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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
* * * * * *
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS.
EDITED BY WILLIAM MASKELL.
NO. 5.--MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
_These Handbooks are reprints of the dissertations prefixed to the
large catalogues of the chief divisions of works of art in the Museum
at South Kensington; arranged and so far abridged as to bring each into
a portable shape. The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education
having determined on the publication of them, the editor trusts that
they will meet the purpose intended; namely, to be useful, not alone
for the collections at South Kensington but for other collections, by
enabling the public at a trifling cost to understand something of the
history and character of the subjects treated of._
_The authorities referred to in each book are given in the large
catalogues; where will also be found detailed descriptions of the very
numerous examples in the South Kensington Museum._
W. M.
_August, 1875._
* * * * * *
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
by
CARL ENGEL
With Numerous Woodcuts
[Illustration]
Published for the Committee of Council on Education
by
Chapman and Hall, Ltd., London.
LIST OF WOODCUTS.
PAGE
Prehistoric whistle 9
Ancient Egyptian flute concert 13
The supposed Hebrew lyre at Beni Hassan 22
Ancient bagpipe from Tarsus 24
Hebrew trumpets, from the arch of Titus 25
Grecian harp and lyre 28
Greek lyres 29
Greek flutes 31
The _diaulos_ 32
Etruscan _cornu_ 33
Hydraulic organ 34
Roman girl and _tibia_ 36
Roman trumpets 36
Chinese king 39
" pien-tchung 41
" hiuen-tchung 42
" ou 43
" tchou 43
" kin-kou 44
" hiuen 45
" cheng 46
Hindustan, vina 49
Persian, chang 51
" bagpipe 52
Turkish harp 53
Persian dulcimer 55
The _rebab_ 56
Aztec whistles 60
Antique pipe from central America 61
Pipes of the Aztecs 62
Peruvian bone pipe 64
" huayra-puhura 65
" " 66
Orinoco Indian trumpet 67
South American Juruparis 68
Indian trumpets 70
Aztec drums 72
San Domingo drum 73
Peruvian bell 75
Aztec cluster of bells 76
Cithara, ninth century 86
Psalterium 87
Nablum 87
Citole 88
Anglo-saxon harp 89
Harp, ninth century 90
Ancient Irish harp 91
German rotte 91
Rotta 92
Irish rotta 93
The crwth 94
The old English "crowd" 95
The French crout 96
Anglo-saxon fiddle 97
German fiddle, ninth century 97
Organistrum 99
Monochord 100
Single chorus 101
Double chorus 101
Sackbut 101
Syrinx 102
Pneumatic organ, fourth century 103
Organ, twelfth century 104
Regal 104
Cymbalum, ninth century 105
Bunibulum 106
Orchestra on bas-relief 108
Vielle 109
Orchestra, twelfth century, at Santiago 110
The minstrels’ gallery, at Exeter cathedral 112
Virginal 114
Lute, Elizabethan 116
Viola da gamba 118
Recorder 119
Scotch bagpipe, eighteenth century 120
Irish bagpipe, sixteenth century 121
Carillon, Netherlands 122
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Music, in however primitive a stage of development it may be with some
nations, is universally appreciated as one of the Fine Arts. The origin
of vocal music may have been coeval with that of language; and the
construction of musical instruments evidently dates with the earliest
inventions which suggested themselves to human ingenuity. There exist
even at the present day some savage tribes in Australia and South
America who, although they have no more than the five first numerals
in their language and are thereby unable to count the fingers of both
hands together, nevertheless possess musical instruments of their own
contrivance, with which they accompany their songs and dances.
Wood, metal, and the hide of animals, are the most common substances
used in the construction of musical instruments. In tropical countries
bamboo or some similar kind of cane and gourds are especially made
use of for this purpose. The ingenuity of man has contrived to
employ in producing music, horn, bone, glass, pottery, slabs of
sonorous stone,--in fact, almost all vibrating matter. The strings of
instruments have been made of the hair of animals, of silk, the runners
of creeping plants, the fibrous roots of certain trees, of cane, catgut
(which absurdly referred to the cat, is from the sheep, goat, lamb,
camel, and some other animals), metal, &c.
The mode in which individual nations or tribes are in the habit of
embellishing their musical instruments is sometimes as characteristic
as it is singular. The negroes in several districts of western Africa
affix to their drums human skulls. A war-trumpet of the king of
Ashantee which was brought to England is surrounded by human jawbones.
The Maories in New Zealand carve around the mouth-hole of their
trumpets a figure intended, it is said, to represent female lips. The
materials for ornamentation chiefly employed by savages are bright
colours, beads, shells, grasses, the bark of trees, feathers, stones,
gilding, pieces of looking-glass inlaid like mosaic, &c. Uncivilized
nations are sure to consider anything which is bright and glittering
ornamental, especially if it is also scarce. Captain Tuckey saw in
Congo a negro instrument which was ornamented with part of the broken
frame of a looking-glass, to which were affixed in a semicircle a
number of brass buttons with the head of Louis XVI. on them,--perhaps a
relic of some French sailor drowned near the coast years ago.
