CARL ENGEL (continued 2)

The sârinda, or Bengal fiddle (Fig. 14a), another of the few bowed instruments of India, consists of a hollow wooden body, usually decorated with carving, a curious parchment belly covering only the lower half of the body, and three strings either of gut or silk.

The Hindus divided their musical scale into several intervals smaller than our modern semitones. They adopted twenty-two intervals called s’ruti in the compass of an octave, which may therefore be compared to our chromatic intervals. As the frets of the vina are movable the performer can easily regulate them according to the scale, or mode, which he requires for his music.

The harp has long been obsolete. If some Hindu drawings of it can be relied upon, it had at an early time a triangular frame and was in construction as well as in shape and size almost identical with the Assyrian harp.

The Hindus claim to have invented the violin bow. They maintain that the ravanastra, one of their old instruments played with the bow, was invented about 5,000 years ago by Ravana, a mighty king of Ceylon. However this may be, 51 there is a great probability that the fiddle-bow originated in Hindustan; because Sanskrit scholars inform us that there are names for it in works which cannot be less than from 1,500 to 2,000 years old. The non-occurrence of any instrument played with a bow on the monuments of the nations of antiquity is by no means so sure a proof as has generally been supposed, that the bow was unknown. The fiddle in its primitive condition must have been a poor contrivance. It probably was despised by players who could produce better tones with greater facility by twanging the strings with their fingers, or with a plectrum. Thus it may have remained through many centuries without experiencing any material improvement. It must also be borne in mind that the monuments transmitted to us chiefly represent historical events, religious ceremonies, and royal entertainments. On such occasions instruments of a certain kind only were used, and these we find represented; while others, which may have been even more common, never occur. In 2,000 years’ time people will possibly maintain that some highly perfected instrument popular with them was entirely unknown to us, because it is at present in so primitive a condition that no one hardly notices it.

"What the ravanastra, or râbanastra, was like is rather doubtful, but at the present time there exists in Ceylon a primitive instrument played with a bow, called vinavah, which has two strings of different kinds, one made of a species of flax, and the other of horsehair, which is the material also of the string of the bow…. The hollow part of this instrument is half a cocoa-nut shell polished, covered with the dried skin of a lizard, and perforated below.” (Day, p. 102.)

This instrument again is almost identical with the Chinese fiddle called ur-heen, which also has two strings, and a body consisting of a small block of wood, hollowed out and covered 52 with the skin of a serpent. The ur-heen has not been mentioned among the most ancient instruments of the Chinese, since there is no evidence of its having been known in China before the introduction of the Buddhist religion into that country. From indications, which to point out would lead too far here, it would appear that several instruments found in China originated in Hindustan. They seem to have been gradually diffused from Hindustan and Thibet, more or less altered in the course of time, through the East as far as Japan.

Another curious Hindu instrument, probably of very high antiquity, is the pungi, or jinagovi, also called toumrie and magoudi. It consists of a gourd or of the cuddos nut, hollowed, into which two reed-pipes are inserted. The pungi therefore, somewhat resembles in appearance a bagpipe. It is generally used by the saperá or snake-charmer, who plays upon it when exhibiting the antics of the cobra. The name magoudi, given in certain districts to this instrument, rather tends to corroborate the opinion of some musical historians that the magadis of the ancient Greeks was a sort of double-pipe, or bagpipe.

Many instruments of Hindustan are known by different names in different districts, and there are many varieties. On the whole, the Hindus possess about fifty instruments. To describe them properly would fill a volume. Some, which are in the Museum, will be found well described and illustrated in the previously mentioned work by the late Major C. R. Day, which, in addition to affording much valuable information to the student and collector, contains a lengthy bibliography of Indian music and musical instruments.

The Persians and Arabs.

Of the musical instruments of the ancient Persians, before the Christian era, scarcely anything is known. It may be 53 surmised that they closely resembled those of the Assyrians, and probably also those of the Hebrews.

The harp, chang, in olden time a favourite instrument of the Persians, has gradually fallen into desuetude. A small harp is represented in the celebrated sculptures which exist on a stupendous rock, called Tak-i-Bostan, in the vicinity of the town of Kermanshah. These sculptures are said to have been executed during the lifetime of the Persian monarch Chosroes II. (591-628). They form the ornaments of two lofty arches, and consist of representations of field sports and aquatic amusements. In one of the boats is seated a man in an ornamental dress, with a halo round his head, who is receiving an arrow from one of his attendants; while a female, who is sitting near him, plays on a Trigonon. Towards the top of the bas-relief is represented a stage, on which are performers on small straight trumpets and little hand drums; six harpers; and four other musicians, apparently females—​the first of whom plays a flute; the second, a sort of Pandean pipe; the third, an instrument which is too much defaced to be recognisable; and the fourth, a bagpipe. Two harps of a peculiar shape were copied by Sir Gore Ousely from Persian manuscripts about four hundred years old, resembling, in the principle on which they are constructed, all other oriental harps. There existed evidently various kinds of the chang. It may be remarked here that the instrument tschenk (or chang) in use at the present day in Persia, is more like a dulcimer than a harp. The Arabs adopted the harp from the Persians, and called it junk.

The Persians appear to have adopted, at an early period, smaller musical intervals than semitones. When the Arabs conquered Persia (A.D. 641) the Persians had already attained a higher degree of civilisation than their conquerors. The latter found in Persia the cultivation of music considerably 54 in advance of their own, and the musical instruments superior also. They soon adopted the Persian instruments, and there can be no doubt that the musical system exhibited by the earliest Arab writers whose works on the theory of music have been preserved was based upon an older system of the Persians. In these works the octave is divided in seventeen one-third-tones—​intervals which are still made use of in the East. Some of the Arabian instruments are constructed so as to enable the performer to produce the intervals with exactness. The frets on the lute and tamboura, for instance, are regulated with a view to this object.

The Arabs had to some extent become acquainted with many of the Persian instruments before the time of their conquest of Persia. An Arab musician of the name of Nadr Ben el-Hares Ben Kelde is recorded as having been sent to the Persian King Chosroes II., in the sixth century, for the purpose of learning Persian singing and performing on the lute. Through him, it is said, the lute was brought to Mekka. Saib Chatir, the son of a Persian, is spoken of as the first performer on the lute in Medina, A.D. 682; and of an Arab lutist, Ebn Soreidsch from Mekka, A.D. 683, it is especially mentioned that he played in the Persian style; evidently the superior one. The lute, el-ood, had before the tenth century only four strings, or four pairs producing four tones, each tone having two strings tuned in unison. About the tenth century a string for a fifth tone was added. The strings were made of silk neatly twisted. The neck of the instrument was provided with frets of string, which were carefully regulated according to the system of seventeen intervals in the compass of an octave before mentioned. Other favourite stringed instruments were the tamboura, a kind of lute with a long neck, and the quanūn, a kind of dulcimer strung with lamb’s gut strings (generally three in unison for each tone) and played upon with two little plectra which the performer had fastened to his fingers. The quanūn is likewise still in use in countries inhabited by Muhammadans. The Persian santir, the prototype of our dulcimer, is mounted with wire strings and played with two slightly curved sticks. The musician depicted in the left-hand corner of Fig. 15c is playing a santir.

Fig. 15.—a. Kemángeii, Sitâra or Fiddle. Persian. About 1800. No. 939-’73. L. 36½ in.; diam. 8 in. b. Nuy (Flute). Persian. 19th century. L. 17⅜ in. No. 959-’86. c. Santir (Dulcimer) Case. Persian. L. 33 in.; W. 11½ in. No. 779-’76. Victoria and Albert Museum.

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Al-Farabi, one of the earliest Arabian musical theorists known, who lived in the beginning of the tenth century, does not allude to the fiddle-bow. This is noteworthy inasmuch as it seems in some measure to support the opinion maintained by some historians that the bow originated in England or Wales. Unfortunately we possess no exact descriptions of the Persian and Arabian instruments between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, otherwise we should probably have earlier accounts of some instrument of the violin kind in Persia. Ash-shakandi, who lived in Spain about A.D. 1200, mentions the rabôb, which may have been in use for centuries without having been thought worthy of notice on account of its rudeness. Persian writers of the fourteenth century speak of two instruments of the violin class, viz., the rabôb and the kemángeh. As regards the kemángeh, the Arabs themselves assert that they obtained it from Persia, and their statement appears all the more worthy of belief from the fact that both names, rabôb and kemángeh, are originally Persian.

The nuy, a flute (Fig. 15b), and the surnai, a species of oboe, are still popular in the East.

The sitâra is a Persian three stringed instrument with a wooden body and a parchment belly (Fig. 15a).

The Arabs must have been indefatigable constructors of musical instruments. Kiesewetter gives a list of above two hundred names of Arabian instruments, and this does not include many known to us through Spanish historians. 56 A careful investigation of the musical instruments of the Arabs during their sojourn in Spain is particularly interesting to the student of mediæval music, inasmuch as it reveals the Eastern origin of many instruments which are generally regarded as European inventions. Introduced into Spain by the Saracens and the Moors they were gradually diffused towards northern Europe. The English, for instance, adopted not only the Moorish dance (morris dance) but also the kuitra (gittern), the el-ood (lute), the rabôb (rebec), the naḳḳárah (naker), and several others. In an old Cornish sacred drama, supposed to date from the fourteenth century, we have in an enumeration of musical instruments the nakrys, designating “kettle-drums.” It must be remembered that the Cornish language, which has now become obsolete, was nearly akin to the Welsh. Indeed, names of musical instruments derived from the Moors in Spain occur in almost every European language.

