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musette (bagpipe)

The musette de cour or baroque musette was a musical instrument of the bagpipe family. Visually, the musette was characterised by the short, cylindrical shuttle-drone and the two chalumeaux. Both the chanters and the drones had a cylindrical bore and used a double reed, giving a quiet tone similar to the oboe. The instrument was blown by a bellows.

First appearing in France at the very end of the 16h century, the musette was refined over the following century. At the height of its popularity, the musette (like the hurdy-gurdy) was used not just for chamber-music but also in larger-scale compositions such as operas. After the French Revolution, the musette seems to have fallen rapidly out of favour while simpler forms of bagpipe remained popular as folk instruments.

The name musette is also that of a woodwind instrument also known as the piccolo oboe.