This content is part of our web archive. It is no longer maintained and may not meet current accessibility standards.
There were many varieties of flute in the medieval period, including the cross-blown (traverse) flute, panpipes, whistles, and end-blown flutes such as the recorder. An interesting pairing of instruments is the pipe and tabor, which was played by one musician. The pipe was a long three-holed recorder, two at the front and one at the back. The tabor was a small drum, which was slung over the shoulder and played with the other hand. The pipe and tabor allowed one person to provide melodic and percussive accompaniment for entertainments.