Renaissance Shawms
My Renaissance shawms are either exact copies of the best playing originals or “copies” modified as little as possible to create a typical instrument at the required pitch. They are the shawms described in Praetorius’ Syntagma musicum of 1619 and are available in all sizes down to great bass. These large belled shawms have a particularly rich and round sound and in consort, produce what is surely one of the most memorable and satisfying sounds in early music.
Early Shawms (Mediaeval)
There are no surviving Mediaeval shawms so these are reconstructed from pictorial and literary evidence. They are particularly freespeaking, require a little less pressure, and are the quietest shawms. They can produce a refined and sweet sound and are more easily absorbed into broken consort instrumentations.
Spanish Shawms
These shawms are uncomplicated, effective and excellent in all ways. The design has elegant simplicity and they are inexpensive. My Spanish soprano model is probably the most universally successful of all shawm