Again, musical instruments are not unfrequently formed in the shape of
certain animals. Thus, a kind of harmonicon of the Chinese represents
the figure of a crouching tiger. The Burmese possess a stringed
instrument in the shape of an alligator. Even more grotesque are the
imitations of various beasts adopted by the Javanese. The natives of
New Guinea have a singularly shaped drum, terminating in the head of a
reptile. A wooden rattle like a bird is a favourite instrument of the
Indians of Nootka Sound. In short, not only the inner construction of
the instruments and their peculiar quality of sound exhibit in most
nations certain distinctive characteristics, but it is also in great
measure true as to their outward appearance.
An arrangement of the various kinds of musical instruments in a regular
order, beginning with that kind which is the most universally known
and progressing gradually to the least usual, gives the following
results. Instruments of percussion of indefinite sonorousness or, in
other words, pulsatile instruments which have not a sound of a fixed
pitch, as the drum, rattle, castanets, &c., are most universal. Wind
instruments of the flute kind,--including pipes, whistles, flutes,
Pandean pipes, &c.--are also to be found almost everywhere.
Much the same is the case with wind instruments of the trumpet kind.
These are often made of the horns, bones, and tusks of animals;
frequently of vegetable substances and of metal. Instruments of
percussion of definite sonorousness are chiefly met with in China,
Japan, Burmah, Siam, and Java. They not unfrequently contain a series
of tones produced by slabs of wood or metal, which are beaten with a
sort of hammer, as our harmonicon is played.
Stringed instruments without a finger board, or any similar contrivance
which enables the performer to produce a number of different tones
on one string, are generally found among nations whose musical
accomplishments have emerged from the earliest state of infancy. The
strings are twanged with the fingers or with a piece of wood, horn,
metal, or any other suitable substance serving as a _plectrum_; or
are made to vibrate by being beaten with a hammer, as our dulcimer.
Stringed instruments provided with a finger-board on which different
tones are producible on one string by the performer shortening it more
or less,--as on the guitar and violin,--are met with almost exclusively
among nations in a somewhat advanced stage of musical progress. Such
as are played with a bow are the least common; they are, however,
known to the Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, Persians, Arabs, and a few
other nations, besides those of Europe and their descendants in other
countries.
Wind instruments of the organ kind,--_i.e._, such as are constructed of
a number of tubes which can be sounded together by means of a common
mouthpiece or some similar contrivance, and upon which therefore
chords and combinations of chords, or harmony, can be produced,--are
comparatively of rare occurrence. Some interesting specimens of them
exist in China, Japan, Laos, and Siam.
Besides these various kinds of sound-producing means employed in
musical performances, a few others less widely diffused could be
pointed out, which are of a construction not represented in any of
our well-known European specimens. For instance, some nations have
peculiar instruments of friction, which can hardly be classed with our
instruments of percussion. Again, there are contrivances in which a
number of strings are caused to vibrate by a current of air, much as
is the case with the Æolian harp; which might with equal propriety be
considered either as stringed instruments or as wind instruments. In
short, our usual classification of all the various species into three
distinct divisions, viz. _Stringed Instruments_, _Wind Instruments_,
and _Instruments of Percussion_, is not tenable if we extend our
researches over the whole globe.
The collection at South Kensington contains several foreign instruments
which cannot fail to prove interesting to the musician. Recent
investigations have more and more elicited the fact that the music
of every nation exhibits some distinctive characteristics which may
afford valuable hints to a composer or performer. A familiarity with
the popular songs of different countries is advisable on account of
the remarkable originality of the airs: these mostly spring from the
heart. Hence the natural and true expression, the delightful health and
vigour by which they are generally distinguished. Our more artificial
compositions are, on the other hand, not unfrequently deficient in
these charms, because they often emanate from the fingers or the pen
rather than from the heart. Howbeit, the predominance of expressive
melody and effective rhythm over harmonious combinations, so usual in
the popular compositions of various nations, would alone suffice to
recommend them to the careful attention of our modern musicians. The
same may be said with regard to the surprising variety in construction
and in manner of expression prevailing in the popular songs and
dance-tunes of different countries. Indeed, every nation’s musical
effusions exhibit a character peculiarly their own, with which the
musician would find it advantageous to familiarize himself.
Now, it will easily be understood that an acquaintance with the
musical instruments of a nation conveys a more correct idea than could
otherwise be obtained of the characteristic features of the nation’s
musical compositions. Furthermore, in many instances the construction
of the instruments reveals to us the nature of the musical intervals,
scales, modulations, and suchlike noteworthy facts. True, inquiries
like these have hitherto not received from musicians the attention
which they deserve. The adepts in most other arts are in this respect
in advance. They are convinced that useful information may be gathered
by investigating the productions even of uncivilized nations, and by
thus tracing the gradual progress of an art from its primitive infancy
to its highest degree of development.
