Reconstructing the "fifres" of the Grande Écurie / Boaz Berney
The activities of the group of eight players in the group entitled Fifres et Tambours under Louis XIV are well documented. The four Fifres were an important part of the court life, and their responsibilities ranged from outdoor to indoor functions. They accompanied the flag and the Sun King on his voyages, provided music for the king’s daily ceremonies and participated in court festivities and stage works.[1] There is, however, very little information about the type of fifres that were actually used by these players, and very little surviving music to account for what they played on these instruments. In order to reconstruct the fifes used in the Grande Écurie , we had to search for additional evidence in earlier as well as later sources: surviving original instruments, fingering charts, repertoire and iconographic material. As the subjects of terminology and iconography are covered by Sarah van Cornewal in her article, this paper will concentrate on the remaining source material: fingering charts, surviving instruments, and contemporary repertoire.
Fingering charts
Fingering charts for the fife can be found in several sources from
the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. Unfortunately, as we
shall see, many of them are problematic, and make it difficult to judge
the acoustical qualities of the instrument they were intended
for. However, there are some reliable sources which help us
understand the changes taking place in the design of the instrument
during this period.
The earliest fingering chart is found in Marin Mersenne’s Hamonie Universelle.[2]
This source has been widely discussed in the past, mainly because it
appears to contain the earliest baroque style fingerings for the
flute.[3] However, as clarified by Philippe Alain-Dupré,
there are some anomalies in the charts that that make drawing
conclusions based on this source difficult. Mersenne presents
three charts: two for the flûte d’allemand and one for the fifre. The fifre
chart is for an instrument in g with a range of two octaves,
g-g’’, probably sounding an octave higher then notated.
There are some obvious mistakes in the chart, as Mersenne indicates to
keep the first hole open for the entire second octave, which would not
work on any sort of transverse flute. It is likely that he
confused the flute with the recorder, which does need its thumb hole
open for the second octave. If we close this first hole, then we have a
fingering chart that would work on a cylindrical-bored renaissance type
instrument in g’.

Figure 1: Fife fingering chart from Mersenne’s Hamonie Universelle, Photo: B. Berney.
A second fingering chart for the fife can be found in Diderot’s Encyclopédie
(figure 2).[4] This would have been an ideal source for reconstructing
the fifes of the Grande Écurie, as it is both from France and
from the right time frame. However, like Mersenne, this source
contains too many anomalies to be of much use.
Figure 2: Fife fingering chart from Diderot’s Encyclopédie, Photo: Boaz Berney.
At first glance, this is a fingering chart showing the range of
an instrument of two octaves, however, it is unclear if it is really
meant to be read in French violin clef (which would be quite unusual
for this date), or in normal treble clef. The first fingering, would
indeed play an F natural on a baroque or renaissance type flute,
however, the next fingering would sound an e and the one after that an
f#, which would point that the fingering chart is indeed noted in G2
(table 1). Even if we accept this premise, which seems to be the
most likely one, there are still too many open holes on the chart to
make sense. Fingering 1234-6 would not give the fundament of any
known flute, and neither would the fingering for the same note an
octave above –34-6 seem very logical. As with
Mersenne’s table, the fingerings for entire the second octave of
the instrument start with a first open hole, which again, does not seem
to work on any flute that we were able to try. If, as with
Mersenne, one presumes that the first hole should be closed for
the second octave, many of the resulting fingerings look like they
might work on a cylindrical bored flute, like that of Mersenne. Even
then, there are some strange looking fingerings, like those for the
second octave a, c and d. Unfortunately, there seem to be too
many anomalies in this table to make it practical for a reconstruction.

