European folk shawms

Folk shawms never died out in certain parts of Europe, notably in northeastern Spain, Portugal, northern France, Italy, and the Balkans. The dolçaina or dulzaina of Old Spanish literature, the Iberian equivalent of the Italian dolzaina, still flourishes as a modified folk instrument, its sound transformed from the softness to which it owes its name into a loud and lively outdoor instrument, played with a broad reed mounted on a staple but without a pirouette. Its conical tube terminates in a...