Woodwind formed part of what we might call the sound of the middle ground. This item is a small fife. These instruments featured in the ceremonial life of towns and cities, for instance as part of military gatherings for inspection or practice (sometimes known as musters); events important to a range of the middling sort who owned armour and arms for such occasions, they were often accompanied by drums. Drums and fifes were heard all over the country on holiday celebrations, especially for young apprentices and servants. <br /> <br /> Woodwind instruments were also one of the key working tools for professional musicians known as “waits” (named after a similar woodwind instrument to the one pictured, but larger, like an oboe).  Waits were paid by town corporations to perform at ceremonial occasions and publicly throughout the year.  They were not necessarily travelling players or musicians going from gig to gig. Rather, the office of town or city “wait” could be a prestigious role. It awarded the right to wear a special livery (a distinguished outfit advertising the position). The town or city often purchased woodwind instruments for use by such musicians.  <br /> <br /> In Exeter, one “William More” was appointed as a wait of the city.  The scholar Imtiaz Habib has identified More as a person of colour, part of a long and complex heritage of Black musicians in Europe through this period. Imtiaz recognises that the office of wait awards a “measure of protection and dignity,” though the role was dependent upon a warning for “good behaviour”: a sign of the particular form of precarity faced by people of colour negotiating middling social status in this period. <br /> <br /> Some of those who held the role established family “bands”, or even dynasties, and sought entrepreneurial expansions of their role. The Cally family in Chester, for instance, played their music and exercised influence across the county of Cheshire, one brother offering dance classes. In Ipswich, William Marten—known as Martin the Minstrel in the payment accounts—also held a role as Clerk of the Market. This uniquely middling town office indicates the overlaps between different occupations and positions of responsibility held by a single person: the Martin responsible for ceremonial music and merry-making to the one overseeing some of the economic concerns of the community. 
Woodwind instrument (Fife), Date Unknown

Back to Occupation Collection icon

Woodwind instrument

Woodwind instrument (Fife), Date Unknown

Woodwind formed part of what we might call the sound of the middle ground. This item is a small fife. These instruments featured in the ceremonial life of towns and cities, for instance as part of military gatherings for inspection or practice (sometimes known as musters); events important to a range of the middling sort who owned armour and arms for such occasions, they were often accompanied by drums. Drums and fifes were heard all over the country on holiday celebrations, especially for young apprentices and servants.

Woodwind instruments were also one of the key working tools for professional musicians known as “waits” (named after a similar woodwind instrument to the one pictured, but larger, like an oboe).  Waits were paid by town corporations to perform at ceremonial occasions and publicly throughout the year.  They were not necessarily travelling players or musicians going from gig to gig. Rather, the office of town or city “wait” could be a prestigious role. It awarded the right to wear a special livery (a distinguished outfit advertising the position). The town or city often purchased woodwind instruments for use by such musicians. 

In Exeter, one “William More” was appointed as a wait of the city.  The scholar Imtiaz Habib has identified More as a person of colour, part of a long and complex heritage of Black musicians in Europe through this period. Imtiaz recognises that the office of wait awards a “measure of protection and dignity,” though the role was dependent upon a warning for “good behaviour”: a sign of the particular form of precarity faced by people of colour negotiating middling social status in this period.

Some of those who held the role established family “bands”, or even dynasties, and sought entrepreneurial expansions of their role. The Cally family in Chester, for instance, played their music and exercised influence across the county of Cheshire, one brother offering dance classes. In Ipswich, William Marten—known as Martin the Minstrel in the payment accounts—also held a role as Clerk of the Market. This uniquely middling town office indicates the overlaps between different occupations and positions of responsibility held by a single person: the Martin responsible for ceremonial music and merry-making to the one overseeing some of the economic concerns of the community. 

Object Type Fife
Year Date Unknown
Material Wood
Owned By SBT 1940-18
Keywords woodwind; fife;
Image Credit Fife, SBT 1940-18, CC-BY-NC-ND; Image Courtesy of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Back to Occupation Collection icon