SCA - West Kingdom College of Heralds | Heraldic Templates

Heraldic Templates -- Musical Instruments

The following links are to pages that contain images that you can use to help design your armory -- this set of images are for all charges that considered to be musical instruments as they are used in heraldry. Note that due to size, this will be broken down, and links at the bottom of this page (and at the top) will take you to other groups of charges. These are all listed alphabetically ...

Instructions (please read):

If you want to use this for your heraldic submission, or print it for any reason, click on the 'PDF File' link -- a new browser window will open, and you can print from there.
- If you want to use the image for your own armory submission, these should be sized to be close to the submission forms, and you can trace over them. For straight lines you might want to use a ruler to help.

Note that printing the GIF Files probably will not provide images that are the correct size for the heraldic submission forms.

The descriptions of the charges below are all taken from The Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry ...¹, and rather than having a 'footnote' for each, we have one. Note that not all of the detail in the Pictorial Dictionary has been included in the text given ...

Society heraldry accepts as charges those musical instruments known before 1600. There are a wide variety registered. In some cases the blazon makes a distinction purely for the artist's sake; there is no heraldic difference betwee, e.g., a cittern and a gittern, and it would take a medieval musicologist to tell them apart. When in doubt, it is best to be general, rather than specific: fiddle instead of viola da braccio.
In general, musical instruments are affronty by default, with the strings or fingerholes facing the viewer.

Note: These are not done yet -- the links are here to make it easier for Golem, rather than having to keep adding them ... this is a work in progress.

Bagpipe     A bagpipe is a double-reed musical instrument with a windbag that also supplies sonant force to a set of drone reeds. It's sometimes more fully blazoned a set of bagpipes. The period form has at most two drones.

        PDF File

Bell     A bell is a cup-shaped musical instrument that rings when struck. The default bell is the church bell; it is sometimes blazoned that way, and sometimes drawn in its stock (like the standard representation of the Liberty Bell). It is a period charge, dating from c.1295 in the allusive arms of Porter.
     Other types of bell include the hawk's bell, of the type found on a hawk's jesses; it is found in the arms of von Ernau, c. 1600. SCA blazons may also term it a jester's bell or a dancer's bell. Of the other types of bell in Society armory, we find the hand bell, with a handle on top; and the Oriental bell, one of their cylindrical temple bells, drawn much as a church bell but with no flare at the bottom.

        PDF File

Bow, Musical     ... the musical bow, sometimes called a psaltery bow or viol bow; as the name implies, it's used for playing stringed musical instruments. When found in armory along with such an instrument, the simple term bow is understood to mean a musical bow.
     [For the type of bow that shoots arrows, see Weapons.]

        PDF File

Drum     A drum is a musical instrument of the percussion family; it usually consists of a hollow wooden cylinder with a membrane stretched over one end. It is palewise by default, with the drumhead to chief.
     Types of drum include the dumbeg, used to accompany belly-dancers; the tabor or tambour, a wide shallow drum (played together with a flute); and the tambourine or timbrel, a tambour with cymbals mounted around the frame.

        PDF File

Flute     A flute is a musical instrument consisting of a long slender tube with a mouth hold and six finger holes. It's played by blowing transversely across the mouth hole; it is thus also blazoned a transverse flute.
     There were other types of flutes which, instead of transverse blowing h oles, had whistle mouthpieces (as did the recorder), but the unqualified term flute is a transverse flute by SCA default. The flute is shown affronty by default, with the finger holes towards the viewer; it does not seem to have a default posture.

        PDF File

Gittern     A gittern is a stringed musical instrument, the medieval predecessor of the modern guitar. Its body narrows slightly at the waist, and its flat back distinguished it from the round-backed lute. Evidently the entire instrument, body and neck, was carved from a single piece of wood. ... from Queen Mary's Psalter, a 14th Century manuscript.
     Very similar to the gittern was another medieval instrument, the cittern. Though the names and instruments were similar, they had different lines of descent; the medieval cittern tended to have the lute's pear-shaped body (though it still had the gittern's flat back).
     Both the gittern and the cittern had four strings (or courses of strings), and both were played with a plectrum. They have the same default posture in Society heraldry: affronty with the strings facing the viewer, and with neck to chief.

