Wind instruments: Flutes

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.