Hello! I'm writing my MMus dissertation on military wind music, and have come accross a work by Mozart snr that calls for swegglepfeiffen... anyone know what they might be?!
Verity

I have no idea what the sweggle part of the word means, but "pfeiffen" are probably Fifes, which are old style flutes common in military bands. Is the spelling correct? Couldn't find anything on Google.

*Great word though!*

It is indeed a great word... Google let me down too, and the New Grove entry that it comes from didn't have a reference to it... But I know i'[ll have to justify it's use!

There is an organ stop with a similar name on some instruments

SWEGEL A wide scale open metal flute with pipes having a slight outward taper. The name is common in German instruments, and is derived from the High German 'swegla', meaning a flute.

not sure if this helps much ..

google usually so reliable!! I know this probably means nothing but the piece you are talking about is scored for 2 piccolos in amodern version. woohoo danish it is, i found this So I guess something similar in fact the two militærfløjter (Sweggl-Pfeifen), taken from here a danish site http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...26rlz%3D1I7ADBF sorry the funny figures in milatary is because of translation process

Thank you very, very much all!

Schwegelpfeifen!! Played like a flute

Cor blimey where were they googled from tell us the secret

Just tried different spellings in google images! I wondered if it might be "sch" rather than "sw", but this still might not be the one that violoboist is looking for!

Still, have learnt a new instrument today so it was worth looking into

I wondered the same thing as you, DS (sch...) but my search didn't turn anything up with that spelling, or maybe I didn't look far enough!

Maybe I have too much time on my hands!

Not meaning to be rude (honest!), but for your MMus dissertation you'll probably be wanting to talk about its use, not it's...

Not sure if this is a red herring or not, but a book on the history of woodwind instruments says this:

During the early Middle Ages, most if not all of the peoples of Europe were probably playing hornpipes of one kind or another. The Anglo-Saxon swegel horn ("shin-bone and horn") would have been one kind. From pictures, a kind that might have been especially familiar to Continental audiences of touring troupes of entertainers, was a fairly long parallel double-pipe with one or two horn bells and with the reeds taken directly into the mouth. Its compass would have been about one octave.

Yes Czerny, thanks for that one... sadly, word blindness had caught up with me. The incorrect use of the possessive is one of the things that drives me mad (hangs head in shame)...

How is your German? There appears to be a whole thesis about them here: http://www.kug.ac.at/ime/downloads/WOLFSTE...wegelpfeife.pdf

Just checking...!