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Friday, April 18, 2014

The Origin 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.

Nowadays, this instrument has already become a little bit different as compared to its forefather as it is now bigger and has a triangular shape. Like its forefather, it has a bunch of strings that would make sound but the only difference here is that there are some pins attached to it. Unlike its forefather, the modern one uses a bow to make music.

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 aside from that, the psaltery was also mentioned during the Medieval times as an instrument that was played along with the zithers or harps. Now this version was different than the previously mentioned one as it was slightly bigger and had a sound hole that is located in the middle of the instrument. The purpose of this hole was to make the sound of the strings more apparent.

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.

After the creation of this one from the German company, the Americans tried to create something rather similar. They used Hawaiian culture as an inspiration for this type of instrument that they were creating. They called this creation of their the Ukelin and the sounds were actually quite similar to that of the Hawaiian ukulele.

Now this instrument really gained worldwide popularity after the ending World War II. A German primary school teacher known as Walter Mittman used the psaltery in some of his classes. He was following the footsteps of famous music teacher Edgar Stahmer who popularized the use of this instrument for classes.

In the modern world, the psaltery has withstood the test of time as many people still love to play it. The only difference is that nowadays, it can be played in so many ways with so many different bows. One can see that the instrument has not only withstood the test of time but it has also evolved over the years.




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