(a) The kinnor (33, a mimetic word derived from the rustling sound of the strings) has been identi-
fied with a number of instruments: the tanbur or tinbur, a kind of guitar; the lute (a/-’ood), which is closely allied to the guitar ; the trigon, a small, easily portable triangular harp; a large harp pro- vided with 47 strings; and the lyre. We can at once delete several of these if we remember the hints given in the OT. The kinnor was portable ; it was played during marches and processions, and was hung upon the willows by the Babylonian captives. It was therefore not a harp of the larger sort. As against the view that it was a trigon, it is urged that the latter could not have been the favourite instrument of a people so musically gifted as the Jews. It was small, and from its construction weak in tone, and would have con- trasted unfavourably with the larger and fuller- toned harps and citterns which intercourse with other nations had rendered familiar. The guitar or lute, again, is open to several objections. It is not known to have been current among Semitic nations in early times. We have a representation of one lute-shaped instrument in Nineveh ; it has a small oval body and a very long neck, exactly like those depicted in Egypt; but this one example, most probably derived from Egypt, does not furnish adequate support for the theory that the lute was familiar to the Semitic peoples, and may therefore have formed the model of the sinnér. Besides, it is hardly conceivable that such a slim long-necked instrument could have been easily portable, and a favourite for processional music.
But the strongest evidence we have for the nature of the kinndr is to be found in the LXX. The translators, except in a very few cases, render 3p by κιθάρα, or by κινύρα, which is explained by Greek writers as equivalent to κιθάρα. Unless we suppose that the [XX wrote in utter ignorance of the shape of the kinnor, this fact is decisive against either the lute or the harp. It would have been impossible for even the most careless or inexpert writer to confound the lute with its long neck and finger-board, or the harp, with the Aithara or the lyre. It is probable that the kinnér presented δα πόσϑποαε from the kithara, but it is unnatural
PLAYING THE LYRE, (Middle Empire),
to suppose that these should have been so great as to make the rendering of the LXX wholly inappro- riate. Now numerous lyre-shaped instruments, i.e. in- struments with resonance-body at the base, side arms of wood, and cross-bar at the top from which the strings descend to the sound-box, or string: holder resting on it, are found on the monuments
MUSIC
A very ancient one is depicted in an Egyptian tomb, and dates from the 12th Dynasty. It repre- sents a Semitic immigrant with an eight-stringed kithara, which he holds in a horizontal position under his right (?) arm; he plucks the strings with the fingers of the left hand, while he uses a plectrum with the right. The body of the in- strument is really a quadrangular-shaped board with the upper half cut out. There is also a picture of a player on the kithara, accompanying two harpists, in a grave at Thebes belonging to the period between the 12th and 18th Dynasties. Here, again, we have the ruder form characteristic of the Semitic Aithara. Later the kithara becomes 2 common, and is more artistically constructed.
t generally has ἃ square, sometimes an urn- shaped sound-box, from which rise arms of various design and thickness, bound together by a wooden cross-bar. These arms are often of different lengths, and the cross-bar therefore slopes downwards, thus serving to give the strings their proper pitch. The strings radiate from the sound-box in the form of a fan, and vary in number from 3 to 12.
The kithara was, however, not properly an Egyptian but an Asiatic instrument. We have already seen that the oldest known to be depicted in Egypt was played by a Semitic immigrant. The very earliest representation of a stringed instrument is that discovered at Telloh in Southern Babylonia. It is of a large size, but the frame shows a sound-body beneath, on which are set the
HARPER AND CHOIR (ὁ. 5.6. 3000),
two upright posts and the cross-bar of the lyre. The number of the strings is great enough to suggest that a harp was meant, but the model, which is exceedingly rude, is that of the hithara, Many specimens have been also found at Khorsabad, Kouyunjik, and Nimrud, which strongly resemble those of the immigrant Semites in Egypt. They are, however, more fully developed and have a larger sound-box at the base. ‘They differ in form and in number of strings at the same period. <A
twelve-stringed 4ithara, shown on a bas-relief at |
459
MUSIC
Khorsabad, is remarkable for its rectangular form and the exceptional fulness of its sound-box.
The evidence of Jewish coins also points to the similarity of the kinnor to the kithara or lyre. The representations of instruments found on them
JEWISH LYRES,
are unmistakable. The strings are fixed in a strong oval body resting on a kettle-shaped or vase-like sounding-box ; the frame is canis and nearly square. ‘The projecting arms are curved and joined by a cross-bar to which the strings, which vary in number from 3 to 6, are fixed. The figures thus resemble the Greek lyre or kithara. It is not likely, however, that they simply depict foreign importations, and that they cannot therefore be relied upon as evidence for the ancient kinndr. Oriental conservatism was at its strongest in matters affecting the cultus of the Israelites, and though the kinndr may have been modified in certain details, it is unlikely to have been wholly supplanted. We may assume with great probability that these coins represent Jewish instruments, and in that case the biblical Linndr.