(Sculpture of that date at Constantinople.)]
The water-organ was, in very early times, superseded by the pneumatic or
wind-organ (Fig. 169), the description of which given by St. Jerome
agrees with the representations on the obelisk erected at Constantinople
in the time of Theodosius the Great. We must, however, fix a date as
late as the eighth century for the introduction of this instrument into
the West, or at least into France. In 757, Constantine Copronymus,
Emperor of the East, sent to King Pépin a number of presents, among
which was an organ that excited the admiration of the court.
Charlemagne, who received a similar present from the same monarch, had
several organs made from this model. These were provided, according to
the statement of the monk of Saint-Gall, with “brazen pipes which were
acted on by bellows made of bull’s hide, and imitated the roaring of
thunder, the accents of the lyre, and the clang of cymbals.” These
primitive organs, notwithstanding the power and richness of their
musical resources, were of dimensions which rendered them quite
portable. It was, in fact, only in consequence of its almost exclusive
application to the solemnities of Catholic worship that the organ became
developed on an almost gigantic scale. In 951, there existed in
Winchester Cathedral an organ which was divided into two parts, each
provided with its apparatus of bellows, its key-board, and its
organist. Twelve bellows above, and fourteen below, were worked by
seventy strong men, and the air was distributed by means of forty valves
into four hundred pipes, arranged in groups or choirs of ten, each group
corresponding with one of the twenty-four keys of each key-board (Fig.
170).
[Illustration: Fig. 170.--Great Organ, with Bellows and double
Key-board, of the Twelfth Century. (MS. at Cambridge.)]
In the ninth century, the German organ-makers acquired great renown. The
monk Gerbert, who, as we have already remarked, became pope under the
name of Sylvester II., and co-operated so efficiently in the progress of
the horological art, established in the monastery of which he was abbot
a workshop for the manufacture of organs. We must add, that all the
musical treatises written from the ninth to the twelfth century entered
into very considerable details concerning the arrangement and working of
this instrument. Nevertheless, the admission of the organ into churches
did not fail to meet with earnest opponents among the bishops and
priests of the day. But while some complained of the thunder and
rumbling of the organs, others appealed to the examples of king David
and the prophet Elisha. Finally, in the thirteenth century, the right of
placing organs in all churches was no longer disputed, and the only
question was, who could build the most powerful and most magnificent
instruments. At Milan was an organ the pipes of which were of silver; at
Venice some were made of pure gold. The number of these pipes was varied
and multiplied to an infinite extent, according to the effects the
instrument was required to produce. The mechanism was, generally
speaking, rather complicated, and the working of the bellows very
laborious. In large organs the key-board was made up of key-plates five
or six inches wide, which the organist, his hands defended by thickly
padded gloves, had to strike with his clenched fist in order to bring
out the notes (Fig. 171).
[Illustration: Fig. 171.--Organ with single Key-board of the Fourteenth
Century. (Miniature from a Latin Psalter, No. 175, Bibl. Imp., Paris.)]
The organ, which, as we have seen, was at first of a portable nature, in
some cases resumed its original dimensions (Fig. 172). It was then
sometimes called simply _portatif_ (hand-organ), and sometimes _régale_
or _positif_ (choir-organ). Raphael, in one of his famous pictures,
represents St. Cecilia singing sacred hymns, and accompanying herself on
a choir-organ.
[Illustration: Fig. 172.--Portable Organ of the Fifteenth Century.
(Miniature in Vincent de Beauvais’ “Miroir Historial,” MS. in the Bibl.
Imp., Paris.)]
The class of pulsatile instruments was formed of bells, cymbals, and
drums.
[Illustration: Fig. 173.--_Tintinnabulum_ or Hand-Bell of the Ninth
Century. (Boulogne MS.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 174.--The _Saufang_ of St. Cecilia’s at Cologne.
(Sixth Century.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 175.--Bell in a Tower of Siena. (Twelfth Century.)]
