Some decades back, when I was attending the University of Washington School of Music, I was aware that there was an early music group forming. It sounded interesting. I wished I could have got my hands on a lute and joined the group, but at the time I had no idea where I could find one.

Anyway, a friend and I were walking down a hall in the music building and we encounter a fellow carrying an instrument that looked marginally like an oboe, but it curved back on itself. As he hustled past us toward the door to one of the rehearsal halls, my friend ask him, "What kind of an instrument is that?"

The fellow glared at us and answered with a surly tone of voice, "It's a crumhorn! And no smart remarks!!" Then he disappeared through the door.

There may be a story there. . . .

Don Firth