        PDF File

Hammer, Dulcimer     A dulcimer hammer is a slender stick with a curved striking surface, used to play the dulcimer. Though a period artifact, it does not appear to have been used in medieval armory. The handle is to base by SCA default.

        PDF File

Harp     A harp is a stringed musical instrument, with many strings stretched across an open triangular frame. As an heraldic charge, it first appears c.1400, in the arms of von Stainach. The harp was latter attributed to King David, and under the Tudors attained its present association with Ireland.
     There are many variants of harp, depending on time and palce; the most common form is the Irish harp or cloyshacke, and this may always be used if no other form has been specified in the blazon. Sometimes the shape of the forepillar is specified (e.g. carved in the shape of a woman's body), but this is purely an instruction to the artist, and carries no heraldic difference. The harp's SCA default posture is with the forepiller to dexter; a harp proper, like all wooden charges, is brown.

        PDF File

Hautbois     An hautbois or hautboy is a double-reed musical instrument, the ancestor to the modern oboe; the name means literally "high-wood". It's also called a shawm, though the later name implies a more rustic instrument; the distinctions are heraldically negligible. The hautbois is found as a charge as early as 1275.
     Like the recorder, the hautboy and shawm come in a variety of sizes and ranges (e.g. the treble shawm). Their SCA default posture is palewise, bell to base, with the fingerholes facing the viewer. Their proper coloration is brown, the color of wood.

        PDF File

Horn     A horn is an artifact, made from an animal's horn, from which it gets its name. The default horn is a musical instrument, more fully blazoned a hunting horn or bugle horn; it is found in the canting arms of Hornes c.1275. It may be shown hung on cords, or garnished in bands of another tincture; these are considered artistic license. In mundane armory, the hunting horn's default posture has changed over time; the SCA default is with bell to dexter, embowed to base.
     Another use of the horn is as a drinking vessel; this is blazoned a drinking horn. It differs from the hunting horn only in artistic details: It has no mouthpiece, and is usually not corded. Its default posture is with bell to chief.
     Of the horns with special names, the best known is the shofar, the ram's horn blown on Jewish high holidays. There is also the spiral horn, more fully blazoned a spiral hunting horn; this isn't made from animal horn at all, but from metal, and is a spiral trumpet similar to the modern French horn. As with the hunting horn, these horns have their bells to dexter by default.
     [For animal horns see Beast, Monster and Bird Parts]

        PDF File

Jew's-Harp     A jew's-harp is a musical instrument consisting of a simple frame with a vibrating central prong; it's held against the teeth to play, using the mouth has a resonating cavity. Both the instrument and its name are period; it is first seen on a sculpture in Exeter Cathedral, c.1350.

        PDF File

Krummhorn     A krummhorn is a J-shaped musical instrument, a double-reed woodwind; the mouthpiece is to chief by SCA default.

        PDF File

Lute     A lute is a stringed musical instrument, popular throughout Europe from the 13th Century onward. Its rounded back and angled pegbox distinguished it from the gittern and other stringed instruments; it had from four to six courses of strings, depending on period, and was played with a plectrum. The lute is affronty by SCA default, with the pegbox to chief.

        PDF File

Lyre     A lyre is a stringed musical instrument of the harp family, used by the ancient Greeks. It had a sound box, with two projecting arms joined by a yoke; four strings were stretched from the soundbox to the yoke.
     Similar to the lyre is the cithara, a larger and more solidly built variant, with five to eleven strings. Both the lyre and cithara have the arms pointing to chief by default.

