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Thứ Ba, 6 tháng 5, 2014

The Evolution Of The Psalteries

By Essie Osborn


The psaltery is a very known instrument during the olden times. It is a string instrument that is actually from the same family as the zither or the harp with the only difference is that one would be using a bow to play it like a violin. If one is curious as to how psalteries originated, here is a brief background of this very influential instrument.

Now just to give people an idea of what this instrument looks like, it is actually a triangle shaped box with a few strings on it and a little bit of pins. In the modern setting, people would make use of bows to make music just like one would do with a violin. Now even if this is the normal way to play it, a lot of people would still use their hands and play it like a harp or guitar.

Now the original psaltery was not what the modern psaltery would look like as the modern psaltery was only created some time during the twentieth century. Now the old version was a square shaped instrument that did not come at all with a bow so people really had to use their hands to play it. This old version was first mentioned in the Bible during the time of the famous king known as King Nebuchadnezzar.

Now other than the Bible, one could actually also find some records of this instrument that would date back to the Medieval period or even the Renaissance period. Of course during this time, this instrument was already slightly modernized in order to sound better. The middle of the psaltery now had a hole so that the sound could echo further and make a solid sound.

It was only during the nineteen twenties that the bowed version was introduced into the modern world. It was created by a German and a patent of it was issued to the German company Clemens Neuber Company which meant that only they could reproduce the instrument during that time. During this time, they were known as violin zithers and it was also during this time that they began to get really popular.

In fact, after the invention of the bowed psaltery, there were many instruments similar to this one that came out. American instrument makers tried to make something similar called the Ukelin which was usually used during Hawaiian festivals and ceremonies. Of course the Hawaiians came up with their own version which differed from that of the American one.

Now the end of the Second World war saw the wide popularity of this thing known as the psaltery. It was first popularized by none other than the musical teacher Edgar Stahmer as he used it when conducting his music classes. German primary school teacher Walter Mittman followed in his footsteps and eventually made the instrument even more popular.

Nowadays, musicians and instrument makers have created a lot of ways to actually play this instrument. In fact, there are so many types of bows that were created like the bamboo bow, the wooden bow. Because of its evolution from the plucked psaltery, there have been many innovative ways that one can make music with this.




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