King Anarche in Francois Rabelais' (1494-1553) 'Pantagruel'. Just one single
blind hurdy-gurdy player was engaged for the celebration, and he had to provide the dance music for the guests: "et, pour les faire dancer, loua un aveugle qui leur sonnoit la note avecques sa vielle" [fn]. [translation JW: "and, to make them dance, hired a blind man who played on his hurdy-gurdy"]. Even in the 17th century people gladly danced to the sound of the hurdy-gurdy after supper: "Le souppé finy l'on fit joüer au vielleux toutes sortes de danses, et les jeunes hommes qui estoient là monstrerent la disposition de leur corp au son d'un agreable instrument" [fn][translation JW: " after supper the hurdy-gurdy players were requested to play all sorts of dances, and the young men present displayed their physical fitness to the sound of this pleasant instrument"].
In 16th century France the hurdy-gurdy for a little while found a use which it had already once had in the Middle Ages: it belonged for a brief period to the court instrumentarium of the last king of the house of Valois, Henri III. The proof that it was played at the king's court is provided by the beautiful instrument of illustration 178 (see page 155) which is decorated with the French coat-of-arms and the initials of the king and his mother. Already at that time then the hurdy-gurdy was represented at the French court. It did not however become the favorite instrument of the French aristocracy until the 18th century.
An individual repertoire for the hurdy-gurdy can be first established only in the 18th century, namely when the interest of the French aristocracy for bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies increased so much that music was composed especially for these instruments. The reasons which led to the rise of bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy into the courts of France lie in this society's search for a way of passing the time. Next to other entertainments in 17th century France there also already existed a preference for shepherd and peasant plays which, other than in the England of Elizabeth I, did not only filter down into the shepherd poetry, but also into music. In England music was played only at shepherd festivities, like the beginning of spring and the autumn solstice whereby the shepherd's instruments, especially the bagpipes, always remained in the hands of the
shepherd [fn]. The fashion in France on the other hand had quite different effects.
The French shepherd fashion which had already begun under Louis XIII lasted more than 150 years until the very beginning of the French Revolution. The peculiar aspect of this trend was that people did not just limit themselves to adapting shepherd motifs to poetry, but even took up the shepherd's musical instruments and introduced them into society. Anton van Dyck (1599-1641) painted the French book dealer Langlois with a musette [fn].
Up until the 16th century the bagpipes belonged to the instruments of the French court music [fn] but then lost its place in the orchestra. It was in the 17th century that the first peasant instrument was again received into the instrumentarium of good society.
The most important difference between the old French cornemuse and the musette of the 17th and 18th century court consisted in that the blowpipe of the cornemuse was replaced by small bellows operated by the arm. This device, which had already been introduced at the beginning of the 17th century [fn], formed the prerequisite for the long-lasting popularity of the musette in courtly society. Since the bagpipes were played by the ladies as well as by the gentlemen of the aristocracy, it was probably quite quickly removed from the mouth once blown, since blowing required some exertion and would have shattered the desired picture of charm and elegance.
Martin Hotteterre, a member of the famous Hotteterre family, added an additional improvement to the instrument: he extended the tonal range by adding a
a second small pipe on which the accidentals could be played: "pour faire les dièzes et les bémols" [fn].[trans JW: "to play sharps and flats"].
The attention of th