Shawms - Piffaro

Exploring the world of early double reed instruments was one of the raisons d’etre for Piffaro’s founding, and the medieval and renaissance shawm was the primary double reed instrument in those early years. To get to where we are today with our shawms, we traveled a varied and circuitous journey involving a number of different instruments from a variety of makers. In 1985 at the Boston Early Music Festival we discovered a set modeled more accurately after surviving originals. The English maker John Hanchet was there displaying his wares, and after trying them out we knew this would be a big step up for our sound. On the spot we ordered a full renaissance consort of soprano, alto, tenor and bass from him.