body, and the frame began to be more or less ela- borately ornamented. While playing, the musi-
must look for a harp that satisfies the latter condition. And this we find, again among a
MUSIC
MUSIC 461
Semitic people, in Assyria. On the bas-relief at conga! there are seven of these harps. They
are portable, are triangular in shape, and are sup- ported by a belt worn by the player. The reson- ance-frame slopes upwards and forwards from the pisyer and is pierced by holes, and the strings
escend from it to a bridge or string-holder be- neath which they fall. The performer plays while marching, using both hands without plectrum. While, of course, certainty is out of the question, this Assyrian harp seems to satisfy the requisite conditions best, and is most likely to have been the biblical nebel.
It is highly probable that there were different species of kinnors and nebels, but whether these are designated in the OT or not is unknown. In one case this is almost certain. The wy 53; of Ps 33? and 144°, or simply *#y Ps 92°, was in all likelihood a ten-stringe: ad
The meaning of the word nn (Gittith) in the headings of Ps 8. 81. 84 is wholly obscure. The LXX and Vulg. suggest the rendering ‘Song of the vintage’; but it may be derived from Gath, and may refer to a mode, or singers, or instruments named after that town. Ewald understands it to be ‘the March of the Gittite guard.’
The meaning ‘Gittite instruments’ is rendered not improbable if we translate niody-by (1 Ch 15” and 46 times in Ps) with Wellhausen ‘on Elamite instruments.’ This term is, however, more gener- ally taken to mean ‘ with women’s voice’ (lit. ‘on or acc. to damsels’; RV ‘set to’ ‘by as name of a tune, which is quite ible), i.e. soprano, and to refer to instruments of a higher pitch.
Néginoth (niv33) has sometimes been taken to denote a particular kind of instrument, but it is a general term for string music. In Ps 68% we bave any contrasted with 033, t.e. the singers with the players.
(c) This division of the orchestra is supplenented by instruments which occur only in the Book of Daniel (3°). These are the psantérin (72303), the kitharig (Ὁ), and the sgabbekha (xp2p). The psantérin* is the Greek ψαλτήριον, and that is all we know definitely about it. It has been identified by some with the magadis, but this is itself only a seneral term for an instrument (most commonly,
owever, a lyre) which could be played in octaves ; and with a dulcimer because of the retention of the word in the Arabic santir. But psantérin may just as well have kept its original force, and have denoted a harp played with both hands. There is nothing to lead us to identify it with the dulcimer represented on Assyrian monuments. The kitharist is the Greek κιθάρα.
The sabbekhat is the Greek σαμβύκη. But the sambuca is itself a word of very varied import. Stainer (Mus. of the Bible, p. 39) concludes that it was a large and powerful harp of a rich quality of tone, ἘΞ 1aps similar to, if not identical with, the great Egyptian harp. Weiss (Mus. Inst. p. 67) goes to the opposite extreme, and holds that it was a small ¢rigon characterized by a high shrill tone, and used to accompany female voices. Chappell Hist. of Mus. p. 255) summarizes the various mean- ings given to the word in Greek writers: it was either a trigon, a barbitos or many-stringed lyre, a lyropheniz or Phoenician lyre, a Greek lyre, a magadis, & pipe, a dulcimer, or a siege-ladder ; in short, anything made of elder-wood. It was not, however, a ‘sackbut,’ i.e. a trombone.
2. Wind Instruments.—(a) Of these the one in most general use was the flute or Adlil (Sn). It has been denied that it was ever used to accompany
* In Dn 39.10.15 the word is spelt 1 ἼΒ) 05, in v.7 ] p39. t Dn 85.1.10. 16, Kethibh ovn'p, Keré OUD (as in Targums). $ Baer reads xp2y-
sacred song, but this is very doubtful. In1S 10} and 1K 1* it is played in descending from and pecndne to the High Place, and its tones accom- panied the festal processions of pilgrims from the country (Is 30”). In the eg temple it was ΣΙ ed before the altar on twelve days: the day of illing the first and that of killing the second Passover, the first day of unleavened bread, Pente- cost, and the eight days of the Feast of Tabernacles (Erachin ii. 3, Succah ν. 1). While the singers required to be Levites, other distinguished Israel- ites might perform on the instruments. The flute was also used at marriage feasts and funerals: in the time of Christ, even the poorest were expected to provide two flautists at a funeral. lute-like instruments date from the very earliest times. From the first, two kinds are met with—the long flute, played by blowing in one end and held straight before the player, and the oblique flute, played by blowing in a hole at the side. Both these kinds are depicted on the Egyptian monu- ments. Double flutes are also shown in the Ἐεγρίῖαα and Assyrian monuments; they were probably preferred as giving the performer a eater range or compass. The material of which fates were made was at first the reed, then wood of various kinds, and lastly bone and ivory.