ABSTRACT
Chamber musicians – performers on soft instruments such as the lute, fiddle, harp and organ – produced some of the most elegant, refined music to be heard in the early fifteenth century. The discussion will make the case for the stature of chamber musicians as a group, no immovable dividing line existed to confine musicians within any single category. In France, chamber musicians were normally referred to as ‘minstrels’. The general category of soft minstrel was quite broad, both in quantitative and in qualitative terms. In quantitative terms, a considerable variety of soft instruments were available to the minstrel. The musicians who prepared the collection were familiar with a broad range of repertory and were clearly competent to deal with the notational system. Musical sources themselves, of course, never specify instruments in ensemble sources until well into the sixteenth century. The manuscript was carefully prepared by a well-informed scribe: the hand is clear and the musical versions reliable.
