A rauschpfeife (plural: rauschpfeifes or rauschpfeifen; German: Rauschpfeife, plural: Rauschpfeifen) is a covered cone-shaped reed instrument in the woodwind family. It was used in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Like the crumhorn and cornamuse, it is made of wood and has a double reed covered by a windcap. The musician blows into a slot at the top of the windcap to create sound.
Description
Rauschpfeifes (Schreierpfeiffen) are different from cornamusen mainly because of the shape of their bore, which is cone-shaped, like the shawm. This cone-shaped design, combined with the reed’s free movement inside the windcap, made the instrument very loud. This loudness made it useful for playing outdoors.
The word "Rauschpfeife" comes from Old German, meaning "rush (or reed) pipe." It appears in a 16th-century woodcut illustration of a Triumphal Procession, commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. A 20th-century music historian named Curt Sachs believed the instruments in the illustration were similar to capped shawms found in European museums, even though they looked slightly different. However, the instruments could also be cylindrical-bore capped douçaine-like instruments, especially since the illustration includes many soft instruments, such as viola da gamba, harp, lutes, and pipe and tabor. It seems likely that "rauschpfeife" was a general term for woodwind instruments. For example, an order from the Nuremberg town council in 1538 requested "rauschpfeiffen," but the delivered instruments included recorders, cornetts, shawms, and other types, with no specific mention of "rauschpfeife."
The names of existing museum instruments similar to capped shawms often include variations of "Schreierpfeife," meaning "shrieking pipe." Michael Praetorius, in his 1619 work Syntagma musicum II, described "Schreyerpfeiffen" as cylindrical-bore instruments similar to loud cornamusen. This suggests that "Schreierpfeife" may have been used for both types of loud capped reed instruments.
Museum collections in Berlin and Prague include groups of rauschpfeiffen (schreierpfeiffen). A complete set from the second half of the 17th century, ranging from sopranino to bass, is part of the Naumburg wind instrument collection displayed in the Berlin Music Instrument Museum. Another example is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
A similar instrument, the hautbois de poitou, is described and illustrated by Marin Mersenne in his Harmonie universelle (1636).
Like many instruments from this period, rauschpfeifes and schreierpfeifes have seen a revival in recent decades. Today, early music enthusiasts worldwide make and play these instruments. The German company Heinrich Moeck produced two instruments in sopranino and soprano sizes, designed to resemble the Naumburg pipes. For many years, Moeck was the only major German manufacturer of rauschpfeifes, so many 1970s instruments reflected this company’s style. The rauschpfeifes in Berlin are nearly twice as large as needed, with tone holes covering only half the body. This design led to many additional holes on the back of the instrument to shorten and stabilize the air column.
After Moeck stopped making rauschpfeifes, other manufacturers based their designs on the chanters of German bagpipes. Most modern instruments use the open, German recorder fingering system and have a tonal range of a ninth. Their appearance is similar to the chanter of the German bagpipe. As a result, many modern rauschpfeifes have larger bells than historical examples. Although these instruments have the same musical range as older ones, they are about half the length of the instruments in the Naumburg collection.
Modern rauschpfeifes often use standard reeds from various types of bagpipes. Alto instruments in G/a are frequently played with Scottish reeds, those based on French bagpipes often use plastic reeds for the Cornemuse du Centre, and soprano rauschpfeifes in C/d often use reeds similar to those of the Spanish gaita.