[1] In 1892 Lord Dufferin wrote to Lord Cromer: "These institutions
were a good deal ridiculed at the time, but as it was then uncertain
how long we were going to remain, or rather how soon the Turks might
not be reinvested with their ancient supremacy, I desired to erect
some sort of barrier, however feeble, against their intolerable
tyranny." In 1906 Lord Cromer bore public testimony to the good
results of the measures adopted on Lord Dufferin's "statesmanlike
initiative." Such results were, however, only possible in consequence
of the continuance of the British occupation.
CROMER, a watering-place in the northern parliamentary division of
Norfolk, England, 139 m. N.E. by N. from London by the Great Eastern
railway; served also by the Midland and Great Northern joint line. Pop.
of urban district (1901) 3781. Standing on cliffs of considerable
elevation, the town has repeatedly suffered from ravages of the sea. A
wall and esplanade extend along the bottom of the cliffs, and there is a
fine stretch of sandy beach. There is also a short pier. The church of
St Peter and St Paul is Perpendicular (largely restored) with a lofty
tower. On a site of three acres stands the convalescent home of the
Norfolk and Norwich hospital. There is an excellent golf course. The
herring, cod, lobster and crab fisheries are prosecuted. The village of
Sheringham (pop. of urban district, 2359), lying to the west, is also
frequented by visitors. A so-called Roman camp, on an elevation
overlooking the sea, is actually a modern beacon.
CROMORNE, also CRUMHORNE[1] (Ger. _Krummhorn_; Fr. _tournebout_), a wind
instrument of wood in which a cylindrical column of air is set in
vibration by a reed. The lower extremity is turned up in a half-circle,
and from this peculiarity it has gained the French name _tournebout_.
The reed of the cromorne, like that of the bassoon, is formed by a
double tongue of cane adapted to the small end of a conical brass tube
or crook, the large end fitting into the main bore of the instrument. It
presents, however, this difference, that it is not, like that of the
bassoon, in contact with the player's lips, but is covered by a cap
pierced in the upper part with a raised slit against which the
performer's lips rest, the air being forced through the opening into the
cap and setting the reed in vibration. The reed itself is therefore not
subject to the pressure of the lips. The compass of the instrument is in
consequence limited to the simple fundamental sounds produced by the
successive opening of the lateral holes. The length of the cromornes is
inconsiderable in proportion to the deep sounds produced by them, which
arises from the fact that these instruments, like all tubes of
cylindrical bore provided with reeds, have the acoustic properties of
the stopped pipes of an organ. That is to say, theoretically they
require only half the length necessary for the open pipes of an organ or
for conical tubes provided with reeds, to produce notes of the same
pitch. Moreover, when, to obtain an harmonic, the column of air is
divided, the cromorne will not give the octave, like the oboe and
bassoon, but the twelfth, corresponding in this peculiarity with the
clarinet and all stopped pipes or bourdons. In order, however, to obtain
an harmonic on the cromorne, the cap would have to be discarded, for a
reed only overblows to give the harmonic overtones when pressed by the
lips. With the ordinary boring of eight lateral holes the cromorne
possesses a limited compass of a ninth. Sometimes, however, deeper
sounds are obtained by the addition of one or more keys. By its
construction the cromorne is one of the oldest wind instruments; it is
evidently derived from the Gr. aulos[2] and the Roman tibia, which
likewise consisted of a simple cylindrical pipe of which the air column
was set in vibration, at first by a double reed, and, we have reason to
believe, later by a single reed (see AULOS and CLARINET). The Phrygian
aulos was sometimes curved (see Tib. ii. i. 85 _Phrygio tibia curva
sono_; Virgil, _Aen._ xi. 737 _curva choros indixit tibia Bacchi_).[3]
[Illustration: Bass Tournebout.]
Notwithstanding the successive improvements that were introduced in
the manufacture of wind instruments, the cromorne scarcely ever varied
in the details of its construction. Such as we see it represented in
the treatise by Virdung[4] we find it again about the epoch of its
disappearance.[5] The cromornes existed as a complete family from the
15th century, consisting, according to Virdung, of four instruments;
Praetorius[6] cites five--the deep bass, the bass, the tenor or alto,
the cantus or soprano and the high soprano, with compass as shown. A
band, or, to use the expression of Praetorius, an "accort" of
cromornes comprised 1 deep bass, 2 bass, 3 tenor, 2 cantus, 1 high
soprano = 9.
[Illustration: Music notes.]