Not a few fanciful stories are traditionally preserved among the Arabs testifying to the wonderful effects they ascribed to the power of their instrumental performances. One example will suffice. Al-Farabi had acquired his proficiency in Spain, in one of the schools at Cordova which flourished as early as towards the end of the ninth century, and his reputation became so great that ultimately it extended to Asia. The mighty Caliph of Bagdad himself desired to hear the celebrated musician, and sent messengers to Spain with instructions to offer rich presents to him and to convey him to the court. But Al-Farabi feared that if he went he should be retained in Asia, and should never again see the home to which he felt deeply attached. At last he resolved to disguise himself, and ventured to undertake the journey which promised him a rich harvest. Dressed in a mean costume, he made his appearance at the court 57 just at the time when the caliph was being entertained with his daily concert. Al-Farabi, unknown to everyone, was permitted to exhibit his skill on the lute. Scarcely had he commenced his performance in a certain musical mode when he set all his audience laughing aloud, notwithstanding the efforts of the courtiers to suppress so unbecoming an exhibition of mirth in the royal presence. In truth, even the caliph himself was compelled to burst out into a fit of laughter. Presently the performer changed to another mode, and the effect was that immediately all his hearers began to sigh, and soon tears of sadness replaced the previous tears of mirth. Again he played in another mode, which excited his audience to such a rage that they would have fought each other if he, seeing the danger, had not directly gone over to an appeasing mode. After this wonderful exhibition of his skill Al-Farabi concluded in a mode which had the effect of making his listeners fall into a profound sleep, during which he took his departure.

It will be seen that this incident is almost identical with one recorded as having happened about twelve hundred years earlier at the court of Alexander the Great, and which forms the subject of Dryden’s “Alexander’s Feast.” The distinguished flutist Timotheus successively aroused and subdued different passions by changing the musical modes during his performance, exactly in the same way as did Al-Farabi.

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VI.

AMERICAN INDIAN.

If the preserved antiquities of the American Indians, dating from a period anterior to our discovery of the western hemisphere, possess an extraordinary interest because they afford trustworthy evidence of the degree of progress which the aborigines had attained in the cultivation of the arts and in their social condition before they came in contact with Europeans, it must be admitted that the ancient musical instruments of the American Indians are also worthy of examination. Several of them are constructed in a manner which, in some degree, reveals the characteristics of the musical system prevalent among the people who used the instruments. And although most of these interesting relics, which have been obtained from tombs and other hiding-places, may not be of great antiquity, it has been satisfactorily ascertained that they are genuine contrivances of the Indians before they were influenced by European civilisation.

Some account of these relics is therefore likely to prove of interest also to the ethnologist, especially as several facts may perhaps be found of assistance in elucidating the still unsolved problem as to the probable original connection of the American with Asiatic races.

Among the instruments of the Aztecs in Mexico and of the Peruvians none have been found so frequently, and have been preserved in their former condition so unaltered, as pipes and flutes. They are generally made of pottery or of bone, substances which are unsuitable for the construction 59 of most other instruments, but which are remarkably well qualified to withstand the decaying influence of time. There is, therefore, no reason to conclude from the frequent occurrence of such instruments that they were more common than other kinds of which specimens have rarely been discovered.

Fig. 16.—Pottery Whistles. Ancient Mexican. British Museum.

The Mexicans possessed a small whistle formed of baked clay, a considerable number of which have been found. Some specimens (Fig. 16) are singularly grotesque in shape, representing caricatures of the human face and figure, birds, beasts, and flowers. Some were provided at the top with a finger-hole which, when closed, altered the pitch of the sound, so that two different tones were producible on the instrument. Others had a little ball of baked clay lying loose inside the air-chamber. When the instrument was blown the current of air set the ball in a vibrating motion, 60 thereby causing a shrill and whirring sound. A similar contrivance is sometimes made use of by Englishmen for conveying signals. The Mexican whistle most likely served principally the same purpose, but it may possibly have been used also in musical entertainments. In the Russian horn band each musician is restricted to a single tone; and similar combinations of performers—​only, of course, much more rude—​have been witnessed by travellers among some tribes in Africa and America.

Rather more complete than the above specimens are some of the whistles and small pipes which have been found in graves of the Indians of Chiriqui in Central America.

The pipe of the Aztecs, which is called by the Mexican Spaniards pito, somewhat resembled our flageolet: the material was a reddish pottery, and it was provided with four linger holes. Although among about half a dozen specimens which the writer has examined some are considerably larger than others, they all have, singularly enough, the same pitch of sound. The smallest is about six inches in length, and the largest about nine inches. Several pitos have been found in a remarkably well-preserved condition. They are easy to blow, and their order of intervals is in conformity with the pentatonic scale, thus: The usual shape of the pito is that here represented (Fig. 17a & c). A specimen of a less common shape, is given in Fig. 17b. They are all in the British Museum. Indications suggestive of the popular estimation in which the flute (or perhaps, more strictly speaking, the pipe) was held by the Aztecs are not wanting. It was played in religious observances, and we find it referred to allegorically in orations delivered on solemn occasions. For instance, at the religious festival which was held in honour of Tezcatlepoca—​a divinity depicted as a handsome youth, and considered second only to the supreme being—​a young man was sacrificed who, in preparation for the ceremony, had been instructed in the art of playing the flute. Twenty days before his death four young girls, named after the principal goddesses, were given to him as companions; and when the hour arrived in which he was to be sacrificed he observed the established symbolical rite of breaking a flute on each of the steps, as he ascended the temple.

Fig. 17.—Pitos (flageolets of pottery). a. and c. Ancient Mexican. b. From the Island of Sacrificios. British Museum.

Fig. 18.—Bone Flutes. Ancient Peruvian. a. and b. Truxillo. c. Lima. British Museum.

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Again, at the public ceremonies which took place on the accession of a prince to the throne the new monarch addressed a prayer to the god, in which occurred the following allegorical expression:—​"I am thy flute; reveal to me thy will; breathe into me thy breath like into a flute, as thou hast done to my predecessors on the throne. As thou hast opened their eyes, their ears, and their mouth to utter what is good, so likewise do to me. I resign myself entirely to thy guidance.” Similar sentences occur in the orations addressed to the monarch. In reading them one can hardly fail to be reminded of Hamlet’s reflections addressed to Guildenstern, when the servile courtier expresses his inability to “govern the ventages” of the pipe and to make the instrument “discourse most eloquent music,” which the prince bids him to do.

M. de Castelnau, in his “Expédition dans l’Amérique,” gives among the illustrations of objects discovered in ancient Peruvian tombs a flute made of a human bone. It has four finger holes at its upper surface and appears to have been blown into at one end. Two bone flutes (Figs. 18b & c), in appearance similar to the engraving given by M. de Castelnau, which have been disinterred at Truxillo, are deposited in the British Museum. They are about six inches in length, and each is provided with five finger holes. One of these has all the 62 holes at its upper side, and one of the holes is considerably smaller than the rest. The specimen which we illustrate (Fig. 18a) is ornamented with some simple designs in black.

The other has four holes at its upper side and one underneath, the latter being placed near to the end at which the instrument evidently was blown. In the aperture of this end some remains of a hardened paste, or resinous substance, are still preserved. This substance probably was inserted for the purpose of narrowing the end of the tube, in order to facilitate the producing of the sounds. The same contrivance is still resorted to in the construction of the bone flutes by some Indian tribes in Guiana. The bones of slain enemies appear to have been considered especially appropriate for such flutes. The Araucanians having killed a prisoner, made flutes of his bones, and danced and “thundered out their dreadful war songs, accompanied by the mournful sounds of these horrid instruments.” Alonso de Ovalle says of the Indians in Chili: “Their flutes, which they play upon in their dances, are made of the bones of the Spaniards and other enemies whom they have overcome in war. This they do by way of triumph and glory for their victory. They make them likewise of bones of animals; but the warriors dance only to the flutes made of their enemies.” The Mexicans and Peruvians obviously possessed a great variety of pipes and flutes, some of which are still in use among certain Indian tribes. Those which were found in the famous ruins at Palenque are deposited in the museum in Mexico. They are:—​The cuyvi, a pipe on which only five tones were producible; the huayllaca, a sort of flageolet; the pincullu, a flute; and the chayna, which is described as “a flute whose lugubrious and melancholy tones filled the heart with indescribable sadness, and brought involuntary tears into the eyes.” It was perhaps a kind of oboe.

63 The Peruvians had the syrinx, which they called huayra-puhura. Some clue to the proper meaning of this name may perhaps be gathered from the word huayra, which signifies “air.” The huayra-puhura was made of cane, and also of stone. Sometimes an embroidery of needlework was attached to it as an ornament. One specimen which has been disinterred is adorned with twelve figures precisely resembling Maltese crosses. The cross is a figure which may readily be supposed to suggest itself very naturally; and it is therefore not so surprising, as it may appear at a first glance, that the American Indians used it not unfrequently in designs and sculptures before they came in contact with Christians.

The British Museum possesses a huayra-puhura consisting of fourteen reed pipes of a brownish colour, tied together in two rows by means of thread, so as to form a double set of seven reeds. Both sets are almost exactly of the same dimensions and are placed side by side. The shortest of these reeds measure three inches, and the longest six and a half. In one set they are open at the bottom, and in the other they are closed. Consequently octaves are produced. The reader is probably aware that the closing of a pipe at the end raises its pitch an octave. Thus, in our organ, the so-called stopped diapason, a set of closed pipes, requires tubes of only half the length of those which constitute the open diapason, although both these stops produce tones in the same pitch; the only difference between them being the quality of sound, which in the former is less bright than in the latter.

