Buisine

Buisine or Añafil
Spanish trumpeters play the buisine or añafil. Illustration from the Cantigas de Santa Maria.
Brass instrument
Classification Brass
Hornbostel–Sachs classification423.121
(Natural trumpets – There are no means of changing the pitch apart from the player's lips; end-blown trumpets – The mouth-hole faces the axis of the trumpet.)
DevelopedDeveloped from the nafir in multiple importations to Europe. Arabs brought to Spain, and Crusaders from France and other Christian countries brought instruments home as war trophies.
Related instruments
Sound sample
Sound of the Añafil

The buisine and the añafil were variations of a type of straight medieval trumpet usually made of metal, also called a herald's trumpet. While arguably the same instrument, the two names represent two separate traditions, in which a Persian-Arabic-Turkic instrument called the Nafir entered European culture in different places and times.

The term buisine (Old French; also, busine, buysine, buzine) descends from Buccina, a Roman military horn. The horn was mainly used for military and ceremonial purposes.[1] When Europeans went to the crusades, the instrument was seen as a proper military target (in the same way a flag or pendant was), something to capture and bring home.

The term añafil descends from al-Nafir, the Persian-Arab Islamic trumpet which was used by Moorish armies in Spain, before the Crusades.[2] By the Reconquista (722–1492) when residents of the future Spain retook the Iberian Peninsula, añafil was part of the nation's language. The image that is among Europe's earliest representation of the instrument came from this tradition, in the 13th century Spanish work, the Cantigas de Santa Maria.

Cloisters Apocalypse miniature, circa 1330. An angel plays an añafil, and fire rains on the earth.
Angel from Petersboro Psalter playing a long trumpet or possibly a shawm. 1320 A.D.

The buisineañafil is precursor of today's fanfare trumpet, it had a very long and slender body, usually one to two metres in length (some were reported to have been at least six feet in length) that tapered toward the end into a slightly flared bell. It is commonly seen in paintings being played by angels and often also bearing the banner of a nobleman. As the herald's trumpet was widely used in Fanfares. These instruments would serve as a sort of timekeeper to announce events and meetings. Their long, tubed shape would allow them to hang flags and banners, which made them popular for events and ceremonies.

The term buisine is first found in the c1100 Chanson de Roland, and it was probably a general term for horns and trumpets rather than referring to a specific instrument.[3] Early trumpets were slightly curved, but the term was applied c1300 to straight trumpets imported from the Middle East during the Crusades.

The modern German word for trombone, Posaune, is a corruption of buisine by way of busaun.[4]

  1. ^ "Buisine | musical instrument | Britannica".
  2. ^ "Anafil". Catalan-Valencian-Balearic dictionary. Institute of Catalan Studies. [language Catalan:] Ells feriren en l'estol dels moros ab l'esclafit tan gran de les trompetes e anafils e botzines e crits, Tirant, cap. 403....Etim.: del persa-àrab an-nafīr 'la trompeta' [Translation: They wounded the flock of the Moors with such a great din of trumpets and anafils and horns and shouts, Tirant, ch. 403...Etym.: from Persian-Arabic an-nafīr 'the trumpet']
  3. ^ Brown, Howard Mayer (2000). "Buisine". New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
  4. ^ Bowles, E.A. (1961). "Unterscheidung der Instrumente Buisine, Cor, Trompe, und Trompette". Archiv für Musikwissenschaft. 43 (1): 52–72. doi:10.2307/930018. JSTOR 930018.