Musical Instruments
Instruments Used In Downe In Yon Forrest
When Mysterium and I play Medieval carols in concert, we seek to use both
ancient and modern instruments together, in an attempt both to evoke the
sense and style in which the Medieval Europeans heard them, as well as in
an attempt to render them accessible and compelling to modern listeners.
Our culture today is built upon the customs of the past, and the present
can only exist upon the foundation of the past. In this blend of instruments,
we seek to make that truth palpable.
We also utilize instruments both from the East and the West, since the formation
of the Medieval Christmas carols (as well as their original performances) depended
upon a brew of musical modalities and religious ideas from both East and West
(remember that the Christianity celebrated in the songs was originally a Middle
Eastern Faith). Today, as we inhabit a burgeoning world-culture, where East and
West are again (as in the Middle Ages) exchanging artistic, economic, and political
ideas, we hope to present the musical fruit of the Middle Ages as a symbol of hope for the future.
---Kemper Crabb
History of the Guitar
The modern guitar is descended from the Roman cithara brought by the Romans to Spain around 40 AD,
and further adapted and developed with the arrival of the four-string oud, brought by the Moors after
their conquest of the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century. Elsewhere in Europe, the indigenous six-string
Scandinavian lut (lute), had gained in popularity in areas of Viking incursions across the continent.
Often depicted in carvings c. 800 AD, the Norse hero Gunther (also known as Gunnar), played a lute with
his toes as he lay dying in a snake-pit, in the legend of Siegfried. By 1200 AD, the four string "guitar"
had evolved into two types: the guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar) which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard
and several soundholes, and the guitarra latina (Latin guitar) which resembled the modern guitar with
one soundhole and a narrower neck.
History of the Sitar
The sitar is a long-necked lute with a gourd-shaped resonating bowl, and 21, 22, or 23 strings,
some of which are sympathetic strings, which sound when the other stings are plucked, creating a buzz
as a drone behind the plucked melody strings.
In the western world the sitar is perhaps the most well known musical instrument of India. It's sound
evokes thoughts and feelings of the sub-continent. It is believed to have evolved into its present form in
the 1700's, during the collapse of the Moghul Empire, as a marriage between the Persian Setar and the
South-Indian Vina, while using the characteristically resonant bridge of the Tampura.
It is clear that the sitar as we think of it today developed in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent at the end
of the Moghul era. It is also clear that it evolved from the Persian lutes that had been played in the Moghul
courts for hundreds of years. The "Sangeet Sudarshana" states that the sitar was invented in the 18th century
by a fakir named Amir Khusru. It is said that he developed this instrument from the Persian Sehtar.
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family (plucked, or strummed). It is descended from the mandore,
a soprano member of the lute family. It has a body with a teardrop-shaped soundboard, or one which is essentially
oval in shape, with a soundhole, or soundholes, of varying shapes which are open and are not decorated with an
intricately carved grille like the Baroque era mandolins.
Originally mandolins had six double courses of gut strings tuned similarly to lutes, and plucked with the fingertips,
while the design common today has eight metal strings in four pairs (courses) which are plucked with a plectrum or pick.
The latter originated in Naples, Italy during the 3rd quarter of the 18th century.
In Greece, this instrument was known as the Pandura or pandourion, also called the "trichordo" because it had
three strings; it was the first fretted instrument known, forerunner of the various families of lutes worldwide.
The source of our knowledge about this instrument is the Mantinea Marble (4th century BC, now exhibited at the
National Archeological Museum of Athens), depicting the mythical contest between Apollo and Marsyas, where a
pandouris is being played by a muse seated on a rock.
From Byzantine times it was called the tambouras. The modern Turkish Tanbur is practically identical to the
ancient Greek pandouris.
