The Gemsmen Renaissance Consort

Once more unto the breeches, dear friends, once more!
We’ve donned our garb to perform at Day 2 of the Oxford Renaissance Festival.
FIND THE GEMSMEN
(Hint - Look in the Vendors’ Village & listen for Medieval & Renaissance music & oddly buzzy instruments.)
10am-6pm at Thorndale Fairgrounds just NE of London, Ontario, Canada.

THIS WEEKEND - Find The Gemsmen at the Oxford Renaissance Festival at the Thorndale Fairgrounds.
Aug29&30 Sat & Sun 10am-6pm
Just NE of London, Ontario, Canada
We’ll be performing Medieval & Renaissance Music all weekend!
This is our 4th Ren Faire of the Summer & our 9th Oxford Renaissance Festival.
Oxford Renaissance Festival 🇨🇦 Oxford Renaissance Festival

THIS WEEKEND - Find The Gemsmen at the Oxford Renaissance Festival at the Thorndale Fairgrounds.
Aug29&30 Sat & Sun 10am-6pm
Just NE of London Ont Canada
We’ll be performing Medieval & Renaissance Music all weekend!
This is our 4th Ren Faire of the Summer & our 9th Oxford Renaissance Festival.
Facebook Event - The Gemsmen at OXFORD RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL in Thorndale (just NE of London, ON) Aug29&30 2026

Do or Do not. There is no Tritone.

This Tritone Day, Aug. 4th & Prosper.

UNCOMMON INSTRUMENT AWARENESS WEEK
DAY 4 - Greet the GEMSHORN
This even more obscure instrument was actually quite common, in the 15th century (& likely even earlier).
POP QUIZ - How many physical Medieval & Renaissance Gemshorns still exist?
A - Exactly one!
It was found under the floorboards of a 15th century house in Germany, has a one octave range, & is made of clay (which is why it’s still intact).
Gemshorns are usually made out of an animal’s horn, which is the reason that they haven’t survived.
Horn disintegrates, over time.
Traditionally, Gemshorns are made from the horns of Ox or Chamois (Gämse in German, a Eurasian mountain-dwelling goat-antelope, from which we used to get the soft cleaning leather (chamois)).
Our instruments are made from Kudu (soprano), Cow (alto & tenor), & Texas Longhorn (bass) horns.
And ALL of our Gemshorns were made by Gemsman Hall Train.
Who figured out how to make them from scratch!
Back in 2013, Trevor coined our consort’s name, The Gemsmen, & Hall designed our spiffy ambigram logo (which reads the same upside-down).
Gemshorns are sharply tapering, conical bore woodwind instruments, with a fipple (at the horn’s wide end) & finger holes (like a recorder).
They’re rather quiet & sound something like an ocarina, because the bottom of the instrument is closed (the horn’s point is left intact).
That’s also why they can’t be overblown & have a maximum range of a ninth.
For our first decade (2012-2022), The Gemsmen played exclusively Gemshorns.
We were the only Gemshorn Quartet in North America & released the world’s first Gemshorn Quartet album in 2021 (Puck’s Deceit, available on Spotify, etc.).
Photo (clockwise from top left) - Hall Train (tenor), Trevor Rines (bass), Dean Burry (soprano), & Chris Hoffman (alto) at the Oxford Renaissance Festival (2023 Oct14).
Photo Credit - RK photo Graf s
—> T-minus 26 days to our next performance - The Gemsmen at OXFORD RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL in Thorndale (just NE of London, ON) Aug29&30 2026
The Gemsmen Renaissance Consort
Oxford Renaissance Festival

UNCOMMON INSTRUMENT AWARENESS WEEK
DAY 3 - CORNAMUSE Musings
Q - What smells like a Crumhorn, but isn’t?
A - A Cornamuse, because it’s Crumhorn a-J-scent!
You are not a-Cornamused?
Well, we are. Very!
Photo (L to R)
- Chris Hoffman playing the large Bass version of yesterday’s Uncommon Instrument (Day 2 Crumhorn)
- Hall Train playing tomorrow’s Uncommon Instrument (Day 4 stay tuned)
- our Large Frame Drum, emblazoned with Hall’s clever ambigram Gemsmen logo
- Trevor Rines, looking quite tickled to be playing his Tenor CORNAMUSE (Day 3), & wearing the Famous Blue Raincloak
- The Sign of the Goat
- at the Wentworth Medieval Faire (2026 May24)
All Cornamusae (aye, that’s the plural) are modern guesswork, because no physical instruments or pictures of them have survived, since the Renaissance.
All that we know comes from a detailed paragraph which Michael Praetorius wrote about them, in 1619.
Mike said that they’re basically Crumhorns without the J-curve & that they sound quieter & sweeter.
And Muppetier, in some cases, we’ve discovered.
FIND THE GEMSMEN at our next Ren Faire, & ask to hear Hall’s Soprano Cornamuse, which he made himself.
We’ve dubbed the instrument “ELMO”.
You’ll hear why.
—> T-minus 27 days to our next performance - The Gemsmen at OXFORD RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL in Thorndale (just NE of London, ON) Aug29&30 2026
The Gemsmen Renaissance Consort