There can be no doubt that the ancients were acquainted with large
bells, hand-bells, and strung-bells (_grelots_). But we must ascribe to
the requirements of Christian worship the first introduction of the
bell, properly so called, formed of cast-metal (_campana_ or _nola_, the
first having been made, it is said, at Nola), which was employed from
the first in summoning the faithful to the public services. In the first
instance the bell was merely held in the hand and shaken by some monk or
ecclesiastic who stood in front of the church-door, or mounted a raised
platform for the purpose. This _tintinnabulum_ (Fig. 173), or portable
bell, subsequently passed into the hands of the public criers, the
societies of ringers, and those who rang knells for the dead, at a time
when most of the churches were provided with _campaniles_ or
bell-towers, wherein were hung the parish bells, which daily assumed
dimensions of increasing importance. These great bells, of which the
_Saufang_ of Cologne (sixth century) is an example (Fig. 174), were at
first made of wrought-iron plates laid one over the other, and riveted
together. But in the eighth century they began to cast bells of copper
and even of silver. One of the most ancient still existing is that in
the tower of Bisdomini at Siena (Fig. 175). It bears the date of 1159,
and is formed in the shape of a cask, being rather more than a yard
high: the sound it produces is very sharp. The combination of several
bells of various sizes naturally produced the peal or chime; this at
first consisted of an arch of wood or iron whereon were suspended the
bells, which the player struck with a small hammer (Fig. 176). The
number and classification of the bells becoming subsequently rather more
complicated, the hand of the chimer was superseded by a mechanical
arrangement. This was the origin of those peals of bells for which there
was such a demand in the Middle Ages, and of which certain towns are
still so proud.
The designations of _cymbalum_ and _flagellum_ were, in the first
instance, applied to small hand-chimes; but there were also regular
cymbals (_cymbala_ or _acetabula_), spherical or hollowed plates of
silver, brass, or copper. Some of these were shaken at the ends of the
fingers, or fastened to the knees or feet, so as to be put in motion by
the movement of the body. These small cymbals, or _crotales_, were a
kind of rattle (_grelots_), causing the dancers to make a noise in their
performance, as do the Spanish castanets, which in the sixteenth century
were called in France _maronnettes_, and were the same as the
_cliquettes_, or snappers, used by lepers in former days. Small
strung-bells became so much the fashion at a certain epoch that not only
was the harness of horses adorned with them, but they were suspended to
the clothes both of men and women, who at the slightest movement made a
ringing, tinkling noise, sounding like so many perambulating chimes.
The use of pulsatile instruments producing a metallic sound increased
greatly in Europe, especially after the return from the Crusades. But
even before this date the Egyptian timbrel was used in religious and
festival music; this instrument was composed of a circle whereon rings
were hung, which tinkled as they struck together when the timbrel was
shaken. The Oriental triangle was also used on these occasions; this was
almost the same then as it is at the present day.
The drum has always been a hollow case covered with a stretched skin,
but the shape and size of this instrument have caused great variations
in its name, and also in the way in which it was used. In the Middle
Ages it was called _taborellus_, _tabornum_, and _tympanum_. It
generally made its appearance in festal music, and especially in
processions; but it was not until the fourteenth century that it began
to take a place in military bands, at least in France; the Arabians,
however, have used it from the earliest ages. In the thirteenth century
the _taburel_ was a kind of tambourine, played on with only a
drum-stick; in the _tabornum_ we may recognise the military drum of the
present day; and the _tympanum_ was equivalent to our tambourine.
Sometimes, as seen in a sculpture in the Musicians’ Hall at Rheims, this
instrument was attached to the right shoulder of the performer, who
played upon it by striking it with his head, while at the same time he
blew through two metal flutes communicating with the inside of the drum
(Fig. 177).
[Illustration: Fig. 176.--Chime of Bells of the Ninth Century. (MS. de
Saint-Blaise.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 177.--_Tympanum_ of the Thirteenth Century.
(Sculpture on the Musicians’ Hall, Rheims.)]
