Today in our Brass Ensemble Literature Class, we took a step back to earlier wind ensembles employing some instruments that are not as familiar in a modern context.

Today we listened to the group Piffaro (http://www.piffaro.org)


not to be confused with Piffero (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piffero)
which a quick search on Google will reveal is a crude type of oboe related to another earlier ancestor, the shawm. That's right, double reeds got into our brass ensembles. I feel a little bit wrong inside. If it had to be a woodwind, Piffero was a good choice!