Table 1: A reconstruction of Diderot’s chart © B. Berney.
A more useful chart for the fife is one drawn by Giles Gibbs Jr in His Little Book for the Fife (1777) (fig 3). [5] The chart gives fingerings for nearly two octaves, from d to c’’,
probably meant as the top two octaves of the instrument. Interestingly
enough, the bottom octave is not shown, either because the fingerings
are simple and were obvious to the player, or because the bottom octave
was not really of much use on the fife.
Figure 3: Fife fingering chart from Giles Gibbs Jr.’s His Book for the Fife (1777, Foto: B. Berney.
This is the first source that clearly shows baroque fingerings
for the second octave a and b, and we can presume that it is meant for
a conical instrument. Although it is noted in D, it is more
likely that it sounded a fourth higher, as no D fifes from the period
are known, while G instruments were more common. As the fife
would have been played alone or with the drum, there is no reason to
notate the actual sounding pitch rather than the fingering with which
the player would be familiar.
Another fingering chart can found in the Pfeifer Ordonnanz für die Eidgenöffischen Truppen
published in Zürich in 1819.[6] Although this is a later source,
it is an interesting one as it is very precise, giving full chromatic
fingerings for a fife with a range of two and a half octaves (figure
4). The chart gives baroque fingerings for the second octave a and b,
indicating a cylindrical instrument.
Figure 4: Fife fingering chart from Pfeifer Ordonnanz für die Eidgenöffischen Truppen, Zürich 1819, Foto: Alex Haefeli.
Surviving instruments
The next logical step was to look for original instruments which
could be used to reconstruct the fifes used in the Grande
Écurie. Unfortunately, we were thus far unable to find any
French instruments from the right time period, the earliest surviving
French fifes date from the early nineteenth century. We had two
possible solutions for this problem: choosing an earlier or a much
later surviving instrument for copying. Unfortunately, these would be
of non-French origin as well. After a long search we narrowed
down the options to three types of surviving originals: the
“Altenklingen” flute (A-V: SAM 1028), one of three flutes
by Deterdingen (S- Stockholm: AM. 084933-8) or a fife by Sattler
(D-Berlin: MIM 2714). Following is a discussion of all three types of
originals.
The “Altenklingen” flute, A-V: SAM 1028
Figure 5: A-V: SAM 1028 and its matching case, SAM 1029.
This unstamped flute (figure 5), originally from Schloss
Altenklingen in Switzerland, is the only remaining flute of a group of
four instruments that used belong in its original case, SAM 1029.
The instrument and its case are similar to flutes stamped
“$” found in the collections of the Graz Landeszeughaus and
the Museo Civico in Merano.[7] The Graz instruments, which survived in
a military context, probably represent the type of instruments played
together with drum in the sixteenth century.
Based on the similarity
of this flute and its case to the “$” instruments, we can
assume that this flute is indeed a military instrument. It is a
small flute in g at A=415Hz, and has thin walls and rings on each end,
serving a double purpose of decoration and protecting its thin ends
from splitting. A reconstruction of this instrument shows that it plays
very well with ordinary renaissance fingerings, and has a range of two
and a half octaves.
Three flutes by “Deterdingen”, S- Stockholm: AM. 084933-8

Figure 6: Four of the six surviving flutes in the Stockholm Armée Museum
(from top to bottom: 084938, 084933, 084935 and 084936), Photo: B. Berney.
These little-known flutes (figure 6) survived as part of the
Swedish State Trophy Collection, now housed in the Stockholm
Armée Museum. This collection contains about two hundred
musical instruments, predominantly kettledrums, but also including some
twenty-five Russian zurnas (shawm-like double reed instruments), a
couple of field drums and these six flutes.[8] The collection itself
can be dated back to the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, a
period when Sweden was an important military power involved in
succession of conflicts, from the Thirty Years War during the first
half of the seventeenth century to the Great Northern War at the
beginning of the eighteenth century.
The six surviving flutes in
this collection are all cylindrical, renaissance-type instruments in
d’, pitched around A=460Hz. Three flutes, nos. 084935, 084936 and
084937 are stamped “(three crowns)/Er. Deterdingen”. No
information was found about this maker, although the three crowns would
hint at a Swedish origin. It is unclear how instruments with a
Swedish emblem ended up in the trophy collection, unless they were
re-gained trophies. The two flutes nos. 084933 and 084934 are
anonymous, and are quite similar to one another. The last flute,
084938, has ornamental rings similar to those found on the Russian
Zurnas in the collection, and can probably be associated with those
instruments, all taken a battle in 1703.
A replica of the
Deterdingen flutes show that these were extremely powerful
instruments. It is easy to imagine this kind of flute playing in
battle next to a drum, its thick walls and relatively large embouchure
makes its sound loud and projecting. The replica has a range of more
than two octaves with renaissance fingerings.
Fife by Sattler, D-Berlin: MIM 2714