        PDF File

Musical Note     A musical note is a written symbol, indicating pitch and duration to the performer. It is commonly represented as a lozenge or an ovoid roundel, with a vertical stem at one end. Specific types of notes may be called a fusa, a (semi)minim, or a (semi)quaver, depending on the period and the exact form. No heraldic difference is granted.

        PDF File

Panpipe     A panpipe is a musical instrument consisting of tubes of increasing lengths, bound together at the ends; it's played by blowing across the open ends. The panpipe is also known as a syrinx. The number of pipes seems to be artist's license; four or seven pipes are most common.

        PDF File

Portative Organ     A portative organ is a musical instrument, a small pipe-organ, used in processionals; it was carried at the waist on a strap, with one hand working the bellows and the other hand playing the keyboard. It was a period instrument, dating from c.1450, but does not appear to have been used in period armory. The portative organ is affronty by SCA default, with the keyboard to the viewer.

        PDF File

Psaltery     A psaltery is a stringed musical instrument, an early form of the zither, consisting of a flat sound-box with many strings stretched across it. It was introduced to Europe in the 11th Century, and there were several forms of psaltery in use. The bowed psaltery was triangular in form; it was played with a bow on the upper parts of the strings. The pig-snouted psaltery or instrumento di porco developed in the 15th Century; it was plucked with a plectrum. In either case, the strings are affronty by SCA default; when blazoned proper, the psaltery is brown, the color of wood.

        PDF File

Recorder     A recorder is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Several sizes were used, especially in the Renaissance; the alto recorder seems to be the SCA default. The recorder is shown palewise and affronty, with the fingerholes to the viewer, by default; its proper tincture is brown.

        PDF File

Sackbut     A sackbut is an S-shaped brass musical instrument, the medieval precursor of the trombone. It is palewise, bell to base by SCA default; when fesswise, the bell faces dexter.

        PDF File

Serpent     There is ... a wooden musical instrument called the Serpent (capitalized), with a long wavy form and a trumpet's mouthpiece. It should be more properly called a bass cornetto to prevent confusion with the reptile.

        PDF File

Sitar     A sitar is a musical instrument from india, similar to a lute but with a very long fretted neck; it usually has six strings. The neck is to chief by SCA default.

        PDF File

Trumpet     A trumpet is a brass musical instrument with a flared end and a blaring tone. Its default form is more fully boazoned a straight trumpet; used as an heraldic charge as early as 1285, in the canting arms of Trumpington, it has become the symbol of the SCA College of Arms.
     There is also the spiral trumpet, also called a spiral hunting horn, the precursor of the modern French horn; and the Roman tuba, also called a bucina mundanely. All these trumpets have their bells to chief by default.

        PDF File

Viol     A viol is a musical instrument, the Renaissance precursor of the violin. It had a flat back, a fretted neck, and six strings; it was played with a curved bow. It's proper tincture is brown, the color of wood. The terms vielle and fiddle are sometimes used to denote this family of instruments; these terms leave the exact details and period to the license of the artist. By whatever name, the charge can be dated to 1632, in the arms of Sweeting; it is considered compatible with Society armory.
     Similar to the viol is the rebec, a more medieval precursor; it is more pear-shaped, with a rounded back like a lute, and had three or four strings. Heraldically, it is indistinguishable from the lute.
     Both the viol and the rebec have strings to the viewer by default. The SCA default is with neck to chief, contrary to mundane default.

        PDF File

Zil     Zils are finger cymbals used by belly dancers. When borne in pairs they are arranged as worn on the dancer's fingers; in pale, the lower one inverted.

