The history of double reed instruments starts with an ancient instrument played with double reeds in one or a couple of pipes. The double reeds were called aulos in Greece; they were, halil(very similar to aulos) in Israel and its neighboring areas; d...
The history of double reed instruments starts with an ancient instrument played with double reeds in one or a couple of pipes. The double reeds were called aulos in Greece; they were, halil(very similar to aulos) in Israel and its neighboring areas; developed into an instrument, tibia, in Rome.
In the Renaissance Age, a shawm, which appeared a double reed instrument in the Middle Ages, was much more popular and developed. Also, it was one of the instruments preferred by people even in the Baroque Period. Particularly, a shawm had a bell making the sound of its tune bigger; the Renaissance shawm was various in size for compass - from soprano to bass. Also, there are a variety of shawms like cromhorn, racket, and rauschfeife, etc. Also they were transformed from shawms and played for many centuries.
In Europe and the Middle East, over several centuries, bagpipes have been developed whose air-bags store air and whose reeds make sound. By the way, bagpipes discovered in some regions have single reed; however, generally most of them have double reed.
As for the European double reed instrument history, various shawm-style instruments had been developed through the Baroque Age; today, they have changed into unique instruments like oboe and bassoon, which play central roles in a modern orchestral music.
The Oriental double reed instruments, almost like shawm popularized in the middle-age Europe, have been handed down until today as a traditional instrument: suona in China, shaenai in India and ryga-gling in Tibet so forth.
Likewise, according to oriental countries, the double reeds have various names and are different in terms of their size and shape; however, they still exist as a unique folk instrument of melody for traditional music in all the countries. Moreover, they are used as an essential folk-music instrument until today. On the other hand, Japanese people play haciriky, like the Korean piri, in their folk music.
Korea has the double reeds such as shaenap and piri; shaenap named taepyungso is similar to shawms in Europe or suona in China and piri without a bell are divided, according to its size, into 3 ones each of which has a different tone: hyangpiri, sepiri, and dangpiri.
The regional traits of each country, the study has concluded, determine the materials of the double reeds; also, the character and emotion of each people are a major source of their shape and mechanism. However, now oriental double reed instruments are limited only to traditional music; there was no improvement in the oriental double reeds whose shape remains old-fashioned.