We have now to speak of stringed instruments, the whole of which may be
divided into three principal classes: those played on by the fingers,
those that are struck, and those which are rubbed (_frottées_) by means
of some appliance.
As a matter of fact, there are some stringed instruments which may be
said to belong to all three of these classes, as all three modes of
playing upon them has been adopted either simultaneously or in
succession.
The most ancient are doubtless those that are played on by the fingers,
first among which, in right of its antiquity, we must name the lyre;
from this have sprung the cithern, the harp, the psaltery, the
_nabulon_, &c. In the Middle Ages, however, considerable confusion arose
from the fact that these original names were at the time often diverted
from their real acceptation.
The lyre, the stringed instrument _par excellence_ of the Greeks and
Romans, preserved its primitive form as late as the tenth century. The
strings were generally of twisted gut, but sometimes also of brass wire,
and varied in number from three to eight. The sounding-box, which was
always placed at the lower part of the instrument, was more often made
of wood than of either metal or tortoise-shell (Fig. 178).
[Illustration: Fig. 178.--Ancient Lyre. (Angers MS.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 179.--Lyre of the North. (Ninth Century.)]
The lyre was held upon the knees, and the performer touched or rubbed
the strings with one hand, either with the fingers or by means of a
_plectrum_. The lyre specified as “Northern” (Fig. 179), was certainly
the origin of the violin, to the shape of which it even then bore some
resemblance; it was fastened at the top, and had a _cordier_ at the end
of the sounding-board, as well as a bridge in the centre of the face of
the instrument.
The lyre was superseded by the psaltery and the cithern. The psaltery,
which never was furnished with fewer than ten, or more than twenty,
strings, differed essentially from the lyre and the cithern by the
sounding-board being placed at the top of the instrument. Psalteries
were made of a round, square, oblong, or buckler-shaped form (Fig. 181);
and sometimes the sounding-box was lengthened so as to rest upon the
shoulder of the musician (Fig. 180). The psaltery disappeared in the
tenth century and gave place to the cithern (_cithara_), a name which
had been at first applied to all kinds of stringed instruments. The
shape of the cithern, which in the days of St. Jerome resembled a Greek
_delta_ (Δ), varied in different countries, as is proved by the
epithets--_barbarica_, _Teutonica_, _Anglica_, which we find at
different times coupled with its generic name. In other places, in
consequence of these local transformations, it became the _nabulum_, the
_chorus_, and the _salterion_ or _psalterion_ (which latter must not be
confounded with the psaltery, a primary derivative of the lyre).
[Illustration: Fig. 180.--Psaltery to produce a prolonged sound. Ninth
Century. (MS. in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.)]
The _nabulum_[23] (Fig. 182) was made either in the shape of a triangle
with truncated corners, or of a semicircle joined at the two
extremities; its sounding-board occupied the whole of the rounded part,
and left but a very limited space for the twelve strings. The _chorus_
or _choron_, the imperfect representation of which in the manuscripts of
the ninth and tenth centuries calls to mind the appearance of a long
semicircular window or of a Gothic capital N, generally had one of its
sides prolonged, on which the performer leaned so as to hold the
instrument in the same way as a harp (Fig. 183).
[Illustration: Fig. 181.--Buckler-shaped Psaltery with many Strings.
(Ninth Century. Boulogne MS.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 182.--_Nabulum._ Ninth Century. (MS. d’Angers.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 183.--_Choron._ Ninth Century. (Boulogne MS.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 184.--_Psalterion._ Twelfth Century.]