Again, from an examination of the musical instruments of foreign
nations we may derive valuable hints for the improvement of our own;
or even for the invention of new. Several principles of construction
have thus been adopted by us from eastern nations. For instance, the
_free reed_ used in the harmonium is an importation from China. The
organ builder Kratzenstein, who lived in St. Petersburg during the
reign of Catharine II., happened to see the Chinese instrument _cheng_,
which is of this construction, and it suggested to him, about the end
of the last century, to apply the _free reed_ to certain organ stops.
At the present day instruments of the harmonium class have become such
universal favourites in western Europe as almost to compete with the
pianoforte.
Several other well-authenticated instances could be cited in which one
instrument has suggested the construction of another of a superior
kind. The prototype of our pianoforte was evidently the dulcimer,
known at an early time to the Arabs and Persians who call it _santir_.
One of the old names given to the dulcimer by European nations is
_cimbal_. The Poles at the present day call it _cymbaly_, and the
Magyars in Hungary _cimbalom_. The _clavicembalo_, the predecessor of
the pianoforte, was in fact nothing but a _cembalo_ with a key-board
attached to it; and some of the old _clavicembali_, still preserved,
exhibit the trapezium shape, the round hole in the middle of the
sound-board, and other peculiarities of the first dulcimer. Again, the
gradual development of the dulcimer from a rude contrivance, consisting
merely of a wooden board across which a few strings are stretched,
is distinctly traceable by a reference to the musical instruments of
nations in different stages of civilization. The same is the case with
our highly perfected harp, of which curious specimens, representing the
instrument in its most primitive condition, are still to be found among
several barbarous tribes. We might perhaps infer from its shape that it
originally consisted of nothing more than an elastic stick bent by a
string. The Damaras, a native tribe of South-western Africa, actually
use their bow occasionally as a musical instrument, when they are not
engaged in war or in the chase. They tighten the string nearly in the
middle by means of a leathern thong, whereby they obtain two distinct
sounds, which, for want of a sound-board, are of course very weak and
scarcely audible to anyone but the performer. Some neighbouring tribes,
however, possess a musical instrument very similar in appearance to the
bow, to which they attach a gourd, hollowed and open at the top, which
serves as a sound-board. Again, other African tribes have a similar
instrument, superior in construction only inasmuch as it contains more
than one string, and is provided with a sound-board consisting of a
suitable piece of sonorous wood. In short, the more improved we find
these contrivances the closer they approach our harp. And it could be
shown if this were requisite for our present purpose that much the same
gradual progress towards perfection, which we observe in the African
harp, is traceable in the harps of several nations in different parts
of the world.
Moreover, a collection of musical instruments deserves the attention
of the ethnologist as much as of the musician. Indeed, this may be
asserted of national music in general; for it gives us an insight
into the heart of man, reveals to us the feelings and predilections
of different races on the globe, and affords us a clue to the natural
affinity which exists between different families of men. Again, a
collection must prove interesting in a historical point of view.
Scholars will find among old instruments specimens which were in
common use in England at the time of queen Elizabeth, and which are
not unfrequently mentioned in the literature of that period. In many
instances the passages in which allusion is made to them can hardly be
understood, if we are unacquainted with the shape and construction of
the instruments. Furthermore, these relics of bygone times bring before
our eyes the manners and customs of our forefathers, and assist us in
understanding them correctly.
It will be seen that the modification which our orchestra has
undergone, in the course of scarcely more than a century, is great
indeed. Most of the instruments which were highly popular about a
hundred years ago have either fallen into disuse or are now so much
altered that they may almost be considered as new inventions. Among
Asiatic nations, on the other hand, we meet with several instruments
which have retained unchanged through many centuries their old
construction and outward appearance. At South Kensington may be seen
instruments still in use in Egypt and western Asia, precisely like
specimens represented on monuments dating from a period of three
thousand years ago. By a reference to the eastern instruments of the
present time we obtain therefore a key for investigating the earlier
Egyptian and Assyrian representations of musical performances; and,
likewise, for appreciating more exactly the biblical records respecting
the music of the Hebrews. Perhaps these evidences will convey to some
inquirers a less high opinion than they have hitherto entertained,
regarding the musical accomplishments of the Hebrew bands in the solemn
processions of king David or in Solomon’s temple; but the opinion will
be all the nearer to the truth.
There is another point of interest about such collections, and
especially that at South Kensington, which must not be left unnoticed.
Several instruments are remarkable on account of their elegant shape
and tasteful ornamentation. This is particularly the case with some
specimens from Asiatic countries. The beautiful designs with which they
are embellished may afford valuable patterns for study and for adoption
in works of art.