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Sunday, April 27, 2014

The Evolution Of The Psalteries

By Essie Osborn


During the olden times, many musicians would make use of a beautiful string instrument that is known as the psaltery in order to entertain royal families. In those old times, psalteries were small square string instruments that one would play by strumming and plucking just like a guitar. Today, this instrument has evolved and has become very popular among those who like string instruments.

For those who do not know what this instrument looks like, it is a triangular shaped instrument that has some strings and some pins. It also comes with a bow wherein one will be able to make the strings sound with it. Now although people usually play it with a bow, it can also be played by strumming or plucking with hands like a guitar.

Now even though the original psaltery was created quite a very long time ago, the bowed version was only invented during the twentieth century. The earliest version was made sometime during the reign of king Nebuchadnezzar from the Bible wherein his servants would use it in order to entertain him. So as one can see, this instrument had a very rich history which began even during the Bible times.

Now other than the Bible, one could actually also find some records of this instrument that would date back to the Medieval period or even the Renaissance period. Of course during this time, this instrument was already slightly modernized in order to sound better. The middle of the psaltery now had a hole so that the sound could echo further and make a solid sound.

Now the modern world saw the popularity of this old instrument rise in the year nineteen twenty five. The modern version that many people are more familiar with was first created by German company Clemens Neuber Company who patented their creation. This was the modern version that was much bigger than the old one and could be played with bows similar to that of the violin bow.

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 the end of the Second World war saw the wide popularity of this thing known as the psaltery. It was first popularized by none other than the musical teacher Edgar Stahmer as he used it when conducting his music classes. German primary school teacher Walter Mittman followed in his footsteps and eventually made the instrument even more popular.

Nowadays, musicians and instrument makers have created a lot of ways to actually play this instrument. In fact, there are so many types of bows that were created like the bamboo bow, the wooden bow. Because of its evolution from the plucked psaltery, there have been many innovative ways that one can make music with this.




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