Figure 7: D-Berlin: MIM 2714, Photo: Berlin Musikinstrumenten museum.
This fife, found in the Berlin Musikinstrumenten museum, is a
much later instrument (figure 7). It was made by the Leipzig
maker Carl Sattler (fl. a1788-p1796) in the late eighteenth century.[9]
It is a small instrument in g’ at about A=460Hz representing the
type of instrument made in Germany and Austria towards the last quarter
of the century. Similar surviving instruments can be found several
collections, including six in the Graz Landeszeughaus.[10]
Unlike the other two types of originals, this flute has a conical or a proto-conical bore, as can be seen in figure 8.
Figure 8: bore graph of D-Berlin: MIM 2714, Photo: Berlin Musikinstrumenten museum.
Although the bore of this particular original is not very
regular, as it has several repaired cracks which distort the original
bore profile, the shape of the bore can be reconstructed (red line) and
compared to similar bore dimensions found on the Graz flutes.[11] The
bore is cylindrical for about the first third, much like an ordinary
baroque flute, and narrows down right before the first finger
hole. It stays more or less cylindrical until right after the
last finger hole, and then opens up again. This type of bore,
although much less conical then most flutes of the time, would enable
the player to play the second octave with the same fingerings as the
first.
Repertoire
In order to decide what type of fife we
would need for the Grande Écurie project, we next had to examine
the extent music that calls for the fife in sources associated with
this establishment. Unfortunately, not a lot of fife music has
survived, far less then what we have for the field drums, which is
possibly an indication of the precedence of drum patterns over the
melodies played by the fifes to accompany those. Two pieces for fifes
can be found in the “Philidor Manuscript”, one of the main
sources for music used at the Grand Écurie (Partition de plusieurs marches F-Pn Rés. F. 671).

Figure 9: Philidor MS., p. 4: Lair des fifres ou hautbois, Photo: B. Berney.
Both pieces are similar to fife signals found in Thoinant Arbeau’s treatise, Orchésographie as well as in Byrd’s keyboard piece The fife and the droome.[12]
As Arbeau states, this kind of signal was improvised by fifers over a
standard drum pattern in order to communicate different commands to the
troops. From the similarity of these three sources, however it
seems like this was becoming more or less a standard tune played by
fifers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The first piece, Lair des fifres ou hautbois (figure 9) is a four-part setting of such a signal, while the second, Lordonanse pour le fifre (figure
10) has no accompaniment and is almost identical to the signal found in
Arbeau’s treatise. Both pieces are a bit like antiquated oddities
in the context of the Philidor manuscript and could represent the
traditional repertoire played by Swiss fifers from as early as the
sixteenth century. It is highly unlikely that fifes could have played
all four parts of the Lair des fifres ou hautbois, but they
could easily have played the top two parts. The piece is possibly
a late seventeenth century arrangement of fife music for an oboe band,
as oboes were slowly replacing the place of the fifes in the Grande
Écurie.[13]
Figure 10: Lordenanse pour le fifre from the Philidor manuscript, Photo: B. Berney.
A slightly later source for fife music can be found in Instruction des Tambours et Diverse Batteries de L’Ordenance,
of 1754. This manuscript contains a collection of standard drum signals
for infantry troupes (figure 11).[14] All are accompanied by a melody
for Hautbois au fiffre. Some of the signals found in the manuscript, like La Généralle de la garde Françoise
can be found in the Philidor manuscript as well. Interestingly
enough, while the drum signals are almost exactly the same, the
patterns are accompanied by completely different melodies in the two
different sources. La Généralle is followed by a four part Lair des hautbois fait par Philidor lainé in the Philidor manuscript, while it is accompanied by a slightly more modern sounding melody in the Instructions.
This reinforces Arbeau’s statement that the drum patterns are
much more important then the melody played on the fife to accompany
them. It is therefore not inconceivable that the melodies would have
been “updated” to something more fashionable over the
course of the roughly fifty years separating the two sources.

Figure 11: Instructions des Tambours et Diverse Batteries de lOrdenançe, (1754) p.5, Photo: B. Berney.
The nine fife tunes in this source are all in the key of g,
seven in major and two in minor, and require a range of octave and a
half (g-d’). Table 2 sums up the surviving repertoire
discussed so far and the range of the different pieces.

