h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The "haut" of the hautbois (pronounced "ohboy") doesn't mean "high". In this context it means "loud". The "haut" music of shawms, trumpets etc. was played out of doors, the "basse" music, mostly strings and flutes, was much more suited to playing indoors. You can still see (and definitely HEAR) Catalan shawm bands in Barcelona, the tiple and tenora being the principal types, and the Breton bombarde, played with the biniou or bagpipe, is undergoing something of a revival.

That makes sense!

This information surely merits a footnote to sentence 3 of the Entry?

Grove (article by Philip Bate) says 'The French word 'hautbois' (high-, strong-, loud- or principal-wood) in its various spellings was applied to the smaller members of the SHAWM family, both in France and England, long before the emergence of the special type that now bears the name; these instruments had an important place in the 'loud music' of the Middle Ages.'

I've changed "high wood" to "loud wood". I've also replaced the link to Leon Goossens as the other was dead.

Grand.