(i.e., the violin family, violins, violas, violoncellos, and the sole surviving 'viol,' the double-bass) with harpsichord, for general use; while in the more important pieces, hautboys, and sometimes flutes as well, were added, playing, as a rule, with the 1st and 2nd violin parts. This, at any rate, is the case in Purcell's operas. (Purcell died 1695). Thus the word Hautboys represented very nearly the climax of power to 17th century ears. Anything beyond this was supplied by the addition of trumpets, though this was rare j while Drums were very occasionally used.
The stage direction in Shakespeare may be taken to mean—'Let the hautboys be added to the usual band of strings.' In the last of the above examples, Coriol. 54, 50, we have the extreme limit of power of this time provided for—viz., trumpets and hautboys and drums, all together. It is interesting to notice the wording of Menenius's description of this stage music. 'The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes. Tabors and cymbals.' The 'sackbut' was merely our modern slide trombone, while the rest of these instruments were in common use in the 16th century, except the Psaltery, which Kircher (b. 1601) says is the same as the Nebel of the Bible. The picture he gives is remarkably like the dulcimers