Table 2: French eighteenth-century sources of fife music, © B. Berney.
As can be seen from the table, the pieces listed can, for the
most part, be played on either a d or a g instrument up the octave. The
only exception is Lair des fifres ou hautbois which would
work better on a g instrument, as it is too high to be played on a d
instrument up the octave or two low as written.
Reconstructing the fiffres
As discussed earlier, because of the lack of surviving instruments
from the period in question, we had to make a decision about which type
of fife to reconstruct for the project. This would be based on
the sources found during our research: music, iconography and surviving
instruments. Eventually, two main questions had to be answered before
we could make a decision about the type of fifre to copy:
- What size fifes should we use for the project? As our research shows, both d or g flutes could have been used in the Grande Écurie. Iconographical sources seem to indicate a transition to shorter instruments over the course of the seventeenth century, so a g instrument seemed like a better choice for playing the repertoire chosen for the project.
- Bore profile: cylindrical or conical? This question would also imply what fingerings would be used on the instruments, renaissance, or baroque? The second half of the seventeenth century was an important period of changes for woodwinds and for flutes, marked the transition from cylindrical to conical bores. Early conical bored flutes were not only found at the French court, but makers and musicians associated with the court, like the Hotetterres and Philidors are the ones credited with the change and the invention of the new baroque woodwinds. Therefore it is not unlikely that the design of fifes have also been changed at that point, although, unfortunately we don’t have any surviving instruments that would support this hypothesis.
Eventually, copies where made of all three
“candidates” of surviving fifes: A d flute, copied after
one of the Stockholm Deterdingen instruments, and two g instruments,
one copied after the Vienna Alteklingen flute and another after the
Berlin Sattler. Of all three copies, we felt that the
Altenklingen fife was the one that worked best for the repertoire
chosen for the project. It was clear sounding and easy to play,
even in the third octave. Furthermore, the familiarity of the players
with its renaissance type fingerings made it the final choice for the
instrument copied for the project. As the original is pitched
around A=415 Hz, the final copy had to be scaled up a tone, to bring it
to Ton d’Écurie, or A=465Hz, the pitch chosen for the other loud instruments participating in the project.

Figure 12: Three of the fifers participating in the project and the copies. From front to back:
Sarah van Cornewal, Richard Robinson and Sylvain Sartre, Photo: Boaz Berney.
Boaz Berney, Montreal 2009
[1] Bruce Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe: A History of the Hautboy from 1640-1760, Oxford 2007, pp. 53-54.
[2] Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle, Paris 1636–1637, pp. 241-244.
[3] See Ardal Powell, The Flute, New Haven 2002, pp. 57-59. Philippe Alain-Dupré, Mersenne et ses Contradictions, a paper given at the 2002 Basel Renaissance Flute days. http://allaindu.perso.neuf.fr/fluterenaissance/Mersenne.htm.
[4] Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond D'Alembert (ed.), Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers.
[5] Giles Gibbs, Jr.: His Little Book for the Fife, Ellington, Connecticut 1777. Edited from the original manuscript by Kate Van Winkle Keller, Hartford, 1977.
[6] Johannes Bühler, Pfeifer Ordonnanz für die Eidgenöffischen Truppen, Zürich, 1819.
[7]
For a fuller discussion of the “$” instruments see: Boaz
Berney “Renaissance Transverse Flutes: A Re-examination of the
Surviving Instruments” in: Musique de Joye: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Renaissance Flute and Recorder Consort, Utrecht, 2003, pp 64-65. The Graz instruments are described in Georg Stradner, Die Musikinstrumente in Steirmärkischen Landeszeughaus in Graz, Graz 1976. A drawing of the Merano flute is in Filadelfio Puglisi: The Renaissance Transverse Flutes in Italy, Firenze (S.P.E.S) 1995, pp. 85-87.
[8] Hans Riben, The
Musical Instruments in the Swedish State Trophy Collection in In Hoc
Signo Vinces: A Presentation of The Swedish State Trophy Collection, Halmstad 2006, p. 149-158.
[9] William Waterhouse, The Langwill Index,
p. 345. I am grateful to Björn Kempf of the Berlin
Musikinstrumentenmuseum for providing me with photos and measurements
of this instrument.
[10] Georg Stradner, Die Musikinstrumente in Steirmärkischen Landeszeughaus in Graz, Graz 1976, pp. 15-17.
[11] ibid. The average bore of the Graz fifes has a maximum of 13.5mm at the top, and a minimum of 11.5-12.5 at the bottom.
[12] Thoinot Arbeau, Orchésographie et traicte en forme de dialogue…, Langres 1588.
William Byrd, The Battle MB94. Modern ed. in William Byrd: Keyboard Music I, ed. A. Brown, MB, xxvii (1969, rev. 2/1976)
[13] See Bruce Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe: A History of the Hautboy from 1640-1760, Oxford 2007, pp. 53-54
[14] Marguery [père]: Instructions des tambours et diverses batteries de l'ordonnance, S.I.n.d. (gravé par Melle [Marie-Charlotte] Vendôme) 1754.
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