The tones yielded by the huayra-puhura in question are as follows: The highest octave is indistinct, owing to some injury done to the shortest tubes; 64 but sufficient evidence remains to show that the intervals were purposely arranged according to the pentatonic scale. This interesting relic was brought to light from a tomb at Arica.

Another huayra-puhura (Fig. 19), likewise still yielding sounds, was discovered placed over a corpse in a Peruvian tomb, and was procured by the French general, Paroissien. This instrument is made of soapstone, and contains eight pipes. It now belongs to the Rev. Canon J. H. Rawdon.[4] In the Museum may be seen a good plaster cast taken from this curious relic. The height is five and three-quarter inches, and its width six and a quarter inches. Four of the tubes have small lateral finger-holes, which, when closed, lower the pitch a semitone. These holes are on the second, fourth, six, and seventh pipe, as shown in the engraving. When the holes are open, the tones are: and when they are closed: The other tubes have unalterable tones. The following notation exhibits all the tones producible on the instrument:

Fig. 19.—Huayra-puhura, discovered in a Peruvian tomb. The property of the Rev. Canon Rawdon.

The musician is likely to speculate what could have induced 65 the Peruvians to adopt so strange a series of intervals: it seems rather arbitrary than premeditated.

If (and this seems not to be improbable) the Peruvians considered those tones which are produced by closing the lateral holes as additional intervals only, a variety of scales or kinds of modes may have been contrived by the admission of one or other of these tones among the essential ones. If we may conjecture from some remarks of Garcilasso de la Vega, and other historians, the Peruvians appear to have used different orders of intervals for different kinds of tunes, in a way similar to what we find to be the case with certain Asiatic nations. We are told, for instance, “Each poem, or song, had its appropriate tune, and they could not put two different songs to one tune; and this was why the enamoured gallant, making music at night on his flute, with the tune which belonged to it, told the lady and all the world the joy or sorrow of his soul, the favour or ill-will which he possessed; so that it might be said that he spoke by the flute.” Thus also the Hindus have certain tunes for certain seasons and fixed occasions, and likewise a number of different modes or scales used for particular kinds of songs.

Fig. 20. Wooden Trumpet, used by Indians near the Orinoco.

Trumpets are often mentioned by writers who have recorded the manners and customs of the Indians at the time of the discovery of America. There are, however, scarcely any illustrations to be 66 relied on of these instruments transmitted to us. The Conch was frequently used as a trumpet for conveying signals in war.

Fig. 21.—Juruparis, with and without cover, used by Indians on the Rio Haupés. In the Museum at Kew Gardens.

Fig. 20 represents a kind of trumpet made of wood, and nearly seven feet in length, which Gumilla found among the Indians in the vicinity of the Orinoco. It somewhat resembles the juruparis (Fig. 21), a mysterious instrument of the Indians on the Rio Haupés, a tributary of the Rio Negro, South America. The juruparis is regarded as an object of great veneration. Women are never permitted to see it. So stringent is this law that any woman obtaining a sight of it is put to death—​usually by poison. No youths are allowed to see it until they have been subjected to a series of initiatory fastings and scourgings. The juruparis is usually kept hidden in the bed of some stream, deep in the forest; and no one dares to drink out of that sanctified stream, or to bathe in its water. At feasts the juruparis is brought out during the night, and is blown outside the houses of entertainment. The inner portion of the instrument consists of a tube made of slips of the Paxiaba palm (Triartea exorrhiza). When the Indians are about to use the instrument they nearly close the upper end of the tube with clay, and also tie above the oblong 67 square hole (shown in the engraving) a portion of the leaf of the Uaruma, one of the arrow-root family. Round the tube are wrapped long strips of the tough bark of the Jébaru (Parivoa grandiflora). This covering descends in folds below the tube. The length of the instrument is from four to five feet. The illustration (Fig. 21), which exhibits the juruparis with its cover and without it, has been taken from a specimen in the museum at Kew gardens. The mysteries connected with this trumpet are evidently founded on an old tradition from prehistoric Indian ancestors. Jurupari means “demon"; and with several Indian tribes on the Amazon customs and ceremonies still prevail in honour of Jurupari.

The Caroados, an Indian tribe in Brazil, have a war trumpet which closely resembles the juruparis. With this people it is the custom for the chief to give on his war trumpet the signal for battle, and to continue blowing as long as he wishes the battle to last. The trumpet is made of wood, and its sound is described by travellers as very deep but rather pleasant. The sound is easily produced, and its continuance does not require much exertion; but a peculiar vibration of the lips is necessary which requires practice. Another trumpet, the turé, is common with many Indian tribes on the Amazon who use it chiefly in war. It is made of a long and thick bamboo, and there is a split reed in the mouthpiece. It therefore partakes rather of the character of an oboe or clarinet. Its tone is described as loud and harsh. The turé is especially used by the sentinels of predatory hordes, who, mounted on a lofty tree, give the signal of attack to their comrades.

Again, the aborigines in Mexico had a curious contrivance of this kind, the acocotl, now more usually called clarin. The former word is its old Indian name, and the latter appears to have been first given to the instrument by the Spaniards. The 68 acocotl consists of a very thin tube from eight to ten feet in length, and generally not quite straight but with some irregular curves. This tube, which is often not thicker than a couple of inches in diameter, terminates at one end in a sort of bell, and has at the other end a small mouthpiece resembling in shape that of a clarinet. The tube is made of the dry stalk of a plant which is common in Mexico, and which likewise the Indians call acocotl. The most singular characteristic of the instrument is that the performer does not blow into it, but inhales the air through it; or rather, he produces the sound by sucking the mouthpiece. It is said to require strong lungs to perform on the acocotl effectively according to Indian notions of taste.

Fig. 22.—Botuto, used by Indians near the Orinoco.

The botuto, which Gumilla saw used by some tribes near the 69 river Orinoco (Fig. 22), was evidently an ancient Indian contrivance, but appears to have fallen almost into oblivion during the last two centuries. It was made of baked clay and was commonly from three to four feet long; but some trumpets of this kind were of enormous size. The botuto with two bellies was usually made thicker than that with three bellies and emitted a deeper sound, which is described as having been really terrific. These trumpets were used on occasions of mourning and funeral dances. Alexander von Humboldt saw the botuto among some Indian tribes near the river Orinoco.

Besides those which have been noticed, other antique wind instruments of the Indians are mentioned by historians; but the descriptions given of them are too superficial to convey a distinct notion as to their form and purport. Several of these barbarous contrivances scarcely deserve to be classed with musical instruments. This may, for instance, be said of certain musical jars or earthen vessels producing sounds, which the Peruvians constructed for their amusement. These vessels were made double; and the sounds imitated the cries of animals or birds. A similar contrivance of the Indians in Chili, preserved in the museum at Santiago, is described by the traveller S. S. Hill as follows:—​"It consists of two earthen vessels in the form of our india-rubber bottles, but somewhat larger, with a flat tube from four to six inches in length, uniting their necks near the top and slightly curved upwards, and with a small hole on the upper side one third of the length of the tube from one side of the necks. To produce the sounds the bottles were filled with water and suspended to the bough of a tree, or to a beam, by a string attached to the middle of the curved tube, and then swung backwards and forwards in such a manner as to cause each end to be alternately the highest and lowest, so that the water might pass backwards 70 and forwards from one bottle to the other through the tube between them. By this means soothing sounds were produced which, it is said, were employed to lull to repose the drowsy chiefs who usually slept away the hottest hours of the day. In the meantime, as the bottles were porous, the water within them diminished by evaporation, and the sound died gradually away."

As regards instruments of percussion, a kind of drum deserves special notice on account of the ingenuity evinced in its construction. The Mexicans called it teponaztli. They generally made it of a single block of very hard wood, somewhat oblong square in shape, which they hollowed, leaving at each end a solid piece about three or four inches in thickness, and at its upper side a kind of sound-board about a quarter of an inch in thickness. In this sound-board, if it may be called so, they made three incisions; namely, two running parallel some distance lengthwise of the drum, and a third running across from one of these to the other just in the centre. By this means they obtained two vibrating tongues of wood which, when beaten with a stick, produced sounds as clearly defined as are those of our kettle drums. By making one of the tongues thinner than the other they ensured two different sounds, the pitch of which they were enabled to regulate by shaving off more or less of the wood. The bottom of the drum they cut almost entirely open. The traveller, M. Nebel, was told by archæologists in Mexico that these instruments always contained the interval of a third, but on examining several specimens which he saw in museums he found some in which the two sounds stood towards each other in the relation of a fourth; while in others they constituted a fifth, in others a sixth, and in some even an octave. This is noteworthy in so far as it points to a conformity with our diatonic series of intervals, excepting the seventh.

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The teponaztli was generally carved with various fanciful and ingenious designs. It was beaten with two drumsticks covered at the end with an elastic gum, called ule, which was obtained from the milky juice extracted from the ule-tree. Some of these drums were small enough to be carried on a string or strap suspended round the neck of the player; others, again, measured upwards of 5 feet in length, and their sound was so powerful that it could be heard at a distance of three miles. In some rare instances a specimen of the teponaztli is still preserved by the Indians in Mexico, especially among tribes who have been comparatively but little affected by intercourse with their European aggressors. Herr Heller saw such an instrument in the hands of the Indians of Huatusco—​a village near Mirador in the Tierra Templada, or temperate region, occupying the slopes of the Cordilleras. Its sound is described as so very loud as to be distinctly audible at an incredibly great distance. This circumstance, which has been noticed by several travellers, may perhaps be owing in some measure to the condition of the atmosphere in Mexico.

Instruments of percussion constructed on a principle more or less similar to the teponaztli were in use in several other parts of America, as well as in Mexico.

