ruments were in all
probability made in the Netherlands, which excelled from the 12th
century in the manufacture of all musical instruments. No single-reed
instrument, with the exception of the regal (q.v.), is figured by S.
Virdung,[16] M. Agricola[17] or M. Praetorius.[18]

A good idea of the primitive chalumeau may be gained from a reproduction
of one of the few specimens from the 16th or 17th century still extant,
which belonged to Cesare Snoeck and was exhibited at the Royal Military
Exhibition in London in 1890.[19] The tube is stopped at the mouthpiece
end by a natural joint of the reed, and a tongue has been detached just
under the joint; there are six finger-holes and one for the thumb. An
instrument almost identical with the above, but with a rudimentary bell,
and showing plainly the detached tongue, is figured by Jost Amman in
1589.[20] A plate in Diderot and d'Alembert's _Encyclopedie_[21] shows a
less primitive instrument, outwardly cylindrical and having a separate
mouthpiece joint and a clarinet reed but no keys. A chalumeau without
keys, but consisting apparently of three joints--mouthpiece, main tube
and bell,--is figured on the title-page of a musical work[22] dated
1690; it is very similar to the one represented in fig. 3, except that
only six holes are visible.

[Illustrations: (From Diderot and d'Alembert's _Encyclopedie_.) FIG. 3.
Chalumeau, 1767. (_a_) Front, (_b_) Back view.]

[Illustration]

In his biographical notice of J. Christian Denner (1655-1707), J.G.
Doppelmayr[23] states that at the beginning of the 18th century "Denner
invented a new kind of pipe, the so-called clarinet, which greatly
delighted lovers of music; he also made great improvements in the stock
or rackett-fagottos, known in the olden time and finally also in the
chalumeaux." It is probable that the improvements in the chalumeau to
which Doppelmayr alludes without understanding them consisted (_a_) in
giving the mouthpiece the shape of a beak and adding a separate reed
tongue as in that of the modern clarinet, unless this change had already
taken place in the Netherlands, the country which the unremitting
labours of E. van der Straeten[24] have revealed as taking the lead in
Europe from the 14th to the 16th century in the construction of musical
instruments of all kinds; (_b_) in the boring of two additional holes
for A and B near the mouthpiece and covering them with two keys; (_c_)
in replacing the long cylindrical mout