for the 3rd of May 1495,[1] and is obviously of Spanish origin. Sackbut appears early in the 16th century.
The word sacabuche was at some time applied in Spain to the ship’s pump; and the questions naturally arise, Which came first, and Was the musical instrument named after the pump from the great resemblance in their respective actions as well as in outward form?[2] It is certainly significant that the Ital. tromba, from which sprang “trumpet” and “trombone,” means a pump as well as a trumpet and the trunk of an elephant. Even if it could be proved beyond doubt that the slide had been applied to the trumpet before the word tromba was used for it, there would still remain several difficulties to be disposed of. (1) The word trumba, trumbin, trompe, already general in the romances of the 12th and 13th centuries, was at first applied to the tubas and curved horns, probably from the similar curve of the elephant’s trunk. (2) If tromba referred to the pump, it must have been applied to the slide trumpet, and tromba da tirarsi for “sackbut” is senseless tautology. (3) The etymology given above from buk or buque, trumpet, supported by similarly compounded words in English, Scotch, Dutch, Italian, would have to be regarded as a strange but not unparalleled philological coincidence. The earliest instance yet discovered, of the use of sacabuche as a musical instrument seems to be in the 14th century.[3]
 |
| Fig. 1. |
The transformation of the busine (buccina) into the sackbut involved two or three processes, the addition of the slide being accomplished in at least two stages. It was applied first to the straight busine made in three or four sections having rings or knobs at the joints. The sliding portions or joints here doubtless served much as in our modern wood wind instruments for tuning purposes or for changing the key. The long slide, added for the purpose of obtaining a diatonic compass, denoted a further step in the evolution. When applied to the straight busine it differed materially from the slide of the sackbut or trombone, for the normal position of the instrument was with the slide fully drawn out, so that the knobs were equidistant; on the slide being gradually closed the pitch was proportionally raised in order to fill in the gaps of the first fifth by new fundamentals, upon each of which the harmonic series would be obtainable. An example of this early use of the slide is to be found in a miniature from a psalterium executed in the south of France during the 13th century, now preserved in the library of the university of Munich (MS. 24, 4to fol. 96b). Here (fig. 1) the performer is represented playing on a busine in which two of the knobs or rings denoting the joints or sections are shown touching each other. The hand 'is grasping the instrument just under the lower ring in the act of pushing it up to close the slide, as is indicated by the position of the wrist. This is the earliest indication of the existence of the slide yet found by the writer, and the instrument, although straight, is one of the earliest sackbuts. The manipulation of the slide on the long straight busine must have been exceedingly difficult, requiring not only skill, but a long arm. This led to the next step in the evolution, i.e. the bending of the tube in three parallel branches like a flattened S, an example of which, also of the 13th century, is found on some carved woo work from the abbey of Cluny.[4]
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| Fig. 2. |
The folding of the busine marks the advent of the new double slide, like a U, made to draw out and lower the pitch. This radical change did not come all at once, the intermediate step being the folding of the busine, with the old single slide, the whole S being drawn up and down, as the slide closed and opened again. This interesting development is shown (fig. 2) in a miniature by Taddeo Crivelli in the Borso Bible[5] (1450–1471). The two upper joints defined by rings are clearly drawn of larger calibre than the lower folded portion, which has been drawn out to what would approximately correspond to the third position on the trombone lowering the pitch one tone. A single slide would require to be extended about twice the distance of the double or folded tube on the trombone to produce any given effect. This drawing of the sackbut must not be taken as showing the instrument in use in Crivelli’s day; it is clearly retrospective, for sackbuts in a more advanced stage are not uncommon in works of art of the same century. In a MS.[6] preserved in the library of the Arsenal in Paris, executed for the dukes of Burgundy in the middle of the 15th century, is seen a trumpet of
the cavalry type with a single straight slide drawn out so far that the bell rests on the performer’s foot (fig. 3).