The largest kind of Mexican teponaztli appears to have been generally of a cylindrical shape. Clavigero gives a drawing of such an instrument. Drums, also constructed of skin or parchment in combination with wood were not unknown to the Indians. Of this description was, for instance, the huehuetl of the Aztecs in Mexico, which consisted, according to Clavigero, of a wooden cylinder somewhat above 3 feet in height, curiously carved and painted and covered at the top with carefully prepared deer-skin. And, what appears the most remarkable, the parchment (we are told) could be tightened 72 or slackened by means of cords in nearly the same way as with our own drum. The huehuetl was not beaten with drumsticks but merely struck with the fingers, and much dexterity was required to strike it in the proper manner. Oviedo states that the Indians in Cuba had drums which were stretched with human skin. And Bernal Diaz relates that when he was with Cortés in Mexico they ascended together the Teocalli ("House of God"), a large temple in which human sacrifices were offered by the aborigines; and there the Spanish visitors saw a large drum which was made, Diaz tells us, with skins of great serpents. This “hellish instrument,” as he calls it, produced, when struck, a doleful sound which was so loud that it could be heard at a distance of two leagues.

The name of the Peruvian drum was huanca; they had also an instrument of percussion, called chhilchiles, which appears to have been a sort of tambourine.

The rattle was likewise popular with the Indians before the discovery of America. The Mexicans called it ajacaxtli. In construction it was similar to the rattle at the present day commonly used by the Indians. It was oval or round in shape, and appears to have been usually made of a gourd into which holes were pierced, and to which a wooden handle was affixed. A number of little pebbles were enclosed in the hollowed gourd. They were also made of pottery. The little balls in the ajacaxtli of pottery, enclosed as they are, may at a first glance appear a puzzle. Probably, when the rattle was being formed they were attached to the inside as slightly as possible; and after the clay had been baked they were detached by means of an implement passed through the holes.

The Tezcucans (or Acolhuans) belonged to the same race as the Aztecs, whom they greatly surpassed in knowledge and 73 social refinement. Nezahualcoyotl, a wise monarch of the Tezcucans, abhorred human sacrifices, and erected a large temple which he dedicated to “The unknown god, the cause of causes.” This edifice had a tower nine storeys high, on the top of which were placed a number of musical instruments of various kinds which were used to summon the worshippers to prayer. Respecting these instruments especial mention is made of a sonorous metal which was struck with a mallet. This is stated in a historical essay written by Ixtlilxochitl, a native of Mexico and of royal descent, who lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and who may be supposed to have been familiar with the musical practices of his countrymen. But whether the sonorous metal alluded to was a gong or a bell is not clear from the vague record transmitted to us. That the bell was known to the Peruvians appears to be no longer doubtful, since a small copper specimen has been found in one of the old Peruvian tombs. This interesting relic is now deposited in the museum at Lima. M. de Castelnau has published a drawing of it. The Peruvians called their bells chanrares; but it remains questionable whether this name did not designate rather the so-called horse bells, which were certainly known to the Mexicans, who called them yotl. It is noteworthy that these yotl are found figured in the picture-writings representing the various objects which the Aztecs used to pay as tribute to their sovereigns. The collection of Mexican antiquities in the British Museum contains a cluster of yotl-bells. Being nearly round, they closely resemble the Schellen which the Germans are in the habit of affixing to their horses, particularly in the winter when they are driving their noiseless sledges.

Again, in South America sonorous stones are not unknown, and were used in olden time for musical purposes. The traveller G. T. Vigne saw among the Indian antiquities preserved 74 in the town of Cuzco, in Peru, “a musical instrument of green sonorous stone, about a foot long, and an inch and a half wide, flat-sided, pointed at both ends, and arched at the back, where it was about a quarter of an inch thick, whence it diminished to an edge, like the blade of a knife…. In the middle of the back was a small hole, through which a piece of string was passed; and when suspended and struck by any hard substance a singularly musical note was produced.” Humboldt mentions the Amazon-stone, which on being struck by a hard substance yields a metallic sound. It was formerly cut by the American Indians into very thin plates, perforated in the centre and suspended by a string. These plates were remarkably sonorous. This kind of stone is not, as might be conjectured from its name, found exclusively near the Amazon. The name was given to it as well as to the river by the first European visitors to America, in allusion to the female warriors respecting whom strange stories are told. The natives pretending, according to an ancient tradition, that the stone came from the country of “Women without husbands,” or “Women living alone."

As regards the ancient stringed instruments of the American Indians our information is indeed but scanty. Clavigero says that the Mexicans were entirely unacquainted with stringed instruments; a statement the correctness of which is questionable, considering the stage of civilisation to which these people had attained. At any rate, we generally find one or other kind of such instruments with nations whose intellectual progress and social condition are decidedly inferior. The Aztecs had many claims to the character of a civilised community and (as before said) the Tezcucans were even more advanced in the cultivation of the arts and sciences than the Aztecs. “The best histories,” Prescott observes, “the best poems, the best code of laws, the purest dialect, were all 75 allowed to be Tezcucan. The Aztecs rivalled their neighbours in splendour of living, and even in the magnificence of their structures. They displayed a pomp and ostentatious pageantry, truly Asiatic.” Unfortunately historians are sometimes not sufficiently discerning in their communications respecting musical questions. J. Ranking, in describing the grandeur of the establishment maintained by Montezuma, says that during the repasts of this monarch “there was music of fiddle, flute, snail-shell, a kettle-drum, and other strange instruments.” But as this waiter does not indicate the source whence he drew his information respecting Montezuma’s orchestra including the fiddle, the assertion deserves scarcely a passing notice.

The Peruvians possessed a stringed instrument, called tinya, which was provided with five or seven strings. To conjecture from the unsatisfactory account of it transmitted to us, the tinya appears to have been a kind of guitar. Considering the fragility of the materials of which such instruments are generally constructed, it is perhaps not surprising that we do not meet with any specimens of them in the museums of American antiquities.

A few remarks will not be out of place here referring to the musical performances of the ancient Indians, since an acquaintance with the nature of the performances is likely to afford additional assistance in appreciating the characteristics of the instruments. In Peru, where the military system was carefully organised, each division of the army had its trumpeters, called cqueppacamayo, and its drummers, called huancarcamayo. When the Inca returned with his troops victorious from battle his first act was to repair to the temple of the Sun in order to offer up thanksgiving; and after the conclusion of this ceremony the people celebrated the event with festivities, of which music and dancing constituted a 76 principal part. Musical performances appear to have been considered indispensable on occasions of public celebrations; and frequent mention is made of them by historians who have described the festivals annually observed by the Peruvians.

About the month of October the Peruvians celebrated a solemn feast in honour of the dead, at which ceremony they executed lugubrious songs and plaintive instrumental music. Compositions of a similar character were performed on occasion of the decease of a monarch. As soon as it was made known to the people that their Inca had been “called home to the mansions of his father the sun” they prepared to celebrate his obsequies with becoming solemnity. Prescott, in his graphic description of these observances, says: “At stated intervals, for a year, the people assembled to renew the expressions of their sorrow; processions were made displaying the banner of the departed monarch; bards and minstrels were appointed to chronicle his achievements, and their songs continued to be rehearsed at high festivals in the presence of the reigning monarch—​thus stimulating the living by the glorious example of the dead.” The Peruvians had also particular agricultural songs, which they were in the habit of singing while engaged in tilling the lands of the Inca; a duty which devolved upon the whole nation. The subject of these songs, or rather hymns, referred especially to the noble deeds and glorious achievements of the Inca and his dynasty. While thus singing, the labourers regulated their work to the rhythm of the music, thereby ensuring a pleasant excitement and a stimulant in their occupation, like soldiers regulating their steps to the music of the military band. These hymns pleased the Spanish invaders so greatly that they not only adopted several of them but also composed some in a similar form and style. This appears, however, to have been the case rather with the poetry than with the music.

77 The name of the Peruvian elegiac songs was haravi. Some tunes of these songs, pronounced to be genuine specimens, have been published in recent works; but their genuineness is questionable. At all events they must have been much tampered with, as they exhibit exactly the form of the Spanish bolero. Even allowing that the melodies of these compositions have been derived from Peruvian harivaris, it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty how much in them has been retained of the original tunes, and how much has been supplied besides the harmony, which is entirely an addition of the European arranger. The Peruvians had minstrels, called haravecs (i.e., “inventors"), whose occupation it was to compose and to recite the haravis.

The Mexicans possessed a class of songs which served as a record of historical events. Furthermore they had war-songs, love-songs, and other secular vocal compositions, as well as sacred chants, in the practice of which boys were instructed by the priests in order that they might assist in the musical performances of the temple. It appertained to the office of the priests to burn incense, and to perform music in the temple at stated times of the day. The commencement of the religious observances which took place regularly at sunrise, at mid-day, at sunset, and at midnight, was announced by signals blown on trumpets and pipes. Persons of high position retained in their service professional musicians whose duty it was to compose ballads, and to perform vocal music with instrumental accompaniment. The nobles themselves, and occasionally even the monarch, not infrequently delighted in composing ballads and odes.

Especially to be noticed is the institution termed “Council of music,” which the wise monarch Nezahualcoyotl founded in Tezcuco. This institution was not intended exclusively for promoting the cultivation of music; its aim comprised the 78 advancement of various arts, and of sciences such as history, astronomy, etc. In fact, it was an academy for general education. Probably no better evidence could be cited testifying to the remarkable intellectual attainments of the Mexican Indians before the discovery of America than this council of music. Although in some respects it appears to have resembled the board of music of the Chinese, it was planned on a more enlightened and more comprehensive principle. The Chinese “board of music,” called Yoh Pu, is an office connected with the Li Pu or “board of rites,” established by the imperial government at Peking. The principal object of the board of rites is to regulate the ceremonies on occasions of sacrifices offered to the gods; of festivals and certain court solemnities; of military reviews; of presentations, congratulations, marriages, deaths, burials—​in short, concerning almost every possible event in social and public life.

