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Psaltery
:''See Rotte (psaltery) for medieval harp psaltery & Ancient Greek harps for earlier psalterion'' A psaltery () (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer. Plucked keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord were also inspired by it. Its resonance box is usually trapezoidal, rectangular or in the form of a "pig's head" and often richly decorated. Etymology The psaltery of Ancient Greece ('' epigonion'') was a harp-like stringed instrument. The word ''psaltery'' derives from the Ancient Greek ψαλτήριον (''psaltḗrion''), "stringed instrument, psaltery, harp" and that from the verb ψάλλω (''psállō''), "to touch sharply, to pluck, pull, twitch" and in the case of the strings of musical instruments, "to play a stringed instrument with the fingers, and not with the plectrum." The psaltery was originally made from wood, and relied on natural acoustics for sound prod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baltic Psaltery
Baltic psaltery is a family of related plucked box zithers, psalteries, historically found in the southeast vicinity of the Baltic Sea and played by the Baltic people, Baltic Finns, Volga Finns and northwestern Russians. Types Baltic psalteries include: * Kanklės (Lithuania) * Kantele (Finland, Karelia and Northwest Russia) * Kannel (Estonia) * Kāndla (Livonian people of Northwest Latvia) * Kokles (Latvia) * Krez (Udmurt people of Central Russia) * Krylovidnye gusli (Northwest Russia) * Kusle (Mari people of Central Russia) * Harpu (Sápmi) The internationally most known instrument of the family is Finnish kantele, so its name is sometimes used in English to also refer to other Baltic psalteries as well. Many of the Baltic psalteries hold a strong symbolic significance in their respective countries, including Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Russia, where playing instruction and instrument makers are available. Etymology According to Finnish linguist Ei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotte (psaltery)
:''See Rotte (lyre) for the medieval lyre, or Rote for the fiddle'' During the 11th to 15th century A.D., rotte (German) or rota (Spanish) referred to a triangular psaltery illustrated in the hands of King David and played by jongleurs (popular musicians who might play the music of troubadours) and cytharistas (Latin word for a musician who plays string instruments). Besides being played in popular music, the church may have used them as well; a letter from Cuthbert, Abbot of Jarrow, England survives, in which he asks an archbishop to send him a ''cytharista'' to play the ''rotta''. The instruments least 10 strings on each side and were held like a harp in front of the musician. Rottes were also described as having 17 stings and 22 strings on each side. The playing position was different from other psalteries, as the Rotte might be held like a harp, leaned sideways (flat against the musician's chest), or rested on the lap. Two styles of rotte have been inferred from images: the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qanun (instrument)
The qanun, kanun, ganoun or kanoon (; ; ; , ''qanun''; , ''qānūn''; ; ; ) is a Middle Eastern string instrument played either solo, or more often as part of an ensemble, in much of Iran, Arab East, and Arab Maghreb region of North Africa, later it reached West Africa, Central Asia due to Arab migration. It was also common in ancient (and modern-day) Armenia, and Greece. The name derives ultimately from Ancient Greek: κανών kanōn, meaning "rule, law, norm, principle". The qanun traces one of its origins to a stringed Assyrian instrument from the Old Assyrian Empire, specifically from the nineteenth century BC in Mesopotamia. This instrument came inscribed on a box of elephant ivory found in the old Assyrian capital Nimrud (ancient name: ''Caleh''). The instrument is a type of large zither with a thin trapezoidal soundboard that is famous for its unique melodramatic sound. Etymology The name derives ultimately . The qanun traces one of its origins to a stringed As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kokle
Kokle (; ) or historically kokles (''kūkles'') is a Latvian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the Baltic region, Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with Lithuanian kanklės, Estonian kannel (music), kannel, Finnish kantele, and Russian krylovidnye gusli. The first possible kokles related archaeological findings in the territory of modern Latvia are from the 13th century, while the first reliable written information about kokles playing comes from the beginning of the 17th century. The first known kokles tune was notated in 1891, but the first kokles recordings into gramophone records and movies were made in the 1930s. Both kokles and kokles playing are included in the Latvian Culture Canon. Etymology According to Finnish linguist , the name of the instrument, along with the names of most of its neighbouring counterparts (Lithuanian ''kanklės'', Finnish ''kantele'', Estonian ''kannel'' and Livonian ''kāndla''), possibly comes from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kanklės
