Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
PSALTERY, PSALTERION
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: PRE-PYR
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:PSALTERY, PSALTERION , Or SAWTRIE (Fr. psalterion, salteire; Ger. Psalterium; Ital. salterio, istrumento di porco), an See also:ancient stringed See also:instrument twanged by fingers or plectrum, and mentioned many times in the See also:English See also:Bible; a favourite instrument also during the See also:middle ages in See also:England, See also:France and See also:Italy. It is exceedingly doubtful whether the word was ever applied during the classic See also:Greek See also:period to any individual instrument; there is, moreover, no trace in the monuments of that See also:time of the psalterion in any of the forms in which it afterwards became known during the middle ages. It is also puzzling to find no fewer than four different See also:instruments translated psalterion in the See also:Septuagint, i.e. Nebel, Psanterin, Ugab (See also:organ) and Toph (See also:Job xxi. 12). On the other See also:hand the Aramaic word Pisantir or Psanterin (See also:Dan. iii. 5, TO, 15) generally translated psalterion, and by some scholars claimed, as a See also:loan word from the Greek, corresponds to the Santir, a stringed instrument represented on See also:Assyrian monuments of the 8th See also:century B.C. (when as yet the word had not been used in Greek for a musical instrument) and still in use in See also:Persia at the See also:present See also:day by the same name. The instrument itself, moreover, a See also:dulcimer, which in its earlier forms differed from the psalterion mainly in that its strings were struck by curved sticks instead of being plucked, must in the See also:absence of contrary See also:evidence be considered as the prototype of the See also:medieval psalterion or psaltery. See also:Early medieval writers generally connect the psalterium and the See also:cithara, probably because the strings of both were set in vibration in the same manner, by plucking or twanging. The medieval psaltery consisted of a shallow See also:box-soundchest over which strings varying in number were stretched, being fastened at one See also:side to pegs and at the other to wrest pins. In the early rectangular See also:form the strings, numbering 10 or 12, were, as in the cithara, of See also:uniform length, the See also:pitch being varied by the thickness and tension of the strings. When the triangular form succeeded the rectangular, the stringing was that of the See also:harp, pitch being dependent on the length. The See also:trapeze form, clearly borrowed from the See also:oriental Kanon, and the curious See also:Italian istrumento di porco, were the latest types to survive. In these later forms the vibrating length of the strings was regulated by means of two wooden See also:bridges, converging as the strings became shorter. The psaltery was held in an upright position against the See also:chest of the performer, until, owing to the increasing number of strings, it See also:grew too cumbersome, and was placed See also:flat on a table or on the See also:knee. The See also:German See also:zither is the See also:sole See also:European survivor of the medieval psaltery. (K. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] PSALMS, BOOK OF, or PSALTER |
[next] PSAMMETICHUS (Egypt. Psammetk) |