The reader is probably aware that in one of the various hypotheses which have been advanced respecting the Asiatic origin of the American Indians China is assigned to them as their ancient home. Some historians suppose them to be emigrants from Mongolia, Thibet, or Hindustan; others maintain that they are the offspring of Phœnician colonists who settled in Central America. Even more curious are the arguments of certain inquirers who have no doubt whatever that the ancestors of the American Indians were the lost ten tribes of Israel, of whom since about the time of the Babylonian captivity history is silent. Whatever may be thought as to which particular one of these speculations hits the truth, they certainly have all proved useful, in so far as they have made ethnologists more exactly acquainted with the habits and predilections of the American aborigines than would otherwise have been the case. For, as the advocates of each 79 hypothesis have carefully collected and adduced every evidence they were able to obtain tending to support their views, the result is that (so to say) no stone has been left unturned. Nevertheless, any such hints as suggest themselves from an examination of musical instruments have hitherto remained unheeded. It may therefore perhaps interest the reader to have his attention drawn to a few suggestive similarities occurring between instruments of the American Indians and of certain nations inhabiting the eastern hemisphere.

We have seen that the Mexican pipe and the Peruvian syrinx were purposely constructed so as to produce the intervals of the pentatonic scale only. There are some additional indications of this scale having been at one time in use with the American Indians. For instance, the music of the Peruvian dance cachua is described as having been very similar to some Scotch national dances; and the most conspicuous characteristics of the Scotch tunes are occasioned by the frequently exclusive employment of intervals appertaining to the pentatonic scale. We find precisely the same series of intervals adopted on certain Chinese instruments, and evidences are not wanting of the pentatonic scale having been popular among various races in Asia at a remote period. The series of intervals appertaining to the Chiriqui pipe, mentioned on p. 60, consisted of a semitone and two whole tones, like the tetrachord of the ancient Greeks.

In the Peruvian huayra-puhura made of soapstone some of the pipes possess lateral holes. This contrivance, which is rather unusual, occurs on the Chinese shêng. The chayna, mentioned on p. 62, seems to have been provided with a reed, like the oboe: and in Hindustan we find a species of oboe called shehna. The turé of the Indian tribes on the Amazon, mentioned on p. 67, reminds us of the trumpets turi, or tuturi, of the Hindus. The name appears to have been known also to 80 the Arabs; but there is no indication whatever of its having been transmitted to the peninsula by the Moors, and afterwards to South America by the Portuguese and Spaniards.

The wooden tongues in the drum teponaztli may be considered as a contrivance exclusively of the ancient American Indians. Nevertheless a construction nearly akin to it may be observed in certain drums of the Tonga and Fiji islanders, and of the natives of some islands in Torres Strait. Likewise some negro tribes in Western and Central Africa have certain instruments of percussion which are constructed on a principle somewhat reminding us of the teponaztli. The method of bracing the drum by means of cords, as exhibited in the huehuetl of the Mexican Indians, is evidently of very high antiquity in the East. It was known to the ancient Egyptians.

Rattles, Pandean pipes made of reed, and conch trumpets, are found almost all over the world, wherever the materials of which they are constructed are easily obtainable. Still, it may be noteworthy that the Mexicans employed the conch trumpet in their religious observances apparently in much the same way as it is used in the Buddhist worship of the Tibetans and Kalmuks.

As regards the sonorous metal in the great temple at Tezcuco some inquirers are sure that it was a gong: but it must be borne in mind that these inquirers detect everywhere traces proving an invasion of the Mongols, which they maintain to have happened about six hundred years ago. Had they been acquainted with the little Peruvian bell they would have had more tangible musical evidence in support of their theory than the supposed gong; for this bell certainly bears a suggestive resemblance to the little hand-bell which the Buddhists use in their religious ceremonies.

The Peruvians interpolated certain songs, especially those which they were in the habit of singing while cultivating 81 the fields, with the word hailli which signified “Triumph.” As the subject of these compositions was principally the glorification of the Inca, the burden hailli is perhaps all the more likely to remind Europeans of the Hebrew hallelujah. Moreover, Adair, who lived among the Indians of North America during a period of about forty years, speaks of some other words which he found used as burdens in hymns sung on solemn occasions, and which appeared to him to correspond with certain Hebrew words of a sacred import.

As regards the musical accomplishments of the Indian tribes at the present day they are far below the standard which we have found among their ancestors. A period of three hundred years of oppression has evidently had the effect of subduing the melodious expressions of happiness and contentedness which in former times appear to have been quite as prevalent with the Indians as they generally are with independent and flourishing nations. The innate talent for music evinced by those of the North American Indians who were converted to Christianity soon after the emigration of the Puritans to New England is very favourably commented on by some old writers. In the year 1661 John Elliot published a translation of the psalms into Indian verse. The singing of these metrical psalms by the Indian converts in their places of worship appears to have been actually superior to the sacred vocal performances of their Christian brethren from Europe; for we find it described by several witnesses as “excellent” and “most ravishing.

In other parts of America the priests from Spain did not neglect to turn to account the susceptibility of the Indians for music. Thus, in central America the Dominicans composed as early as in the middle of the sixteenth century a sacred poem in the Guatemalian dialect containing a narrative of the most important events recorded in the Bible. This 82 production they sang to the natives, and to enhance the effect they accompanied the singing with musical instruments. The alluring music soon captivated the heart of a powerful cazique, who was thus induced to adopt the doctrines embodied in the composition, and to diffuse them among his subjects, who likewise delighted in the performances. In Peru a similar experiment, resorted to by the priests who accompanied Pizarro’s expedition, proved equally successful. They dramatised certain scenes in the life of Christ and represented them with music, which so greatly fascinated the Indians that many of them readily embraced the new faith. Nor are these entertainments dispensed with even at the present day by the Indian Christians, especially in the village churches of the Sierra in Peru; and as several religious ceremonies have been retained by these people from their heathen forefathers, it may be conjectured that their sacred musical performances also retain much of their ancient heathen character.

Most of the musical instruments found among the American Indians at the present day are evidently genuine old Indian contrivances as they existed long before the discovery of America. Take, for example, the peculiarly-shaped rattles, drums, flutes, and whistles of the North American Indians, of which some specimens in the Museum are described in the large catalogue. A few African instruments, introduced by the negro slaves, are now occasionally found in the hands of the Indians, and have been by some travellers erroneously described as genuine Indian inventions. This is the case with the African marimba, which has become rather popular with the natives of Guatemala in central America; but such adaptations are very easily discernible.

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VII.

EUROPEAN INSTRUMENTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

Many representations of musical instruments of the middle ages have been preserved in manuscripts, as well as in sculptures and paintings forming ornamental portions of churches and other buildings. Valuable facts and hints are obtainable from these evidences, provided they are judiciously selected and carefully examined. The subject is, however, so large that only a few observations on the most interesting instruments can be offered here. Unfortunately there still prevails much uncertainty respecting several of the earliest representations as to the precise century from which they date, and there is reason to believe that in some instances the archæological zeal of musical investigators has assigned a higher antiquity to such discoveries than can be satisfactorily proved.

It appears certain that the most ancient European instruments known to us were in form and construction more like the Asiatic than was the case with later ones. Before a nation has attained to a fairly high degree of civilisation its progress in the cultivation of music, as an art, is very slow indeed. The instruments found at the present day in Asia are scarcely superior to those which were in use among oriental nations about three thousand years ago. It is, therefore, perhaps not surprising that no material improvement is perceptible in the construction of the instruments of European countries during the lapse of nearly a thousand years. True, 84 evidences to be relied on referring to the first five or six centuries of the Christian era are but scanty; although indications are not wanting which may help the reflecting musician.

There are some early monuments of Christian art dating from the fourth century in which the lyre is represented. In one of them Christ is depicted as Apollo touching the lyre. This instrument occurs at an early period in western Europe as used in popular pastimes. In an Anglo-Saxon manuscript of the ninth century in the British Museum (Cleopatra C. VIII.) are the figures of two gleemen, one playing the lyre and the other a double-pipe. M. de Coussemaker has published in the “Annales Archéologiques” the figure of a crowned personage playing the lyre, which he found in a manuscript of the ninth or tenth century in the library at Angers. The player twangs the strings with his fingers, while the Anglo-Saxon gleeman before mentioned uses a plectrum.

Fig. 23.—Cithara. From a 9th century MS. formerly in the monastery of St. Blasius in the Black Forest.

Cithara was a name applied to several stringed instruments greatly varying in form, power of sound, and compass. The illustration (Fig. 23) represents a cithara from a manuscript of the ninth century, formerly in the library of the great monastery of St. Blasius in the Black Forest. When in the year 1768 the monastery was destroyed by fire, this valuable book perished in the flames; fortunately the celebrated Abbot Gerbert possessed tracings of the illustrations, which were saved from destruction. He published them, in the year 1774, in his work “De cantu et musica sacra.” As the older works on music were generally written in Latin we do not learn from them the popular names of the instruments; the writers 85 merely adopted such Latin names as they thought the most appropriate. Thus, for instance, a very simple stringed instrument of a triangular shape, and a somewhat similar one of a square shape (Fig. 24), were designated by the name of psalterium.

Fig. 24.—Psalterium. From a MS. of the 9th century, formerly in the monastery of St. Blasius in the Black Forest.

