1684—England

John Bunyan mentions the sound of the sackbut in his famous allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress: “But what should be the reason that such a good man should be all his days so much in the dark?…He and his fellows sound the sackbut, whose notes are more doleful than notes of other music are: though indeed, some say, the bass is the ground of music” (Bunyan 361).