        PDF File

Zither     The zither is a stringed musical instrument, with many strings stretched over a flat shallow box. Unlike the harp, the strings were not free-standing; and unlike the lute, the zither had no neck. It could be played by strumming, plucking with a plectrum, or even hammering; the hammered duclimer was a type of zither.
     The most popular zither among modern folk musicians is the Appallacian dulcimer: a long slender soundbox, with three or four strings. This instrument is out-of-period, but there were some period instruments which looked, sounded, and were played like the Appalachian dulcimer; these include the French epinette des Vosges and the Swiss scheitholt.
     All zithers are shown with the strings facing the viewer by default; when blazoned proper, the are of brown wood. No heraldic difference is granted between the various kinds of medieval zither.

        PDF File

Footnotes:
¹ The Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry as Used in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., 2nd Edition, Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme and Akagawa Yoshio, 1992, self-published.

Disclaimer: All of these drawings are intended for use in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., specifically for heraldic purposes. However, these pages do not delineate SCA College of Arms or West Kingdom College of Heralds policy. All attempts are made when describing or portraying the elements of armory used in these pages to be as accurate to both medieval and SCA usage as possible, but if you are not sure, you should check with the College of Arms or the College of Heralds. You may use these drawings "as is" for the purpose of designing heraldry for use within the SCA with this understanding. All decisions by the West Kingdom College of Heraldry and/or the SCA's College of Arms regarding the depictions used on your submission forms supercedes anything found here.

Heraldic Templates

Bagpipe	A bagpipe is a double-reed musical instrument with a windbag that also supplies sonant force to a set of drone reeds. It's sometimes more fully blazoned a set of bagpipes. The period form has at most two drones.
		PDF File

Bell	A bell is a cup-shaped musical instrument that rings when struck. The default bell is the church bell; it is sometimes blazoned that way, and sometimes drawn in its stock (like the standard representation of the Liberty Bell). It is a period charge, dating from c.1295 in the allusive arms of Porter. Other types of bell include the hawk's bell, of the type found on a hawk's jesses; it is found in the arms of von Ernau, c. 1600. SCA blazons may also term it a jester's bell or a dancer's bell. Of the other types of bell in Society armory, we find the hand bell, with a handle on top; and the Oriental bell, one of their cylindrical temple bells, drawn much as a church bell but with no flare at the bottom.
		PDF File

Bow, Musical	... the musical bow, sometimes called a psaltery bow or viol bow; as the name implies, it's used for playing stringed musical instruments. When found in armory along with such an instrument, the simple term bow is understood to mean a musical bow. [For the type of bow that shoots arrows, see Weapons.]
		PDF File

Drum	A drum is a musical instrument of the percussion family; it usually consists of a hollow wooden cylinder with a membrane stretched over one end. It is palewise by default, with the drumhead to chief. Types of drum include the dumbeg, used to accompany belly-dancers; the tabor or tambour, a wide shallow drum (played together with a flute); and the tambourine or timbrel, a tambour with cymbals mounted around the frame.
		PDF File

Flute	A flute is a musical instrument consisting of a long slender tube with a mouth hold and six finger holes. It's played by blowing transversely across the mouth hole; it is thus also blazoned a transverse flute. There were other types of flutes which, instead of transverse blowing h oles, had whistle mouthpieces (as did the recorder), but the unqualified term flute is a transverse flute by SCA default. The flute is shown affronty by default, with the finger holes towards the viewer; it does not seem to have a default posture.
		PDF File

Gittern	A gittern is a stringed musical instrument, the medieval predecessor of the modern guitar. Its body narrows slightly at the waist, and its flat back distinguished it from the round-backed lute. Evidently the entire instrument, body and neck, was carved from a single piece of wood. ... from Queen Mary's Psalter, a 14th Century manuscript. Very similar to the gittern was another medieval instrument, the cittern. Though the names and instruments were similar, they had different lines of descent; the medieval cittern tended to have the lute's pear-shaped body (though it still had the gittern's flat back). Both the gittern and the cittern had four strings (or courses of strings), and both were played with a plectrum. They have the same default posture in Society heraldry: affronty with the strings facing the viewer, and with neck to chief.
		PDF File