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| Fig. 3. |
The last transition immediately preceding the change into the trombone consisted in folding. the tube to form two U-shaped bends, one of which pointed downwards and the other over the shoulder, reaching to the level of the back of the head; the third branch was bent over between the other two, but in a plane almost at right angles above them, the bell extending downwards beyond the first bend. Sackbuts of this type are to be seen in Dürer’s picture in the Nuremberg town hall, and in others by artists of the 15th century, as, for instance, in Gentile Bellini’s Processione in piazza S. Marco among the band to the right of the picture.
The further history and development of, the sackbut are given under Trombone. See also Trumpet and Buccina. (K. S.)
SACKETT’S HARBOR, a village in Jefferson county, New
York, U.S.A., at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, on the south
shore of Black River Bay, about 1 m. from its mouth, and about
ro rn. W. by S. of Watertown. Pop. (1890) 787; (1900) 1266;
(1905) 903; (1910) 868. Sackett’s Harbor is served by the
New York Central & Hudson River railway. It is built on low
land, around a small, nearly enclosed harbour, the northern
shore of which is formed by Navy Point, a narrow tongue of
land extending about & m. nearly due eastward from the
mainland. About 1 m. to the W. by S. is Horse Island, approximately
14 m. long (east and west), and nearly as broad, only a
few feet above the lake level and separated from the mainland
by a. narrow strait, always fordable, and sometimes almost dry;
at its eastern end is Sackett’s Harbor Lighthouse. The harbour
is deep enough for the largest lake vessels. The village is a
summer resort. At Sackett’s Harbor are Madison Barracks,
a..United States military post, established in 1813 and including
a reservation of 99 acres; and a United States Naval Station.
In the post cemetery is the grave of General Zebulon M. Pike,
who was killed at York (now Toronto) on the 27th of April I8I'3.
The first settlement was made in 1801 by Augustus»Sackett,
and the village was incorporated in 1821. In the War of 1812
Sackett’s Harbor was an important strategic point for the
Americans, who had here a naval station, Fort Tompkins, at
the base of Navy Point, and Fort Volunteer, on the eastern side
of the harbour. In July 1812 a British squadron unsuccessfully
attempted to capture a brig and schooner in the harbour. From
Sackett’s Harbor American expeditions against York (now
Toronto) and Fort George respectively set out in April and
May 1813; though scantily garrisoned it was successfully defended
by General Jacob Brown (who had just taken command)
against an attack, on the 29th of May, of Sir George Prevost
with a squadron under Sir James Lucas Yeo. The British
losses were 259; the American 157, including Lieut.-Colonel
Electus Backus, commander of the garrison before General
Brown’s arrival. Almost all the American stores at the naval
station were destroyed to save them from the enemy. The
blockade of the harbour by Yeo was abandoned in June 1814
after the defeat of a force from the squadron sent out to capture
guns which were being brought from Oswego to Sackett’s
Harbor to equip the “ Superior,” an American vessel launched.
on the 1st of May, and a smaller vessel nearly completed.
Sackett’s Harbor was the starting-point of a force of 700 men
under a Pole named von Schultz, who in November 1838, during
the uprising in Upper Canada (Ontario) attempted to invade
Canada, was taken prisoner near Prescott, was tried at Kingston,
being defended by Sir John Macdonald, and with nine of his
followers was executed in Kingston in December.
- ↑ See W. H. Black, Sir N. H. Nicolas, etc., Excerpta historica (London, 1833), p. 102.
- ↑ This question has been thoroughly investigated by the late Professor George Case in his work on the trombone.
- ↑ See Felipe Pedrell, Organographia musical. antigua española, p. 116.
- ↑ Illustration in Du Sommerard, Les Arts au moyen âge, Atlas, p. i. ch. xii.
- ↑ See Hermann Julius Hermann, “Zur Gesch. d. Miniaturmalerei am Hofe der Este in Ferrara,” in Jahrb. d. Kunstsamml. d. allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses (Vienna, 1900), bd. xxi. pl. xiii.
- ↑ Illustration in Du Sommerard, op. cit., album, 4e série, pl. xvii.
