The pantalon (or pantaleon) was a very large type of

hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

, invented by Pantaleon Hebenstreit in the early 18th century and briefly popular in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Description

The pantalon was a very large

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

with a double

sounding board A sounding board, also known as a tester and abat-voix is a structure placed above and sometimes also behind a pulpit or other speaking platform that helps to project the sound of the speaker. It is usually made of wood. The structure may be spe ...

, approximately 6 ft (2 m) long, with about 200 strings of both gut and metal, some double- or triple-strung. It had no dampers, so the strings vibrated sympathetically, giving a rich resonating tone that was quite novel at the time and made a noticeable stir; the lack of dampers however made articulation difficult. Few instruments were constructed and very few survive. Hebenstreit and his two best pupils Maximilian Hellmann and Johann Baptist Gumpenhuber were essentially the only virtuoso players of the instrument. However it was well known in French and German musical circles of the early 18th century, and Hebenstreit gained fame and fortune playing it. Hebenstreit named the instrument after himself. Glowing reviews of its qualities appear in the writings of a number of prominent commentators of the day, such as

Johann Kuhnau Johann Kuhnau (; 6 April 16605 June 1722) was a German polymath, known primarily as a composer today. He was also active as a novelist, translator, lawyer, and music theorist, and was able to combine these activities with his duties in his offi ...

. The instrument died out with Hebenstreit's retirement, but the idea of allowing

sympathetic resonance Sympathetic resonance or sympathetic vibration is a harmonic phenomenon wherein a passive string or vibratory body responds to external vibrations to which it has a harmonic likeness. The classic example is demonstrated with two similarly-tuned ...

from undamped strings was adopted into mechanisms that would disengage the dampers in various ways on early

keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital piano ...

s such as the

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...

, called "pantalon stops".

Compositions

Compositions made for Hellmann include three by

Caldara Caldara is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Antonio Caldara (1670–1736), Italian composer * Domenico Caldara (1814–1897), Italian painter * Emilio Caldara (1868–1942), Italian Socialist Party politician * Jon Caldara, Ame ...

, eight by

Johann Georg Reutter Johann Adam Joseph Karl Georg Reutter, during his life known as Georg Reutter the Younger (6 April 1708 – 11 March 1772) was an Austrian composer.Karl Geiringer, ''Haydn: A Creative Life in Music'', 1982, p. 19: "There were two Viennese compo ...

and an aria by

Johann Joseph Fux Johann Joseph Fux (; – 13 February 1741) was an Austrian composer, music theory, music theorist and pedagogy, pedagogue of the late Baroque music, Baroque era. His most enduring work is not a musical composition but his treatise on counterpoin ...

in the

Festa teatrale The term ''festa teatrale'' (Italian: , plural: ''feste teatrali'' ) refers to a genre of drama, and of opera in particular. The genre cannot be rigidly defined, and in any case ''feste teatrali'' tend to be split into two different sets: ''feste ...

''Giunone placata'' (1725).''Musicologica Austriaca'', 2001, No 20 p224 "Dementsprechend wurde Hellmann solistisch von Caldara (dreimal), Johann Georg Reutter (achtmal3) und einmal auch von Johann Joseph Fux gefordert: nämlich in der Festa teatrale Giunone placata (1725), wo er die Aria der Venus...

References

* * * * * {{Authority control Early musical instruments Experimental musical instruments Hammered box zithers