musette

views updated May 17 2018

musette. (1) Type of Fr. bagpipe popular in court circles in 17th and 18th cents. Was bellows-blown and had 4 or 5 drones enclosed in cylinder. Used in orch. by Lully.(2) Variety of gavotte in which persistent drone bass suggests the above instr. Vaughan Williams's ob. conc. (1944) has a musette in 2nd movt.