Fig. 25.—Cithara. From a MS. of the 9th century, formerly in the monastery of St. Blasius in the Black Forest.

The cithara here illustrated (Fig. 25) is evidently an improvement 86 upon the triangular psalterium (Fig. 26), because it has a sort of small sound-board at the top. Scarcely better, with regard to acoustics, appears to have been the instrument designated as nablum, which is engraved (Fig. 27) from a manuscript of the ninth century at Angers.

Fig. 26.—King Playing Psaltery. After an engraving in N. X. Willemin’s Monuments Français Inédits, Vol. I., pl. 19, taken from Hortus Deliciarum, a MS. of the 12th century.

Fig. 27.—Nablum. From a 9th century MS. at Angers.

Fig. 28.—Female playing a species of Citole. From a 9th century MS. formerly in the monastery of St. Blasius, in the Black Forest.

A small psalterium with strings placed over a sound-board was apparently the prototype of the citole, a kind of dulcimer which was played with the fingers (Fig. 28). The names were not only often vaguely applied by the mediæval writers, but they changed also in almost every century. The psalterium, or psalterion (Italian salterio, English psaltery), of the fourteenth century and later had the trapezium shape of the dulcimer.

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Fig. 29.—Harp. From a 9th century MS. formerly in the monastery of St. Blasius in the Black Forest.

The Anglo-Saxons frequently accompanied their vocal effusions with a harp, more or less triangular in shape, an instrument which may be considered rather as constituting the transition of the lyre into the harp. The harp was especially popular in central and northern Europe, and was the favourite instrument of the German and Celtic bards and of the Scandinavian skalds. In the next illustration (Fig. 29) from the manuscript of the monastery of St. Blasius twelve strings and two sound-holes are given to it. A harp similar in form and size, but without the 88 front pillar, was known to the ancient Egyptians. Perhaps the addition was also non-existent in the earliest specimens appertaining to European nations; and a sculptured figure of a small harp constructed like the ancient eastern harp has been discovered in the old church of Ullard in the county of Kilkenny. This curious relic, which is said to date from a period anterior to the year 800, is illustrated in Bunting’s “Ancient Music of Ireland.” As Bunting was the first who drew attention to this sculpture his account of it may interest the reader. “The drawing,” he says, “is taken from one of the ornamental compartments of a sculptured cross, at the old church of Ullard. From the style of the workmanship, as well as from the worn condition of the cross, it seems older than the similar monument at Monasterboice which is known to have been set up before the year 830. The sculpture is rude; the circular rim which binds the arms of the cross together is not pierced in the quadrants, and many of the figures originally in relievo are now wholly abraded. It is difficult to determine whether the number of strings represented is six or seven; but, as has been already remarked, accuracy in this respect cannot be expected either in sculptures or in many picturesque drawings.” The Finns had a harp (harpu, kantele) with a similar frame, devoid of a front pillar, still in use until the commencement of the last century.

One of the most interesting stringed instruments of the middle ages is the rotta (German, Rotte; English, rote). It was sounded by twanging the strings, and also by the application of the bow. The first method was, of course, the elder one. There can hardly be a doubt that when the bow came into use it was applied to certain popular instruments which previously had been treated like the cithara or the psalterium. The Hindus at the present day use their suroda sometimes as a lute and sometimes as a fiddle. In some measure we do the 89 same with the violin by playing occasionally pizzicato. The rotta from the manuscript of St. Blasius is called in Gerbert’s work cithara teutonica, while the harp is called cithara anglica; from which it would appear that the former was regarded as pre-eminently a German instrument. Possibly its name may have been originally chrotta and the continental nations may have adopted it from the Celtic races of the British isles, dropping the guttural sound. This hypothesis is, however, one of those which have been advanced by some musical historians without any satisfactory evidence.

In the rotta the ancient Asiatic lyre is easily to be recognized. An illumination of king David playing the rotta forms the frontispiece of a manuscript of the eighth century preserved in the cathedral library of Durham; it is musically interesting inasmuch as it represents a rotta of an oblong square shape like that just noticed and resembling the Welsh crwth. It has only five strings which the performer twangs with his fingers. Again, a very interesting representation of the Psalmist with a kind of rotta occurs in a manuscript of the tenth century, in the British Museum (Vitellius F.XI.). The manuscript was much injured by a fire in the year 1731; but Professor Westwood has succeeded, with great care, and with the aid of a magnifying glass, in making out the lines of the figure. As it has been ascertained that the psalter is written in the Irish semiuncial character it is highly probable that the kind of rotta represents the Irish cionar cruit, which was played by twanging the strings and also by the application of a bow. Unfortunately we possess no well-authenticated representation of the Welsh crwth of an early period; otherwise we should in all probability find it played with the fingers, or with a plectrum. Venantius Fortunatus, an Italian who lived in the second half of the sixth century, mentions in a poem the “Chrotta Britanna.” 90 He does not, however, allude to the bow, and there is no reason to suppose that it existed in England. Howbeit, the Welsh crwth (Anglo-Saxon, crudh; English, crowd) is only known as a species of fiddle closely resembling the rotta, but having a fingerboard in the middle of the open frame and being strung with only a few strings; while the rotta had sometimes above twenty strings. As it may interest the reader to examine the form of the modern crwth we give an illustration of it (Fig. 30). Edward Jones, in his “Musical and poetical relicks of the Welsh bards,” records that the Welsh had before this kind of crwth a three-stringed one called “Crwth Trithant,” which was, he says, “a sort of violin, or more properly a rebeck.” The three-stringed crwth was chiefly used by the inferior class of bards; and was probably the Moorish fiddle which is still the favourite instrument of the itinerant bards of the Bretons in France, who call it rébek. The Bretons, it will be remembered, are close kinsmen of the Welsh.

A player on the crwth or crowd (a crowder) from a bas-relief on the under part of the seats of the choir in Worcester cathedral dates from the latter part of the fourteenth century.[5] It was probably identical with the rotta of the same century on the continent.

Fig. 30.—Crwth. Welsh. 13th century. L. 22 in., W. 9½ in. No. 175-’82. Victoria and Albert Museum.

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An interesting drawing of an Anglo-Saxon fiddle—​or fithele, as it was called—​is given in a manuscript of the eleventh century in the British Museum (Cotton, Tiberius, c. 6). The instrument is of a pear shape, with four strings, and the bridge is not indicated. A German fiddle of the ninth century, called lyra, copied by Gerbert from the manuscripts of St. Blasius, has only one string. Other records of the employment of the fiddle-bow in Germany in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are not wanting. For instance, in the famous “Nibelungenlied” Volker is described as wielding the fiddle-bow not less dexterously than the sword. And in “Chronicon picturatum Brunswicense” of the year 1203, the following miraculous sign is recorded as having occurred in the village of Ossemer: “On Wednesday in Whitsunweek, while the parson was fiddling to his peasants who were dancing, there came a flash of lightning and struck the parson’s arm which held the fiddle-bow, and killed twenty-four people on the spot."

Among the oldest representations of performers on instruments of the violin kind found in England those deserve to be noticed which are painted on the interior of the roof of Peterborough Cathedral. They are said to date from the twelfth century. One of these figures is particularly interesting on account of the surprising resemblance which his instrument bears to our present violin. Not only the incurvations on the sides of the body but also the two sound-holes are nearly identical in shape with those made at the present day. Respecting the reliance to be placed on such evidence, it is necessary to state that the roof, originally constructed between the years 1177 and 1194, was thoroughly repaired in the year 1835. Although we find it asserted that “the greatest care was taken to retain every part, or to restore it to its original state, so that the figures, even where retouched, are in effect the same as when first painted,” it nevertheless remains a debatable question whether the restorers have not admitted some slight alterations, and have thereby somewhat modernised the appearance of the instruments. A slight touch with the brush at the sound-holes, the screws, or the curvatures would suffice to produce modifications which might to the artist appear as being only a renovation of the original representation, but which to the musical investigator greatly impair the value of the evidence. Sculptures are, therefore, more to be relied upon in evidence than frescoes.

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VIII.

EUROPEAN INSTRUMENTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

(Continued.)

The construction of the organistrum (Fig. 31) requires but little explanation. A glance at the finger-board reveals at once that the different tones were obtained by raising the keys placed on the neck under the strings, and that the keys were raised by means of the handles at the side of the neck. Of the two bridges shown on the body, the one situated nearest the middle was formed by a wheel in the inside, which projected through the sound-board. The wheel which slightly touched the strings vibrated them by friction when turned by the handle at the end. The order of intervals was c, d, e, f, g, a, b-flat, b-natural, c, and were obtainable on the highest string. There is reason to suppose that the other two strings were generally tuned a fifth and an octave below the highest. The organistrum may be regarded as the predecessor of the hurdy-gurdy, and was rather a cumbrous contrivance. Two persons seem to have been required to sound it, one to turn the handle and the other to manage the keys. Thus it is generally represented in mediæval concerts.

The monochord was mounted with a single string stretched over two bridges which were fixed on an oblong box. The string could be tightened or slackened by means of a turning screw inserted into one end of the box. The intervals of the scale were marked on the side, and were regulated by a sort of movable bridge placed beneath the string when required. As might be expected, the monochord was chiefly used by theorists; for any musical performance it was but little 93 suitable. About a thousand years ago when this monochord was in use the musical scale was diatonic, with the exception of the interval of the seventh, which was chromatic inasmuch as both b-flat and b-natural formed part of the scale.

This ought to be borne in mind in examining the representations of musical instruments transmitted to us from that period.

As regards the wind instruments popular during the Middle Ages, some were of quaint form as well as of rude construction.

