> At the weekend I purchased an 1880 facsimile reprint of the 1788
> illustrated edition, with music, of Allan Ramsay's 'The Gentle Shepherd'.
> The first picture shows Patie with his new ivory bound pear-wood 'flute'
> (a recorder), and on the ground is what must be Roger's 'stock and horn'
> - it appears to be a reed mouthpiece like a bombard, followed by a
> straight barrel with six fingerholes, on the end of which is a cow's
> horn acting as a trumpet bell. It is mentioned in the lyric as 'stock
> and horn' or I would not have known what this was.
>The implication is that the sweet flute/recorder beats the rough
>shepherd's 'stock and horn' sound - Roger's would-be girlfriend tells
>him to stop the racket as soon as he starts tuning his reed.
> Does anyone make these now?
I heard Robin Huw Bowen and a couple of pals playing these at the
Edinburgh Harp Festival a while ago. So somebody in Wales makes
them (I think Robin told a story about getting his made, the maker
was remarkably eccentric). They sounded more like the Turkish mey
than a bombarde, i.e. a bit softer and more clarinet-like. The
Welsh word is "pibgorn".
Somewhere I have a preprint of an article from the New New Grove
about them, by the world's leading expert in what little there is
to know about them (I forget his name, he's from the north-east).
The text of The Gentle Shepherd drops an interesting hint about its
musical capabilities.
=================== <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> ===================
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