Zuffolo (also chiufolo, ciufolo) is an Italian
fipple flute
The term fipple specifies a variety of end-blown flute that includes the flageolet, recorder, and tin whistle. The Hornbostel–Sachs system for classifying musical instruments places this group under the heading "Flutes with duct or duct flute ...
. First described in the 14th century, it has a rear thumb-hole, two front finger-holes, and a conical bore. It is approximately 8 cm in length and has a range of over two octaves, from B
3 to C
6 . A larger instrument of the same name, with a lowest note of C5 appeared in the early 17th century .
In Sicily, ''zuffolo'' refers to a longer beak flute of about 29 cm, with a wide bore and six equally spaced finger-holes .
In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, it was also called the "flautino" , ''flauto piccolo'', and ''flautino piccolo'', and is sometimes spelled ''zufolo''.
Known as the Picco pipe and marketed as a toy until early in the 20th century, the instrument was popularized in London in 1856, either as a toy by a blind Italian musician named Picco , or by a blind
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
n player at Covent Garden .
The zuffolo is the smallest form of ducted-flue
tabor pipe
The three-hole pipe, also commonly known as tabor pipe or galoubet, is a wind instrument designed to be played by one hand, leaving the other hand free to play a tabor drum, bell, psalterium or ''tambourin à cordes'', bones, triangle or other pe ...
or flute-a-bec, at 3½" long, with the windway taking up 1½". It has only three holes: two in front and a dorsal thumb hole. It has the same mouthpiece as a
recorder. The bore end hole of the picco pipe has a small flare, and the lowest notes were played with a finger blocking this end. The range is from b to c3, using the slight frequency shift between registers to sound a full chromatic scale, like the tabor pipe .
Relatives
In northern Europe a very similar instrument is known by various names from the 14th until at least the 17th century. The earliest source is a 14th-century Flemish manuscript copy of ''De planctu naturae'' by
Alain de Lille, which includes drawings of eleven different types of instruments, including two of duct flutes. One of these is a one-handed flute with three front finger-holes and one thumb-hole. It is labeled, together with another instrument, with the generic Latin term "fistuli" and with the
Middle Dutch
Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or c. 1550, there was no overarc ...
word "floyt" . In the early 16th century, a woodcut showing this same type of instrument is labeled "Russpfeiff" (from
MHGer ''Rusch'', "rush") in . This name is spelled "Rüspfeiff" in , where the same instrument is also referred to as a "klein Flötlein mit 4 löchern" (small little flute with four holes) (; ). At the beginning of the next century,
Michael Praetorius
Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms ba ...
depicted this instrument once again in the supplement (''Theatrum Instrumentorum'') to the second volume of his ''
Syntagma Musicum
''Syntagma Musicum (1614-1620)'' is a musical treatise in three volumes by the German composer, organist, and music theorist Michael Praetorius. It was published in Wittenberg and Wolfenbüttel. It is one of the most commonly used research source ...
'', where he uses the expressions "gar kleine Plockflötlein" (very small little recorder), "garklein Flötlein" (very small little flute), and "klein Flötlein" (small little flute). He gives the size of this instrument as about three or four Brunswick inches, its range as nearly two octaves, and its playing technique as involving "unten zum Ausgang darneben mit eim Finger regiret werden" (regulated by means of a finger under the outlet). The lowest open tone is shown in the woodcut as C
6, but Praetorius does not say how much lower the instrument can be made to speak by using the finger to shade the bell opening .
See also
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Panpipes
A pan flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of pan flutes have been ...
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Pipers' Guild
References
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External links
Instructional sheet for Picco pipe, published in the United States in 1872{{Flutes, state=autocollapse
Internal fipple flutes
Italian musical instruments
Sardinian musical instruments
Toy instruments and noisemakers