Bombard

Bombard [Fr. *bombarde] (Ger.: Bombard), the lower-pitched members of the shawm family developed between the 14th and 16th c., elongated versions of the shawm, very slender, with narrow and slightly conical bore ending in a flare and played with a double reed. The Engl. term was first used in 1393 (Gower) and but infrequently thereafter, the term “tenor shawm” being preferred (see below). In Germany the word had become corrupted to “Bombhardt” by Virdung's day (writing in 1511) and was further…