Fig. 31.—Organistrum.

The chorus, or choron, had either one or two tubes. There were several varieties of this instrument; sometimes it was constructed with a bladder into which the tube is inserted; this kind of chorus resembled the bagpipe; another kind resembled the pungi of the Hindus, mentioned on page 52. The name chorus was also applied to certain stringed instruments. One of these had much the 94 form of the cithara, page 84. It appears, however, probable that chorus or choron originally designated a horn (Hebrew, keren; Greek, keras; Latin, cornu).

The flutes of the Middle Ages were blown at the end, like the flageolet. Of the syrinx there are extant some illustrations of the ninth and tenth centuries, which exhibit the instrument with a number of tubes tied together, just like the Pandean pipe still in use. In one specimen,[6] from a manuscript of the eleventh century, the tubes were inserted into a bowl-shaped box. This is probably the frestele, fretel, or fretian, which in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was in favour with the French ménétriers.

Some large Anglo-Saxon trumpets may be seen in a manuscript of the eighth century in the British Museum. The largest kind of trumpet was placed on a stand when blown. Of the oliphant, or hunting horn, some fine specimens are in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection. The sackbut (Fig. 32), probably made of metal, could be drawn out to alter the pitch of sound. The sackbut of the ninth century had, however, a very different shape to that in use about three centuries ago, and much more resembled the present trombone. The name sackbut is supposed to be a corruption of sambuca. The French, about the fifteenth century, called it sacqueboute and saquebutte.

Fig. 32.—Sackbut.

The most important wind instrument—​in fact, the king of all the musical instruments—​is the organ.

Fig. 33.—Organ. From a 12th century psalter in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge.

The pneumatic organ is sculptured on the base of an obelisk Fig. 33.—Organ. From a 12th century psalter in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge.] 95 which was erected in Constantinople under Theodosius the Great towards the end of the fourth century. The bellows were pressed by men standing on them. This interesting monument also exhibits performers on the double flute. The hydraulic organ, which is recorded to have been already known about two hundred years before the Christian era, was according to some statements occasionally employed in churches during the earlier centuries of the Middle Ages. Probably it was more frequently heard in secular entertainments, for which it was more suitable; and at the beginning of the fourteenth century it appears to have been entirely supplanted by the pneumatic organ. The earliest organs had only about a dozen pipes. The largest, which were made about nine hundred years ago, had only three octaves, in which the chromatic intervals did not occur. Some progress in the construction of the organ is shewn in a psalter of Eadwine, in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Fig. 33). The instrument has ten pipes, or perhaps fourteen, as four of them appear to be double pipes. 96 It required four men exerting all their power to produce the necessary wind, and two men to play the instrument. Moreover, both players seem also to be busily engaged in directing the blowers about the proper supply of wind. Six men and only fourteen pipes!

Another illustration is given of an organ of the 14th century (Fig. 34).

Fig. 34.—Organ (Grand Orgue), after an engraving in N. X. Willemin’s Monuments Français Inédits, Vol. I., pl. 133, taken from a psalter of the 14th century.

The pedal is generally believed to have been invented by Bernhard, a German, who lived in Venice about the year 1470. There are, however, indications extant pointing to an earlier date of its invention. Perhaps Bernhard was the first who, by adopting a more practicable construction, made the pedal more generally known. On the earliest organs the keys of the finger-board were of enormous size, compared with those of the present day; so that a finger-board with only nine keys had a breadth of from four to five feet. The organist struck the keys down with his fist, as is done in playing the carillon still in use on the Continent, of which presently some account will be given.

Of the little portable organ, known as the regal or regals, often tastefully shaped and embellished, some interesting sculptured representations are still extant in the old ecclesiastical edifices of England and Scotland. There is, for instance, 97 in Beverley Minster a figure of a man playing on a single regal, or a regal provided with only one set of pipes; and in Melrose Abbey the figure of an angel holding in his arms a double regal, the pipes of which are in two sets. The regal generally had keys like those of the organ but smaller. A painting in the National Gallery, attributed to Melozzo da Forlì (1438-1494) contains a regal which has keys of a peculiar shape, rather resembling the pistons of certain brass instruments. (Fig. 1, Frontispiece.) To avoid misapprehension, it is necessary to mention that the name regal (or regals, rigols) was also applied to an instrument of percussion with sonorous slabs of wood. This contrivance was, in short, a kind of harmonica, resembling in shape as well as in the principle of its construction the little glass harmonica, a mere toy, in which slips of glass are arranged according to our musical scale. In England it appears to have been still known in the beginning of the eighteenth century. Grassineau describes the “Rigols” as “a kind of musical instrument consisting of several sticks bound together, only separated by beads. It makes a tolerable harmony, being well struck with a ball at the end of a stick.” In the earlier centuries of the Middle Ages there appear to have been some instruments of percussion in favour, to which Grassineau’s expression “a tolerable harmony” would scarcely have been applicable. Drums, of course, were known; and their rhythmical noise must have been soft music, compared with the shrill sounds of the cymbalum (a contrivance consisting of a number of metal plates suspended on cords, so that they would be clashed together simultaneously) or with the clangour of the cymbalum constructed with bells instead of plates; or with the piercing noise of the bunibulum, or bombulom; an instrument which consisted of an angular frame to which were loosely attached metal plates of various shapes and sizes. The lower part of the frame constituted the 98 handle; and to produce the noise it evidently was shaken somewhat like the sistrum of the ancient Egyptians.[7]

The triangle nearly resembled the instrument of this name in use at the present day; it was more elegant in shape and had some metal ornamentation in the middle.

The tintinnabulum consisted of a number of bells arranged in regular order and suspended in a frame.

Fig. 35.—Bas relief, representing a group of Musicians, formerly at the Abbey of St. Georges de Boscherville. Late 11th century(?). After an engraving in N.N. Willemin’s Monuments Français Inédits, Vol. I., pl. 52. Museum of Rouen.

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IX.

EUROPEAN INSTRUMENTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

(Continued).

Respecting the orchestras, or musical bands, represented on monuments of the Middle Ages, there can hardly be a doubt that the artists who sculptured them were not unfrequently led by their imagination rather than by an adherence to actual fact. It is, however, not likely that they introduced into such representations instruments that were never admitted in the orchestras, and which would have appeared inappropriate to the contemporaries of the artists. An examination of one or two of the orchestras may therefore find a place here, especially as they throw some additional light upon the characteristics of the instrumental music of mediæval time.

A very interesting group of music performers, dating, it is said, from the end of the eleventh century, is preserved in a bas-relief which formerly ornamented the abbey of St. Georges de Boscherville and which is now removed to the museum of Rouen (Fig. 35). The orchestra comprises twelve performers, most of whom wear a crown. The first of them plays upon a viol, which he holds between his knees as the violoncello is held. His instrument is scarcely as large as the smallest viola da gamba. By his side are a royal lady and her attendant, the former playing on an organistrum of which the latter is turning the wheel. Next to these is represented a performer on a syrinx; and next to him a performer on a stringed instrument resembling a lute, which, however, is too much dilapidated to be recognisable. Then we have a musician 100 with a small stringed instrument resembling the nablum (see p. 86). The next musician, also represented as a royal personage, plays on a small species of harp. Then follows a crowned musician playing the viol which he holds in almost precisely the same manner as the violin is held. Again, another, likewise crowned, plays upon a harp, using with the right hand a plectrum and with the left hand merely his fingers. The last two performers, apparently a gentleman and a gentlewoman, are engaged in striking the tintinnabulum—​a set of bells in a frame.

In this group of crowned minstrels the sculptor has introduced a tumbler standing on his head, perhaps the vocalist of the company, as he has no instrument to play upon. Possibly the sculptor desired to symbolise the hilarious effects which music is capable of producing, as well as its elevating influence upon the devotional feelings.

The two positions in which we find the viol held is worthy of notice, inasmuch as it refers the inquirer further back than might be expected for the origin of our peculiar method of holding the violin, and the violoncello, in playing. There were several kinds of the viol in use, differing in size and in compass of sound. The most common number of strings was five, and it was tuned in various ways. One kind had a string tuned to the note running at the side of the finger-board instead of over it; this string was, therefore, only capable of producing a single tone. The four other strings were tuned thus: Two other species, on which all the strings were placed over the finger-board, were tuned: and: A very beautiful vielle is represented in Fig. 36. It is of French workmanship of about 1550, with monograms of Henri II., and is preserved in the Museum.

Fig. 36.—Hurdy-Gurdy (Vielle). With arms of France and crowned monogram of Henry II. on back and front. Near the handle are monograms of Catherine de Médicis. About 1550. L. 22½ in., W. 8¼ in. No. 220-’66. Victoria and Albert Museum.

Fig. 37.—Tympanum of the Glory Gate of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella. Dated 1188. From a plaster cast in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

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The contrivance of placing a string or two at the side of the finger-board is evidently very old, and was also gradually adopted on other instruments of the violin class of a somewhat later period than that of the vielle; for instance, on the lira di braccio of the Italians. It was likewise adopted on the lute, to obtain a fuller power in the bass; and hence arose the theorbo, the archlute, and other varieties of the old lute.

A grand assemblage of musical performers is represented on the Portico della Gloria of the famous pilgrimage church of Santiago de Compostella, in Spain. This triple portal, which is stated by an inscription on the lintel to have been executed in the year 1188, consists of a large semi-circular arch with a smaller arch on either side. The central arch is filled by a tympanum, round which are twenty-four life-sized seated figures, in high relief, representing the twenty-four elders seen by St. John in the Apocalypse, each with an instrument of music. These instruments are carefully represented, and are of great interest as showing those in use in Spain about the twelfth century. A cast of this sculpture is in the Museum (Fig. 37).

