An hautboy, or hautbois, is a double-reed musical instrument, the ancestor to the modern oboe; the name means literally “high-wood”.  It’s also called a “shawm” or “shaum”, though this name implies a more rustic instrument; the distinctions are heraldically negligible.  The hautboy is found as a charge in the arms of Bourden, 1610 [Guillim1 200].

Like the recorder, the hautboy and shawm come in a variety of sizes and ranges (e.g., the “treble shawm” shown in the illustration).  Their default orientation is palewise, bell to base, with the fingerholes facing the viewer.  Their “proper” coloration is brown, the color of wood.  For related charges, see krummhorn, rackett.

Franciscus der Ziegler bears:  Gules, on a bend Or a hautboy proper.

Simon de Rouen bears:  Per bend sinister gules and purpure, in pale three hautboys bendwise within a bordure Or.

A harp is a stringed musical instrument, with many strings stretched across an open triangular frame.  As an heraldic charge, it appears c.1450, in the arms of Lantschad or Landschaden [Ingeram 268].  The harp was frequent in arms attributed to King David; it acquired its present association with Ireland under the Tudors.

There are many variants of the harp in heraldry, depending on time and place.  The most common form is the “Irish (or Celtic) harp” or “cloyshacke”, as in the illustration:  this may always be used if no other form has been specified in the blazon.  Some Society blazons specify the shape of the forepillar (e.g., “carved in the shape of a woman’s body”), but this was not done in period; it’s considered an artistic detail worth no heraldic difference.   In Society armory, the harp has the forepillar to dexter by default; a “harp proper”, like all wooden charges, is brown.

For related charges, see lyre.  See also jew’s-harp.

The Ministry of Arts bears:  Purpure, an Irish harp Or.

Milla Meadows bears:  Sable, three harps argent.

Theodosius Athanasius bears:  Argent, a Byzantine harp azure, a bordure compony azure and Or.

A guitar is a stringed musical instrument, favored in southern Europe during the Renaissance.  Its body was flat-backed, narrowed slightly at the waist, with a fretted neck longer in proportion than the citole or the gittern.  The Renaissance guitar was similar in shape (though smaller) to the modern classical guitar; the illustration is taken from Morlaye’s Premier Livre de Chansons en tabulature de guiterne, 1552 [Grove 10:554].  Though a period instrument, the guitar doesn’t seem to have been used in period armory; its Society default orientation is affronty, with strings facing the viewer, and with neck to chief.  For related charges, see lute.

Abu Zayd Ezbek Abd al-Latif ibn Farrukh bears:  Or, on a pale bretessed between two doumbecs vert, a guitar Or.

A gittern is a stringed musical instrument, found from the end of the 13^th Century until supplanted by the Renaissance guitar.  There has been a great deal of confusion about the gittern:  the name has been wrongly used to describe other instruments (e.g., the citole), and the gittern itself has been called other names (e.g., a mandora).  Such agreement as we can find among modern musicologists makes the gittern a smaller version of the round-backed lute, with the entire instrument, body and neck, carved from a single piece of wood.  The gittern had four strings (or courses of strings), and was played with a plectrum.  The illustration is taken from the figure in Amiens Cathedral, 1375 [Grove 9:907].

Very similar to the gittern, and adding to the confusion, was the 16^th Century “cittern”:  a descendant of the citole, it had a flat back (unlike the gittern’s rounded back) and a somewhat longer, fretted neck.  Like the gittern, it had four courses of strings, and was played with a plectrum [Grove 5:877].

Both the gittern and the cittern have the same default orientation in Society heraldry:  affronty, with strings facing the viewer, and with neck to chief.  See also viol.

Thomas of St. John bears as a badge:  Argent, a gittern bendwise sinister sable.

Margaret Katheryn Cameron bears:  Ermine, in saltire a short sword and a cittern proper, overall a rosebud Or, stalked and leaved vert.

A flute is a musical instrument consisting of a long slender tube with a mouth hole and six finger holes.  It’s played by blowing transversely across the mouth hole; it is thus also blazoned a “transverse flute”.

This type of flute was popularized in 16^th Century German texts, notably Agricola’s Musica instrumentalis deudsch, 1528, and is sometimes called a “German flute” for that reason; but the type was common throughout period Europe and Asia.  The flute was mentioned as an heraldic charge by Guillim, 1610 [225], though unattributed.

There were other types of flutes which, instead of transverse blowing holes, had fipple mouthpieces (as did the recorder), but the unqualified term “flute” is a transverse flute by Society default.  The flute is shown affronty by default, with the finger holes towards the viewer; it does not seem to have a default orientation.  The illustration shows a flute fesswise.

Yrmegard Pfeyfferin bears:  Azure, a flute fesswise argent.

