The Musical Myths and Facts (Vol. 1&2). Engel Carl

      COLLECTIONS OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

       Table of Contents

      In Thibet, and other Asiatic countries in which the Buddhist religion is established, variously-constructed musical instruments are generally deposited in a certain part of the temple, to be at hand for the priests when required in ceremonies and processions. In examining the Assyrian bas-reliefs in the British Museum, we are led to surmise that a similar custom prevailed in Western Asia before the Christian era. At any rate, it appears probable that the various instruments represented in the hands of musicians who assisted in religious rites observed by the king were usually deposited in a room appropriated to their reception. The same appears to have been the case in the Temple of Jerusalem. King David had, it is recorded, musical instruments made of a wood called berosh, which afterwards, under the reign of Solomon, were made of algum, or almug, a more precious wood imported from foreign districts. King Solomon, being in possession of superior instruments, probably preserved the inferior ones of his father as venerated memorials; and the kinnor upon which David played before Saul may have been as carefully guarded by King Solomon as the Emperor of Germany guards in his cabinet of curiosities the flute of Frederick the Great.

      Howbeit, Josephus records that Solomon had made for the musical performances at the dedication of the Temple a large number of stringed instruments and trumpets, all of which were kept together in the Temple with the treasures. It is not likely that at so early a period collections of antiquated instruments were formed for any scientific purpose; the art of music was too much in its infancy to suggest the preservation of evidences elucidating its gradual development.

      The collections of ancient and scarce musical instruments which, in modern time, have been made in several European countries are very interesting to the lover of music, although they have, in most instances, evidently been formed less with the object of illustrating the history of the art of music than for the purpose of preserving curious and tasteful relics of bygone time, or of exhibiting characteristic contrivances of foreign nations.

      In Italy some of the Conservatories of Music possess antiquated instruments of great rarity. Curious old spinets, lutes, mandolines, and guitars, are said to be found dispersed among private families and in convents, especially in Naples and its vicinity. In the Liceo Comunale di Musica, at Bologna, are deposited above fifty instruments, among which are an Italian cither (cetera) of the beginning of the sixteenth century; an archlute by "Hieronymus Brensius, Bonon" (Bologna); a chitarrone, by "Matteo Selles, alla Corona in Venetia, 1639;" a chitarrone inscribed "In Padova Uvendelio Veneto, 1609;" a theorbo by "Hans Frei in Bologna, 1597;" a lute by "Magno Stegher in Venetia." A lute, "Magno Dieffopruchar a Venetia, 1612." This lute has fourteen strings arranged in seven pairs, each pair being tuned in unison. Several marine trumpets, one of which bears the inscription, "Pieter Rombouts, Amsterdam, 17." A viola da gamba, inscribed "Antonius Bononiensis." A sordino, or pochette, by "Baptista Bressano," supposed to date from the end of the fifteenth century. Its shape is peculiar, somewhat resembling that of the Portuguese machête, representing a fish. A viola d'amore, with the inscription "Mattias Grieser, Lauten and Geigenmacher in Insbrugg, Anno 1727;" two curious old harps; an old tenor flute, measuring in length about three feet; some curious double flutes; cornetti, or zinken, of different dimensions. An archicembalo. This is a kind of harpsichord with four rows of keys, made after the invention of Nicolo Vicentino, and described in his work "L'Antica Musica ridotta alla moderna prattica. Rome, 1555." The compass of this archicembalo comprises only four octaves; but each octave is divided into thirty-one intervals, forming in all one hundred and twenty-five keys. It was made by Vito Trasuntino, a Venetian, who lived towards the end of the sixteenth century, and who added a tetracordo to it, to facilitate the tuning of its minute intervals. However, the archicembalo was probably not the first instrument of the harpsichord kind which contained an enharmonic arrangement of intervals. The clavicymbalum perfectum, or Universal-clavicymbel, which Prætorius states he saw in Prague, and which was likewise made in the sixteenth century, was of a similar construction. One of the most singular instruments in the collection of the Liceo Comunale de Musica at Bologna is the cornamusa, which consists of five pipes inserted into a cross-tube, through which they are sounded. Four of the pipes serve as drones; and the fifth, which is the largest, is provided with finger-holes, like the chanter of a bagpipe. The instrument has, however, no bag, although it is probably the predecessor of the species of bagpipe called cornamusa.

      Instruments played with a bow of the celebrated Cremona makers are at the present day more likely to be met with in England than in Italy. In the beginning of the present century Luigi Tarisio, an Italian by birth, and