Manufacturers and instruments

1. Stefan Beck
   • Set of crumhorns (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), based on the I-MILLA instrument from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (16th century) 440 Hz., Berlin (Germany) ***** 2004