The _psalterion_, which was in use all over Europe after the twelfth
century, and is thought to have originated in the East, where it was
found by the Crusaders, was at first composed of a flat box of sounding
wood, with two oblique sides; it assumed the shape of a triangle
truncated at its top, with twelve or sixteen metallic strings either of
gold or silver, which were played upon by means of a small bow of wood,
ivory, or horn (Fig. 184); subsequently the strings were made more
slender, the number being increased to as many as twenty-two; the three
angles of the sounding-box were cut off, and holes were made, sometimes
one only in the middle, sometimes one at each angle, and sometimes as
many as five, symmetrically arranged. The performer placed the
instrument against his chest, and held it so as to touch the strings
either with the fingers of the two hands, or with a pen or _plectrum_
(Fig. 185). This instrument, which in the representations of poets and
painters never failed to figure in celestial concerts, produced tones of
incomparable softness. The old romances of chivalry exhausted all the
phrases of admiration in describing the _psalterion_. But the highest
eulogium which can be passed on this instrument is that it formed the
starting-point of the harpsichord, or of the stringed instruments struck
or played on by means of mechanism.
[Illustration: Fig. 185.--Performer on the _Psalterion_. Fourteenth
Century. (MS. No. 703 in the Bibl. Imp. of Paris.)]
It is, in fact, thought that a kind of harpsichord with four octaves,
which in the fourteenth century was called _dulcimer_ or _dulcemelos_,
and is but imperfectly described, was nothing else than a _psalterion_,
with a sounding apparatus that assumed the proportions of a large box,
to which also a key-board had been adapted. This instrument, when it had
but three octaves, was called _clavicord_ or _manicordion_, and in the
sixteenth century produced forty-two to fifty tones or semi-tones: one
string expressed several notes, and this was effected by means of plates
of metal which, serving as a movable bridge to each string, either
increased or diminished the intensity of its vibration. The grand-pianos
of the present day unquestionably have their key-boards placed in the
same position as they were in the _dulcimer_ and _clavicorde_. The
earliest improvements in metallic stringed instruments constructed with
a key-board are due to the Italians; these improvements soon had the
effect of throwing the _psalterion_ into oblivion.
[Illustration: Fig. 186.--_Organistrum._ Ninth Century. (MS. de
Saint-Blaise.)]
In the ninth century a stringed instrument was in use the mechanism of
which, although not very perfect, evidently tended to an imitation of
the key-board applied to organs: this was the _organistrum_ (Fig. 186),
an enormous guitar pierced with two sound holes, and provided with three
strings set in vibration by a small winch; eight movable screws, rising
or falling at will along the finger-board, formed so many keys which
served to vary the tones. In the first instance two persons performed on
the _organistrum_--one turning the winch while the other touched the
keys. When its size was decreased it became the _vielle_ (hurdy-gurdy)
properly so called, which could be managed by one musician. It was at
first called _rubelle_, _rebel_, and _symphonie_; subsequently this last
name was corrupted into _chifonie_ and _sifonie_, and we may remark that
even now in certain districts of central France the _vielle_ still
bears the popular name of _chinforgne_. The _chifonie_ never found a
place in musical concerts, and fell almost immediately into the hands of
the mendicants, who solicited alms accompanied by the doleful and
somewhat discordant notes of this instrument, and thence obtaining the
name of _chifoniens_.
Notwithstanding all the efforts which were made to substitute wheels and
key-boards for the action of the fingers on the strings of instruments,
still those that were played on by the hand only, such as harps and
lutes, did not fail to maintain the preference among skilful musicians.
[Illustration: Fig. 187.--Triangular Saxon Harp of the Ninth Century.
(Bible of Charles le Chauve.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 188.--Fifteen-stringed Harp of the Twelfth Century.
(MS. in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.)]
The harp was certainly Saxon in its origin, although some have imagined
they could discover traces of it in Greek, Roman, and even Egyptian
antiquities. This instrument was at first nothing but a triangular
cithern (Fig. 187), in which the sounding-board occupied the whole of
one side from top to bottom, instead of being limited to the lower
angle, as in the primitive _cithara_, or confined to the upper part as
in the psaltery. The English harp (_cithara Anglica_) of the ninth
century differed but little from the modern instrument; the simplicity
and good judgment shown in its shape bear witness to the perfection it
had already attained (Fig. 188). The number of strings and the shape of
this instrument varied constantly from time to time. The sounding-box
was sometimes made square, sometimes elongated, and sometimes round. The
arms were sometimes straight and sometimes curved; the upper side was
often lengthened so as to represent an animal’s head (Fig. 189) and the
lower angle, on which the instrument rested on the ground, terminated in
a griffin’s claw. According to the miniatures in manuscripts, the harp
was of a size that the top of it did not extend higher than the head of
the performer, who played upon it in a sitting posture (Fig. 190). There
were, however, harps of a lighter character, which the musician bore
suspended from his neck by a strap, and played upon while standing up.
