Musette

What it means

The musette is originally a French instrument — a small bagpipe that was popular at the French court in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From this instrument the designation for a dance or movement type is derived that imitates its sound.

Characteristic is a sustained drone note in the bass, often the tonic or tonic and fifth, above which a plain, dance-like melody moves. This continuous bass imitates the drone pipes of the bagpipe. The character is rural, idyllic, and gentle.

The musette is to be distinguished from the pastorale, which likewise depicts rural scenes and often also uses drone sounds. The musette is more closely bound to the instrument and to the dance; the pastorale is a more general expressive type.

In the twentieth century the term additionally designates a style of French accordion music that has little in common with the original meaning.

In the notation

The musette is recognizable by a bass note held over many bars, often notated as a long sustained note or as a repeated note. The melody usually stands in triple or six-eight time. In the suite, the musette often appears as a trio to a gavotte.

Musical use

As a movement type, the musette belongs to French Baroque music and to the suites of that period. The fondness for rural idyll at the eighteenth-century court made the instrument and its imitation popular. In piano and orchestral suites it appears as a contrasting middle section.

The musette was a French Baroque bagpipe, popular at court. The dance of the same name imitates its drone. Typical are a sustained bass, a graceful melody in triple time, and a rural character. The instrument had two chanters and a bellows operated under the arm.

Performance practice

Keep the drone note even and soft, so that it carries without covering the melody. Play the melody plainly and in dance-like fashion. Take the tempo moderate. And think of the sound of the instrument being imitated — nasal, even, without dynamic fluctuations.