Alta cappella

Early 17th-century Flemish alta cappella, drawing by Denis van Alsloot. Instruments are (from left to right): a bass dulcian, an alto shawm, a treble cornett, a soprano shawm, a second alto shawm and a tenor sackbut.
A re-created wait in York

An alta cappella or alta musica (Italian), haute musique (French) or just alta was a kind of town wind band found throughout continental Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries, which typically consisted of shawms and slide trumpets or sackbuts. Waits is the British equivalent. These were not found anywhere outside of Europe.[1][2]

  1. ^ Iain Fenlon, Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua, 2 vols., Cambridge Studies in Music (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980–82):[full citation needed]:2008,[verification needed] ISBN 978-0-521-229050 (vol 1); ISBN 978-0-521-23587-7 (vol. 2) "It is not until a few years later, in 1468, that the names of the Mantuan court alta cappella, a group of four players, are recorded. From its origins as a simple band used on ceremonial occasions, this ensemble seems to have been transformed..."
  2. ^ Roy C. Strong (2002). Feast: A History of Grand Eating. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-224-06138-4. In the hall it was haute musique, itself divided between musica alta for wind bands and basse musique for soft instruments accompanied by voices.