* * * * *
ANCIENT MUSIC.--The Egyptian flute was only a cow’s horn with three or
four holes in it, and their harp or lyre had only three strings; the
Grecian lyre had only seven strings, and was very small, being held
in one hand; the Jewish trumpets, that made the walls of Jericho fall
down, were only rams’ horns. Their flute was the same as the Egyptian;
they had no other instrumental music but by percussion, of which the
greatest boast was the psaltery, a small triangular harp or lyre with
wire strings, and struck with an iron needle or stick; their sacbut was
something like a bagpipe; the timbrel was a tambourine, and the dulcimer
was a horizontal harp, with wire strings, and struck with a stick like
the psaltery. They had no written music; had scarcely a vowel in their
language, and yet, according to Josephus, had two hundred thousand
musicians playing at the dedication of the Temple of Solomon. Mozart
would have died in such a concert in the greatest agonies.--_Dr Burney’s
History of Music._