Description
The waits in England were minstrels, later called musicians, who worked for cities and towns, similar to the Stadtpfeifer on the Continent of Europe. They performed official ceremonial duties, played in the streets at night, and were available for private hire.
Waits originally played waits pipes, or shawms. During the course of the 16th and early 17th centuries the main groups also acquired most of the wind and stringed instruments of the day: cornetts and sackbuts, curtals, violins, viols, members of the lute family—and recorders. Recorders—sets or consorts or individual instruments—owned by cities and towns or the waits themselves have been be traced in documents about London (1568) and nine other places, where they were presumably used for indoor functions such as dinners, breakfasts, and weddings.
This book discusses in depth the Waits of all the cities and towns where recorders are documented: their duties, numbers, other instruments, sometimes singing and acting, hiring and firing and otherwise departing practices, pay and standard of living, occasional follies, and role in civic life. Biographies are included of all the members who played, or probably played, the recorder. Finally, there are reflections on the consorts, both pure and mixed, in which the Waits would have used recorders, and the sizes and numbers of instruments involved.