Hammer, Dulcimer	A dulcimer hammer is a slender stick with a curved striking surface, used to play the dulcimer. Though a period artifact, it does not appear to have been used in medieval armory. The handle is to base by SCA default.
		PDF File

Harp	A harp is a stringed musical instrument, with many strings stretched across an open triangular frame. As an heraldic charge, it first appears c.1400, in the arms of von Stainach. The harp was latter attributed to King David, and under the Tudors attained its present association with Ireland. There are many variants of harp, depending on time and palce; the most common form is the Irish harp or cloyshacke, and this may always be used if no other form has been specified in the blazon. Sometimes the shape of the forepillar is specified (e.g. carved in the shape of a woman's body), but this is purely an instruction to the artist, and carries no heraldic difference. The harp's SCA default posture is with the forepiller to dexter; a harp proper, like all wooden charges, is brown.
		PDF File

Hautbois	An hautbois or hautboy is a double-reed musical instrument, the ancestor to the modern oboe; the name means literally "high-wood". It's also called a shawm, though the later name implies a more rustic instrument; the distinctions are heraldically negligible. The hautbois is found as a charge as early as 1275. Like the recorder, the hautboy and shawm come in a variety of sizes and ranges (e.g. the treble shawm). Their SCA default posture is palewise, bell to base, with the fingerholes facing the viewer. Their proper coloration is brown, the color of wood.
		PDF File

Horn	A horn is an artifact, made from an animal's horn, from which it gets its name. The default horn is a musical instrument, more fully blazoned a hunting horn or bugle horn; it is found in the canting arms of Hornes c.1275. It may be shown hung on cords, or garnished in bands of another tincture; these are considered artistic license. In mundane armory, the hunting horn's default posture has changed over time; the SCA default is with bell to dexter, embowed to base. Another use of the horn is as a drinking vessel; this is blazoned a drinking horn. It differs from the hunting horn only in artistic details: It has no mouthpiece, and is usually not corded. Its default posture is with bell to chief. Of the horns with special names, the best known is the shofar, the ram's horn blown on Jewish high holidays. There is also the spiral horn, more fully blazoned a spiral hunting horn; this isn't made from animal horn at all, but from metal, and is a spiral trumpet similar to the modern French horn. As with the hunting horn, these horns have their bells to dexter by default. [For animal horns see Beast, Monster and Bird Parts]
		PDF File

Jew's-Harp	A jew's-harp is a musical instrument consisting of a simple frame with a vibrating central prong; it's held against the teeth to play, using the mouth has a resonating cavity. Both the instrument and its name are period; it is first seen on a sculpture in Exeter Cathedral, c.1350.
		PDF File

Krummhorn	A krummhorn is a J-shaped musical instrument, a double-reed woodwind; the mouthpiece is to chief by SCA default.
		PDF File

Lute	A lute is a stringed musical instrument, popular throughout Europe from the 13th Century onward. Its rounded back and angled pegbox distinguished it from the gittern and other stringed instruments; it had from four to six courses of strings, depending on period, and was played with a plectrum. The lute is affronty by SCA default, with the pegbox to chief.
		PDF File

Lyre	A lyre is a stringed musical instrument of the harp family, used by the ancient Greeks. It had a sound box, with two projecting arms joined by a yoke; four strings were stretched from the soundbox to the yoke. Similar to the lyre is the cithara, a larger and more solidly built variant, with five to eleven strings. Both the lyre and cithara have the arms pointing to chief by default.
		PDF File

Musical Note	A musical note is a written symbol, indicating pitch and duration to the performer. It is commonly represented as a lozenge or an ovoid roundel, with a vertical stem at one end. Specific types of notes may be called a fusa, a (semi)minim, or a (semi)quaver, depending on the period and the exact form. No heraldic difference is granted.
		PDF File