In examining the group of musicians on this sculpture the reader will probably recognise several instruments in their hands which are identical with those already described in the preceding pages. The organistrum, played by two persons, is placed in the centre of the group, perhaps owing to its being the largest of the instruments rather than that it was distinguished by any superiority in sound or musical effect. Besides the small harp seen in the hands of the eighth and nineteenth 102 musicians (in form nearly identical with the Anglo-Saxon harp) we find a small triangular harp, without a front-pillar, held on the lap by the fifth and eighteenth musicians. The salterio on the lap of the tenth and seventeenth musicians resembles the dulcimer, but seems to be played with the fingers instead of with hammers. The most interesting instrument in this orchestra is the vihuela, or Spanish viol, of the twelfth century. The first, second, third, sixth, seventh, ninth, twentieth, twenty-second, twenty-third, and twenty-fourth musicians are depicted with a vihuela which bears a close resemblance to the rebec. The instrument is represented with three strings, although in one or two instances five tuning-pegs are indicated. A large species of vihuela is given to the eleventh, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth musicians. This instrument differs from the rebec in so far as its body is broader and has incurvations at the sides. Also the sound-holes are different in form and position. The bow does not occur with any of these viols. But, as will be observed, the musicians are not represented in the act of playing; they are tuning and preparing for the performance, and the second of them is adjusting the bridge of his instrument.

The minstrel gallery of Exeter Cathedral (Fig. 38) dates from the fourteenth century. The front is divided into twelve niches, each of which contains a winged figure or an angel playing on an instrument of music. There is a cast also of this famous sculpture at South Kensington. The instruments are so much dilapidated that some of them cannot be clearly recognised; but, as far as may be ascertained, they appear to be as follows:—​(1) The lute or possibly cittern; (2) the bagpipe; (3) the clarion or the shalm; (4) the rebec; (5) the psaltery or the harp; (6) the jew’s harp (?); (7) the sackbut or the clarion; (8) the regals; (9) the gittern, a small guitar strung with catgut; (10) the shalm (?); (11) the timbrel, 103 resembling our present tambourine, with a double row of gingles; (12) cymbals. Most of these instruments have been already noticed in the preceding pages. The shalm, or shawm, was a pipe with a reed in the mouth-hole. The wait was an English wind instrument of the same construction. If it differed in any respect from the shalm, the difference consisted probably in the size only. The wait obtained its name from being used principally by watchmen, or waights, to proclaim the time of night. Such were the poor ancestors of our fine oboe and clarinet.

Fig 38.—Minstrel Gallery, Exeter Cathedral. 14th century. From a plaster cast in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

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X.

POST-MEDIÆVAL INSTRUMENTS.

Attention must now be drawn to some instruments which originated during the Middle Ages, but which attained their highest popularity at a somewhat later period.

About 300 years ago the lute (Fig. 39) was almost as popular as is the pianoforte at the present day. Originally it had eight thin catgut strings arranged in four pairs, each pair being tuned in unison; so that its open strings produced four tones; but in the course of time more strings were added. Until the sixteenth century twelve was the largest number, or rather, six pairs. Eleven appears for some centuries to have been the most usual number of strings; these produced six tones, since they were arranged in five pairs and a single string. The latter, called the chanterelle, was the highest. According to Thomas Mace, the English lute in common use during the seventeenth century had twenty-four strings, arranged in twelve pairs, of which six pairs ran over the finger-board and the other six by the side of it. This lute was therefore, more properly speaking, a theorbo. The neck of the lute, and also of the theorbo, had frets consisting of catgut strings tightly fastened round it at the proper distances required for ensuring a chromatic succession of intervals. The illustration (Fig. 40) represents a lute-player of the late fifteenth century. The order of tones adopted for the open strings varied in different centuries and countries; and this was also the case with the notation of lute music. The most common practice was to write the music on six lines, the upper line representing the first string; the second line, the second string, etc., and to mark with letters on the lines the frets at which the fingers ought to be placed—​a indicating the open string, b the first fret, c the second fret, and so on.

Fig. 39.—Lute. Italian (Venetian). Beginning of 17th century. L. 32½ in., W. 12 in. No. 1125-’69. Victoria and Albert Museum.

Fig. 40.—Angel playing a Lute, after an oil painting by Ambrogio da Predis. Late 15th century. National Gallery.

Fig. 41.—Archlute. Inscribed “Rauche in Chandos Street, London, 1762.” L. 49½ in., W. 14½ in. No. 9-’71. Victoria and Albert Museum.

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The lute was made of various sizes, according to the purpose for which it was intended in performance. The treble-lute was of the smallest dimensions, and the bass-lute of the largest. The theorbo, or double-necked lute which appears to have come into use during the sixteenth century, had in addition to the strings situated over the finger-board a number of others running at the left side of the finger-board which could not be shortened by the fingers, and which produced the bass tones.

The archlute is a large theorbo with a peculiar arrangement of the strings (Fig. 41). Several of them were doubled, the additional string being tuned an octave higher than the other. The process of tuning such instruments was evidently troublesome and tedious. Mattheson, the quaint contemporary of Handel, in his “Das Neu-eröffnete Orchestre,” Hamburg, 1713, remarks:—​"If a lutenist attains the age of eighty, you may be sure he has tuned sixty years; and the worst of it is that among a hundred players, especially of the amateurs, scarcely two are capable of tuning with accuracy. Now there is something amiss with the strings; now with the frets; and now again with the screws; so that I have been told that in Paris it costs as much money to keep a lute as to keep a horse.” Also Mace, an enthusiastic admirer of the lute, testifies to the difficulty of keeping the instrument in proper condition; for his treatise on the lute and theorbo (contained in “Musick’s Monument,” London, 1676) is replete with rules for stringing, tuning, cleaning, repairing, etc. And, as regards preserving the instrument, he gives the advice—​"You shall do well, ever when you lay it by in the day-time, to put it into a bed that is constantly used, between the rug and blanket.” 106

The chitarrone is a theorbo with an extraordinarily long neck, by which the length of the eight bass strings is considerably increased (Fig. 42). The largest instruments of this kind were made some centuries ago, in Rome. They were used in the theatre for accompanying the voice, before the Clavicembalo, or Harpsichord, was introduced for this purpose. The finest instruments of the lute kind were made in Italy, especially at Bologna, Rome, Venice, and Padua. Many of the manufacturers in Italy were, however, foreigners. Evelyn, in his Diary (May 21, 1645), speaking of Bologna, says, “This place has also been celebrated for lutes made by the old masters, Mollen [Maler ?], Hans Frey, and Nicholas Sconvelt, which were of extraordinary price; the workmen were chiefly Germans.” One of the earliest and most celebrated of these makers was Lucas Maler (or “Laux Maler” as he inscribed his name on his instruments). He lived at Bologna about 1415.

Fig. 42.—Chitarrone. Italian. Made by Buchenberg in Rome, anno 1614. L. 74 in. No. 190-’82. Victoria and Albert Museum.

Other celebrated lute-makers[8] were:—

Ludwig Porgt, Regensburg, 1525.

Hanns Gerle, Nuremberg, b. about 1505, d. 1599.

Hans Neusedler, Nuremberg, d. 1563.

Sebastian Rauser, Verona, working about 1590 to 1605.

Mattheus Buchenberg, Rome, working about 1592-1619.

Hanns Fichtholdt, Ingoldstadt (?), about 1612; his lutes, the backs of which are made with narrow strips of wood, in the Italian manner, were formerly much prized by connoisseurs.

Paolo Belami, Paris, about 1612, probably an Italian. His lutes were highly valued.

Joachim Tielke, Hamburg, b. 1641, d. 1719.

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Antonio Castaro, Rome, about 1615.

Christofilo Rochi, Padua, about 1620.

Sebastian Rochi, Venice, about 1620.

Clays von Pommersbach, Cologne, probably during the sixteenth century.

Magnus Tieffenbrucker, Venice, latter half of seventeenth century.

Wendelin Tieffenbrucker, Padua, working about 1572-1611, and Leonhard Tieffenbrucker, Padua (?), during the sixteenth century; their lutes were rather flat and long in body.

Michael Hartung, Padua, working about 1602 to 1624; he was a pupil of Leonhard Tieffenbrucker.

Raphael Mest, Füssen, working about 1610 to 1650; said to have been pupil of Michael Hartung.

Johann Christian Hoffmann, Leipzig, working about 1710 to 1750; his lutes were exported to Holland and England.

Martin Schott, Prague, latter half of seventeenth century.

Sebastian Rauch, Prague, working about 1700 to 1724.

Matthias Hummel, Nuremberg, end of seventeenth century.

Sebastian Schelle, Nuremberg, working about 1700 to 1745; his lutes were much valued, not only in Germany, but also in other European countries.

There used to be in Italy various kinds of mandolines, of which the Milanese and the Neapolitan were the most common. The first-named had usually ten strings, constituting five pairs. The Neapolitan mandolino had eight strings, constituting four pairs. The strings were usually twanged with a quill. Mozart, in his “Don Giovanni,” has made use of the Neapolitan mandolino in the serenade; but, as the instrument has fallen into disuse, at least in most 108 countries except Italy, the part written for it by Mozart is now generally played on the violin, pizzicato. The mandolino is now often strung with catgut strings. It resembles a diminutive lute; but its fingerboard has metal frets, and its strings are fastened to little ivory pins at the end of the body, instead of being looped through holes in the bridge. The convex back of the mandoline is deeper than that of the lute. It is one of the handsomest musical instruments.