MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS - online book

The History And Development Of Musical Instruments From The Earliest Times.

Share page

Visit Us On FB

	92                   MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. lute and sometimes as a fiddle. In some measure we do the same with the violin by playing occasionally pizzicato. The rotta (shown p. 91) from the manuscript of St. Blasius is called in Gerbert's work cithara taiionica, while the harp is called cithara anglica; from which it would appear that the former was regarded as pre­eminently a German instru­ment. Possibly its name may have been originally chrotia and the continental nations may have adopted it from the Celtic races of the British isles, dropping the guttural sound. This hypo­thesis is, however, one of ose which have been ad­vanced by some musical his­torians without any satis­factory evidence. We engrave also another representation of David play­ing on the rotta, from a .psalter of the seventh century in the British museum (Colt. Vesp. A. I). According to tradition, this psalter is one of the manuscripts which were sent by pope Gregory to St. Augustine. The instrument much resembles the lyre in the hand of the musician (see p. 22) who is supposed to be a Hebrew of the time of Joseph. In the rotta the ancient Asiatic lyre is easily to be recognized. An illumination of king David playing the rotta forms the frontispiece of a manuscript of the eighth century pre­served in the cathedral library of Durham; and which is musi-

>