c. 1760—Frankfurt, Germany

According to his autobiography, Goethe, the famous author and poet, attends a Pfeifergericht (piper’s court), the opening ceremony of the Frankfurt fair. The ceremony, which Goethe witnesses as a child, includes the Stadtpfeifer, at this time already a very old convention (“the advent of former centuries,” in Goethe’s words). The ensemble, which hails from Nuremberg, probably consists of shawm, sackbut, and pommer. Goethe writes: “All at once a singular sort of music announces, if we may so speak, the advent of former centuries. It proceeds from three pipers, one of whom plays an old shawm, another a sackbut, and the third a pommer, or oboe. They wear blue mantles trimmed with gold, having the notes made fast to their sleeves, and their heads covered….They were always the same antiquated virtuosi whom Nuremberg, for itself and its co-cities, had undertaken to maintain, and produce annually at the appointed place.” The many editions of John Oxenford’s translation of the autobiography render Goethe’s German word Bass as sackbut in this passage (Goethe-Oxenford, 19-20), while the R. O. Moon translation renders it bassoon (Goethe-Moon, 15). The original German phrase describing the 3 instruments is “eine alte Schalmei, der andere einen Bass, der dritte einen Pommer oder Hoboe blast” (Goethe).