[painting of middle ages musicians, narrator speaking:] Instruments of the Middle Ages included drums and a predecessor of the bagpipe often used by peasants to accompany dances. The organ was widely used in church services. Brass and wind instruments were played during ceremonies at court.

[painting of angels playing various instruments] Artists at the time often portrayed music as a gift from Heaven. The angels in this painting are performing on the principle instruments of the decade. This is a psaltery mentioned in the Bible. Which is a plucked instruments similar to a modern zither. On the right is a lute, a relative of the guitar. Two lutes are being played in this piece. On the left is the one stringed tromba marina, which has no modern counterpart. A medieval trumpet of either brass or wood is on the left, and on the right the shawm, a double reed instrument. It’s ancestor was the Greek alos, it’s modern descendant the oboe. This medieval dance is played by four shawms accompanied by a drum. The angel on the left is playing a buisine, an ancestor of our trombone. Without a slide it could play only a few notes. The other angel has a trumpet. This humorous piece is performed by two shawms, two buisines, and a trumpet. [music] This angel is operating the bellows of a portable organ with the left hand, while the right fingers one or two notes at a time. The harp remained much like the Egyptian harp of 2,000 years earlier. Next to it is the fiedel, the small bowed instrument that eventually developed into the viola, and later into the violin.