ABSTRACT
In the archives of the chamber of finance, one finds four places with the title Hautbois et musettes de Poitou, created by King John. Michel de La Barre made his career at the court as Musicien de la chambre at the Academie Royale, and as a musician to important aristocratie figures like the Marquis de Villiers. The purpose of La Barre's letter is to inform his patron, the Marquis de Villiers, about the history of musettes and hautboys. La Barre states clearly that the old woodwinds - and especially the musette - were left to the peasants and that they were replaced at court by violins, viols, recorders, and theorboes; the only old woodwind instrument that, through adaptation, was able to survive was the hautbois. La Barre's letter is entitled 'Memoire sur les musettes et haubois'. The way La Barre describes it, this appears to be a real revolution in the fields of artistic sensibility, music and instrument making.