This portable harp was the one that may _par excellence_ be called
noble, and was the instrument on which the _trouvères_ accompanied their
voices when reciting ballads and metrical tales (Fig. 191). In the
romances of chivalry harpers are constantly introduced, and their harps
are ever tuned to some lay of love or war; we find this taking place as
well in the north as in the south. “The harp,” says Guillaume de
Machaut--
“tous instruments passe,
Quand sagement bien en joue et compasse.”
[Illustration: Fig. 189.--Harpers of the Twelfth Century, from a
Miniature in a Bible. (MS. in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 190.--Harp-player of the Fifteenth Century. From an
Enamelled Dish found near Soissons, and preserved in the Bibl. Imp.,
Paris.]
In the sixteenth century, however, it began to fall into disfavour; it
was supplanted by the lute (Fig. 192), an instrument much used in the
thirteenth century, and by the guitar, which was brought into fashion in
France from Spain and Italy, and formed the delight both of the court
and private circles. At that time every great lord, imitating kings and
princesses, wished to have his lute or guitar player, and the poet
Bonaventure des Périers, _valet de chambre_ of Marguerite de Navarre,
composed for her “La Manière de bien et justement entoucher les Lucs et
Guiternes.” The lute and the guitar, which for about two centuries were
in high favour in what was called “chamber music,” have since the
above-named epoch scarcely been altered in shape. With certain
modifications, however, they gave rise to the _theorbo_ and the
_mandolin_, which never attained more than a transient or local favour.
[Illustration: Fig. 191.--Minstrel’s Harp, of the Fifteenth Century.
(MS. in the _Miroir Historial_ of Vincent de Beauvais.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 192.--Five-stringed Lute. Thirteenth Century. (MS.
in the Bibl. Imp., Paris.)]
Stringed instruments that were played on by means of bows were not known
before the fifth century, and belonged to the northern races; they did
not become prevalent in Europe generally until after the Norman
invasion. At first they were but roughly made and rendered indifferent
service to musical art; but from the twelfth to the sixteenth century,
these instruments were subject to many changes both in form and name,
and were brought to perfection according as the execution of musicians
also improved. The most ancient of these instruments is the _crout_
(Fig. 193), which must have produced the _rote_, so dear to the
minstrels and the _trouvères_ of the thirteenth century. The _crout_,
which is the instrument placed by tradition in the hands of the
Armorican, Breton, and Scotch bards,[24] was composed of an oblong
sounding-box, more or less hollowed out at the two sides, with a handle
fixed in the body of the instrument, in which were made two openings
that allowed the performer to hold it by the left hand and at the same
time to touch the strings; these, as a matter of principle, were only
three in number. Subsequently it had four strings, and then six--two of
which were played open (_à vide_). The musician played on it with a
straight or convex bow, provided with a single thread either of iron
wire or of twisted hair. Except in England, where the _crout_ was
national, it did not last beyond the eleventh century. It was replaced
by the _rote_, which was not, as its name (apparently derived from
_rota_, a wheel) would seem to intimate, a _vielle_ or _symphonie_. It
would be useless to seek for the derivation of the name of _rota_,
except in the word _crotta_, the Latin form of the term _crout_.
[Illustration: Fig. 193.--Three-stringed _Crout_ of the Ninth Century.
From a Miniature.]
[Illustration: Fig. 194.--King David playing on a _Rote_. From a Painted
Window of the Thirteenth Century. (Chapel of the Virgin, Cathedral of
Troyes.)]