Bombard
In the 1480s, the Flemish music theorist Johannes Tinctoris wrote in Naples that “shawm players use different sizes of instruments: some are high-pitched, suitable for the upper parts, while others are low-pitched, for the middle and lower parts. Therefore, the shawms, like the voices themselves, are designated as suprema, tenor (commonly also called ‘bombard’), and contratenor.”
The bombard (German pommer or pumhard, French bombarde) is a low-pitched member of the shawm family (» shawm). The earliest evidence for the name of the instrument dates from the second half of the 14th century. Records from the Burgundian court in the early 15th century are more specific: an entry from 1421 refers to a “bombarde à clef” — “with a key.” The pommer was the first instrument on which this technologically advanced device was employed. A simple key was attached in such a way that it extended the reach of the little finger of the lower hand, allowing the lowest notes to be played by means of a flap. The lower half of the key was concealed and protected by a cover known as a fontanelle, which was perforated with sound holes. With the resulting rearrangement of the finger holes and sound holes, the pommer is only a few centimetres longer than the shawm, so the presence or absence of the fontanelle is the principal visual distinguishing feature between the two types of instrument. Since no complete instrument from before the 16th century has survived, it is fortunate that the heyday of the pommer in the 15th century coincided with the extraordinary popularity of loud wind ensembles as symbols in contemporary illustrations. In these depictions, the pommer is almost invariably shown together with the shawm and very often with the » slide trumpet, a combination now known as “Alta Capella”.
Surviving shawms and pommers are strikingly uniform in size, and the fundamental pitches of the two instruments are generally a fifth apart. This corresponds to the usual interval between the cantus and tenor in the polyphonic music of the 15th century and supports Tinctoris’s statement quoted above. The combination of shawm and pommer is the earliest example in music history of two different sizes of the same type of instrument being regularly played together. Ensembles consisting of shawm, pommer, and slide trumpet were initially permanently employed by the nobility and later, increasingly, by cities throughout Europe as Stadtpfeifer (“waits”). These Alta Capella ensembles, which performed music that was both loud and sophisticated, fulfilled important representative functions for the newly strengthened and mutually competing city-states.
In 1526, the first reference appears to a new type of “bass” pommer, which was tuned a fifth lower than the standard instrument, and an instrument from the 1540s is known that was pitched yet another fifth below it. As a result of these new developments, the nomenclature of the instruments also changed: the original “tenor pommer” became the alto, the “bass” became the tenor, and the new instrument became the bass. However, the two largest forms apparently never achieved the same popularity and widespread use as the original shawm and the original pommer, both of which continued to be used until the end of the 17th century, while the lower parts in loud ensemble settings were generally taken over by early forms of the trombone and by dulcians. The alto pommer was often used in ensembles without a shawm, where the upper parts were played by the » cornett.
The bombard on “Geschichtsfenster”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrAq5WLU91I&t=4018s