Mersenne[7] explains the construction of the cromorne, giving careful
illustrations of the instrument with and without the cap. From him we
learn that these instruments were made in England, where they were
played in concert in sets of four, five and six. Their scheme of
construction and especially the reed and cap is very similar to that
of the chalumeau of the musette (see BAG-PIPE), but its timbre is by
no means so pleasant. Mersenne's cromornes have ten fingerholes, Nos.
7 and 8 being duplicates for right and left-handed players. They were
probably sometimes used, as was the case with the hautbois de Poitou
(see BAG-PIPE), without the cap, when an extended compass was
required.
The cromornes were in very general use in Europe from the 14th to the
17th century, and are to be found in illustrations of pageants, as for
instance in the magnificent collection of woodcuts designed by Hans
Burgmair, a pupil of Albrecht Durer, representing the triumph of the
emperor Maximilian,[8] where a bass and a tenor Krumbhorn player
figure in the procession among countless other musicians. In the
inventory of the wardrobe, &c., belonging to Henry VIII. at
Westminster, made during the reign of Edward VI., we find eighteen
crumhornes (see British Museum, Harleian MS. 1419, ff. 202b and 205).
The cromornes did not always form an orchestra by themselves, but were
also used in concert with other instruments and notably with flutes
and oboes, as in municipal bands and in the private bands of princes.
In 1685 the orchestra of the Neue Kirche at Strassburg comprised two
tournebouts or cromornes, and until the middle of the 18th century
these instruments formed part of the court band known as "Musique de
la Grande Ecurie" in the service of the French kings. They are first
mentioned in the accounts for the year 1662, together with the
tromba-marina, although the instrument was already highly esteemed in
the 16th century. In that year five players of the cromorne were
enrolled among the musicians of the Grande Ecurie du Roi;[9] they
received a yearly salary of 120 livres, which various supplementary
allowances brought up to about 330 livres. In 1729 one of the cromorne
players sold his appointment for 4000 francs. This was a sign of the
failing popularity of the instrument. The duties of the cromorne and
tromba-marina players consisted in playing in the great
_divertissements_ and at court functions and festivals in honour of
royal marriages, births and thanksgivings.
Cromornes have become of extreme rarity and are not to be found in all
collections. The Paris Conservatoire possesses one large bass cromorne
of the 16th century, the Kgl. Hochschule fur Musik,[10] Berlin, a set
of seven, and the Ambroser Sammlung, Vienna, a cromorne in
E[flat].[11] The museum of the Conservatoire Royal de Musique at
Brussels has the good fortune to possess a complete family which is
said to have belonged to the duke of Ferrara, Alphonso II. d'Este, a
prince who reigned from 1559 to 1597. The soprano (cantus or discant)
has the same compass as above, while those of the alto, the tenor
(furnished with a key) and the bass are as shown.
[Illustration: Music notes.]
The bass (see figure), besides having two keys, is distinguished from
the others by two contrivances like small bolts, which slide in
grooves and close the two holes that give the lowest notes of the
instrument. The use of these bolts, placed at the extremity of the
tournebout and out of reach of the fingers of the instrumentalist,
renders necessary the assistance of a person whose sole mission is to
attend to them during the performance. E. van der Straeten[12]
mentions a key belonging to a large cromorne bearing the date 1537, of
which he gives a large drawing. A cromorne appears in a musical scene
with a trumpet in Hermann Finck's _Practica Musica_.[13]
The "Platerspil," of which Virdung gives a drawing, is only a kind of
cromorne. It is characterized by having, instead of a cap to cover the
reed, a spherical receiver surrounding the reed, to which the tube for
insufflation is adapted. The Platerspiel is also frequently classified
among bagpipes. In the _Cantigas di Sante Maria_,[14] a MS. of the
13th century preserved in the Escorial, Madrid, two instruments of
this type are represented. One of these has two straight, parallel
pipes, slightly conical; the other is frankly conical with wide bore
turned up at the end.
Other instruments belonging by their most important characteristics of
cylindrical bore and double reed to the same family as the cromorne,
although the bore was somewhat differently disposed, are the racket
bassoon and the sourdine or sordelline. The latter was introduced into
the orchestra by Cavaliere in his opera _Rappresentazione di anima e
di corpo_, and is described by Giudotto[15] in his edition of the
score as "Flauti overo due tibie all' antica che noi chiamiamo
sordelline," a description which tallies with what has been said above
concerning the aulos and tibia. (V. M. and K. S.)