loped complex instrument which presupposes
a separate previous existence for its component parts.

We have no reason to suppose that any distinction was drawn between the
single and double reed instruments during the early middle ages--if
indeed the single reed was then known at all--for the derivatives of
_kalamos_ were applied to a variety of pipes. The first clear and
unmistakable drawing yet found of the single reed occurs in Mersenne's
_Harmonie universelle_ (p. 282), where the primitive reed pipe is shown
with the beating-reed detached from the tube of the instrument itself,
by making a lateral slit and then splitting back a little tongue of reed
towards a knot. Mersenne calls this the simplest form of chalumeau or
wheat-stalk (_tuyau de ble_). It is evident that no significance was
then attached to the form of the vibrating reed, whether single or
double, for Mersenne and other writers of his time call the chaunters of
the musette and cornemuse chalumeaux whether they are of cylindrical or
of conical bore. The difference in timbre produced by the two kinds of
reeds was, however, understood, for Mersenne states that a special kind
of cornemuse was used in concert with the _hautbois de Poitou_ (an oboe
whose double reed was enclosed in an air chamber) and was distinguished
from the shepherd's cornemuse by having double reeds throughout, whereas
the drones of the latter instrument were furnished with beating reeds.
It is therefore evident that as late as 1636 (the date at which Mersenne
wrote) in France the word "chalumeau" was not applied to the instrument
transformed some sixty years later into the clarinet, nor was it applied
exclusively to any one kind of pipe except when acting as the chaunter
of the bagpipe, and that independently of any structural
characteristics. The chaunter was still called chalumeau in 1737.[14] Of
the instrument which has been looked upon as the chalumeau, there is but
little trace in Germany or in France at the beginning of the 17th
century. A chalumeau with beak mouthpiece and characteristic short
cylindrical tube pierced with six holes figures among the musical
instruments used for the triumphal procession of the emperor Maximilian
I., commemorated by a fine series of plates,[15] engraved on wood by
Hans Burgkmair, the friend and colleague of A. Duerer. On the same plate
(No. 79) are five schalmeys with double reeds and five chalumeaux with
single-reed beak mouthpieces; the latter inst