Panpipe	A panpipe is a musical instrument consisting of tubes of increasing lengths, bound together at the ends; it's played by blowing across the open ends. The panpipe is also known as a syrinx. The number of pipes seems to be artist's license; four or seven pipes are most common.
		PDF File

Portative Organ	A portative organ is a musical instrument, a small pipe-organ, used in processionals; it was carried at the waist on a strap, with one hand working the bellows and the other hand playing the keyboard. It was a period instrument, dating from c.1450, but does not appear to have been used in period armory. The portative organ is affronty by SCA default, with the keyboard to the viewer.
		PDF File

Psaltery	A psaltery is a stringed musical instrument, an early form of the zither, consisting of a flat sound-box with many strings stretched across it. It was introduced to Europe in the 11th Century, and there were several forms of psaltery in use. The bowed psaltery was triangular in form; it was played with a bow on the upper parts of the strings. The pig-snouted psaltery or instrumento di porco developed in the 15th Century; it was plucked with a plectrum. In either case, the strings are affronty by SCA default; when blazoned proper, the psaltery is brown, the color of wood.
		PDF File

Recorder	A recorder is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Several sizes were used, especially in the Renaissance; the alto recorder seems to be the SCA default. The recorder is shown palewise and affronty, with the fingerholes to the viewer, by default; its proper tincture is brown.
		PDF File

Sackbut	A sackbut is an S-shaped brass musical instrument, the medieval precursor of the trombone. It is palewise, bell to base by SCA default; when fesswise, the bell faces dexter.
		PDF File

Serpent	There is ... a wooden musical instrument called the Serpent (capitalized), with a long wavy form and a trumpet's mouthpiece. It should be more properly called a bass cornetto to prevent confusion with the reptile.
		PDF File

Sitar	A sitar is a musical instrument from india, similar to a lute but with a very long fretted neck; it usually has six strings. The neck is to chief by SCA default.
		PDF File

Trumpet	A trumpet is a brass musical instrument with a flared end and a blaring tone. Its default form is more fully boazoned a straight trumpet; used as an heraldic charge as early as 1285, in the canting arms of Trumpington, it has become the symbol of the SCA College of Arms. There is also the spiral trumpet, also called a spiral hunting horn, the precursor of the modern French horn; and the Roman tuba, also called a bucina mundanely. All these trumpets have their bells to chief by default.
		PDF File

Viol	A viol is a musical instrument, the Renaissance precursor of the violin. It had a flat back, a fretted neck, and six strings; it was played with a curved bow. It's proper tincture is brown, the color of wood. The terms vielle and fiddle are sometimes used to denote this family of instruments; these terms leave the exact details and period to the license of the artist. By whatever name, the charge can be dated to 1632, in the arms of Sweeting; it is considered compatible with Society armory. Similar to the viol is the rebec, a more medieval precursor; it is more pear-shaped, with a rounded back like a lute, and had three or four strings. Heraldically, it is indistinguishable from the lute. Both the viol and the rebec have strings to the viewer by default. The SCA default is with neck to chief, contrary to mundane default.
		PDF File

Zil	Zils are finger cymbals used by belly dancers. When borne in pairs they are arranged as worn on the dancer's fingers; in pale, the lower one inverted.
		PDF File

Zither	The zither is a stringed musical instrument, with many strings stretched over a flat shallow box. Unlike the harp, the strings were not free-standing; and unlike the lute, the zither had no neck. It could be played by strumming, plucking with a plectrum, or even hammering; the hammered duclimer was a type of zither. The most popular zither among modern folk musicians is the Appallacian dulcimer: a long slender soundbox, with three or four strings. This instrument is out-of-period, but there were some period instruments which looked, sounded, and were played like the Appalachian dulcimer; these include the French epinette des Vosges and the Swiss scheitholt. All zithers are shown with the strings facing the viewer by default; when blazoned proper, the are of brown wood. No heraldic difference is granted between the various kinds of medieval zither.
		PDF File