Valia the Goth bears:  Sable, three flutes palewise argent.

Rodolphus Amadeus Gilberti bears:  Argent, a wooden flute bendwise proper garnished Or.

A dulcimer hammer is a slender stick with a curved striking surface, used to play the dulcimer.  Though a period artifact, it does not appear to have been used in medieval armory.  The handle is to base by Society default.  For related charges, see drumstick.  See also zither.

Ivon of Darkforest bears:  Vert, three pairs of dulcimer hammers in saltire within a bordure embattled Or.

A drumstick, as the name implies, is used to strike a drum to obtain its note.  Guillim, 1610 [224], describes its use as a charge, and it is therefore accepted for Society use.  The striking end of the drumstick, a knob which may be padded, is to chief by default.  For related charges, see dulcimer hammer.

The Musicians’ Guild of Gwyntarian bears:  Per pale dovetailed gules and azure, a set of panpipes, a rebec affronty and a bow in saltire, and a tabor and drumstick Or.

A drum is a musical instrument of the percussion family; it usually consists of a hollow wooden cylinder with at least one end covered by a stretched membrane.  It’s a period charge, found in the canting arms (French tambour) of Jehan Tabourot, d.1595.  (Tabourot is better known under his pseudonym of Thoinot Arbeau; he blazons his arms in the dedication of his Orchésographie.  See also Woodward 383.)  The illustration is taken from the example in Guillim, 1610 [224].  The default drum, used in war and processionals, was a “side drum”, or in modern terms, a tenor drum; it’s palewise by default, with the drumhead to chief.

Society armory gives examples of the “dumbeg” (“dumbek”, “doumbec”), a goblet-shaped drum found in Muslim lands, often used as accompaniment for dancers.  The dumbeg itself does not appear to be a period instrument, but it belongs to a class of Muslim goblet drums collectively known as darabukka, which are period:  an example is found in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso the Wise, late-13^th Century (from which the illustration is taken).  Society blazons continue to use the term “dumbeg” for continuity’s sake.

Also found in Society armory is the “kettle drum” or “naker drum”, with a closed hemispherical body, as found in the Luttrell Psalter, c.1340.  We have the “tabor”, like the side drum but not as tall, worn on the hip and played together with a flute; examples of pipe-and-tabor players date back to c.1270 [Montagu 47].  The “tambour” is a wide shallow drum; when cymbals are mounted around the frame, it becomes a “tambourine” or “timbrel”, as seen on a relief by Agostino di Duccio, c.1454 [Remnant 165].

Drums, when blazoned “wooden [type of drum] proper”, have brown cylinders or frames, and argent drumheads, by Society convention; sometimes the drumhead is explicitly tinctured.

Geoffrey de Barde bears:  Sable, a drum argent.

Naila Kalilah bears:  Purpure, a serpent glissant bendwise Or between a dumbeg and a pair of zils argent.

Anna Kalita bears:  Purpure, two kettle drums in fess Or, in chief two drumsticks in saltire argent.

Sean Tabor bears:  Gules, a sword inverted argent piercing a tabor Or, a bordure per pale argent and Or.

Roger the Goliard bears as a badge:  Azure, on a demi-sun issuant from base Or in fess a mandolin bendwise sinister, a recorder bendwise, and a wood-framed tambourine all proper, in chief three doves volant argent.

The cornetto is a musical instrument which combines a wooden body with finger holes (like the recorder) with the mouthpiece of a trumpet.  It was, indeed, sometimes an alternate depiction of the trumpet, as in the emblazon of Trumpington in the Heralds Roll, c.1280 [ANA1 78].  The cornetto is curved in form, ranging from the default form in the first illustration, to the so-called “bass cornetto” or “Serpent” in the second illustration.

The Society has the cornetto following the default orientation for other woodwinds:  with the mouthpiece to chief.  For related charges, see horn.

The Master of the King’s Musick of Atenveldt bears:  Per pale azure and argent, in canton a sun in his splendour Or, in sinister a bass cornetto sable.

Dunstan Stonehill bears:  Or, a bass cornetto and on a chief sable three bezants.

A clarion is one of the oldest of heraldic charges, dating from c.1285 in the arms of Greville [ANA2 301]; in period it was also called a “claricord”, “claricymbal”, “rest”, or “sufflue”.  There had been some debate over what exactly the clarion is meant to be:  suggestions have included a spear rest, an air feed for a pipe organ, or even a rudder.  Most modern authorities agree it’s a type of musical instrument, a mouth organ akin to a panpipe [Friar 253].

Robin Clarian bears:  Per chevron azure and argent, three clarions counterchanged.

Ava Trudine of Tregoenning bears:  Vert, a clarion argent.

Balian de Brionne bears:  Azure, three clarions argent.