The ''kanklės'' () is a Lithuanian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery, along with the Latvian '' kokles'', Estonian '' kannel'', Finnish '' kantele'', and Russian '' gusli''. Etymology According to Finnish linguist Eino Nieminen, the name of the instrument, along with the names of most of its neighbouring counterparts (Latvian ''kokles'', Finnish ''kantele'', Estonian ''kannel'' and Livonian ''kāndla''), possibly comes from the proto-Baltic form ''*kantlīs''/''*kantlēs'', which originally meant 'the singing tree', most likely deriving from the Proto-Indo-European root ''*qan-'' ('to sing, to sound'; cf. Latin "canto, cantus, canticum", Italian "cantare", French "chanter", English "chant, cantor"). A Lithuanian ethnologist Romualdas Apanavičius believes ''Kanklės'' could be derived from the Proto-European root ''*gan(dh)-'', meaning 'a vessel; a haft (of a sword)', suggesting that it may be r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greek Harps
The psalterion (Greek ψαλτήριον) is a stringed, plucked instrument, an ancient Greek harp. Psalterion was a general word for harps in the latter part of the 4th century B.C. It meant "plucking instrument". In addition to their most important stringed instrument, the seven-stringed lyre, the Greeks also used multi-stringed, finger-plucked instruments: harps. The general name for these was the psalterion. Ancient vase paintings often depict – almost always in the hands of women – various types of harps. Names found in written sources include pektis, trigonos, magadis, sambuca, epigonion. These names could denote instruments of this type. Unlike the lyres, the harp was rarely used in Greece. It was seen as an "outside instrument" from the Orient. It also touched on Greek social mores, being used mainly by women, both upper-class women as well as hetaerae entertainers. There was a group of women known as ''psaltriai'', female pluckers of the instrument who could be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kantele
A kantele () or kannel () is a traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the southeast Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with the Estonian kannel, the Latvian kokles, the Lithuanian kanklės, and the Russian gusli. Construction Small kantele Modern instruments with 15 or fewer strings are generally more closely modeled on traditional shapes, and form a category of instrument known as small kantele, in contrast to the concert kantele. The oldest forms of kantele have five or six horsehair strings and a wooden body carved from one piece; more modern instruments have metal strings and a body made from several pieces. The traditional kantele has neither bridge nor nut, the strings run directly from the tuning pegs to a metal bar (''varras'') set into wooden brackets (''ponsi''). Though not acoustically efficient, this construction is part of the distinctive sound of the instrument. The most typical and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zither
Zither (; , from the Greek ''cithara'') is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body. Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a plectrum. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, the term refers to a larger family of similarly shaped instruments that also includes the hammered dulcimer family and piano and a few rare bowed instruments like the bowed psaltery, bowed dulcimer, and streichmelodion. Like an acoustic guitar or lute, a zither's body serves as a resonating chamber ( sound box), but, unlike guitars and lutes, a zither lacks a distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty. In modern usage the term "zither" usually refers to three specific instruments: the concert zither (), its variant the Alpine zither (each of which uses a fretted fingerboard), and the chord zither (more recently described as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dulcimer
The term 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 this instrument are found in many cultures, including: * Hammered dulcimer (England, Scotland, United States) * Hackbrett (southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland) * Tsymbaly (Ukraine), tsimbl (Ashkenazi Jewish), țambal (Romania) and cimbalom (Hungary) may refer to either a relatively small folk instrument or a larger classical instrument. The santouri (Greece) (called "santur" in the Ottoman Empire) is almost identical to the Jewish and Romanian folk instruments. * Santur (Iran and Iraq) * Santoor (northern India and Pakistan) is constructed and tuned differently from the santur of Iran and Iraq * Khim (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand) * Yangqin (China), Đàn tam thập lục (Vietnam), yanggeum (Korea) Appalachian dulcimer and deriv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chordophone
In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some string instruments, like Guitar, guitars, by plucking the String (music), strings with their fingers or a plectrum, plectrum (pick), and others by hitting the strings with a light wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow (music), bow, like Violin, violins. In some keyboard (music), keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord, the musician presses a key that plucks the string. Other musical instruments generate sound by striking the string. With bowed instruments, the player pulls a rosined horsehair bow across the strings, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician cranks a wheel whose rosined edge touches the strings. Bowed instruments include the string section instruments of the orchestra in Western classic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