The Turkish Saz belongs to the same family of instruments as the bouzouki. A middle-sized kind of saz is called
a "bozouk saz". Bozouk in Turkish means "broken, not functioning, modified". Here it is used in order to specify
the size of the instrument. It is concluded, therefore, that the bouzouki has been named after the jargon of the
Turkish saz. An alternative popular etymology maintains that the word "Bozouk" was used because different tunings
(the Turkish 'düzen') are required for the instrument to play in different musical scales (known as Dromoi in Greek,
Maqam (pl. Maqamat) in Arabic). A tuning known as the "bozouk düzeni" (broken tuning) still exists in Greek folk music.
The early bouzoukia were mostly Three-string (Trichordo), with three courses (six strings in three pairs) and
were tuned in different ways, as to the scale one wanted to play.
After the late '50s, four-course (Tetrachordo) bouzoukia started to appear. The four-course Bouzouki was
made popular by Manolis Chiotis. Chiotis also used a tuning akin to standard guitar tuning, which made it
easier for guitarists to play bouzouki, even as it angered purists.
The Irish bouzouki, with four courses, a flatter back, and differently tuned from the Greek bouzouki, is
a more recent development, dating back to the 1960s.
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes —
whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of
the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple. It is distinguished from other members
of the family by having holes for seven fingers (the lower one or two often doubled to facilitate the production
of semitones) and one for the thumb of the uppermost hand. The bore of the recorder is tapered slightly, being
widest at the mouthpiece end of it (Baroque recorders) and narrowest at the top, flared almost like a trumpet
at the bottom (Renaissance instruments).
No one knows for certain when the recorder originated. Guillaume de Machaut (1300 - 1377) writes about a variety
of "flutes", some of which might have been recorders.
The oldest known recorder was found in the moat of a fortified house in Dordrecht in Holland. The house was known
to have been occupied between 1335 and 1418 when it was abandoned following an assault.
Part of an instrument which was probably a recorder was recovered from a well in Wurtzburg in Germany and has a
suggested fourteenth century date. It is likely, therefore, that the recorder emerged sometime during the second half
of the fourteenth century.
During the fifteenth century, the recorder came into more widespread use, being added to the range of "soft"
instruments suitable to be played by well-to-do amateurs. Evidence from paintings suggest that at this time, the
recorder was often played with various combinations of harp, fiddle and lute.
In the sixteenth century, the way the recorder was used changed, becoming a consort instrument, with instruments
of different sizes being played together. In the early sixteenth century, three sizes of recorder were commonly used
to play four part pieces; bass in F, tenor in c and treble in g. There were a succession of publications during the
sixteenth century describing techique and, in some cases illustrating instruments. As well as a consort instrument,
the recorder continued to played in combination with string and keyboard instruments.
History of the Violin
A violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, regardless of the type of music played on it. The word "violin" comes
from the Middle Latin word vitula, meaning "stringed instrument"; this word is also believed to be the source of the Germanic
"fiddle". The violin, while it has ancient origins, acquired most of its modern characteristics in 16th-century Italy with some
further modifications occurring in the 18th century.
The violin is generally strung with gut or steel strings. Someone who plays the violin is called a violinist or a fiddler. He
or she produces sound from a violin by either drawing a bow (normally held in the right hand) across one or more strings (which
may be stopped by the fingers of the other hand to produce a full range of pitches), plucking the strings (with either hand), or
a variety of other techniques.
History of the Mountain Dulcimer
The dulcimer is usually 75 to 90 cm long, its width varying according to the shape of the soundbox, commonly hourglass or
teardrop, although oval, diamond, rectangular, and other shapes are also used. There are many variants in design and construction,
including smaller child-sized and larger concert-sized instruments.
Traditional instruments had three strings, the melody, middle, and bass. Additional strings sometimes doubled the original three,
most frequently the melody string in order to give a greater volume to the melody line. Contemporary dulcimers frequently include
extra string notches so that a fourth string can either double the melody string or be equidistant between the melody and middle
strings. Strings were generally metal and borrowed from other instruments, but strings specifically for dulcimer are now manufactured.
The fingerboard was divided by metal frets into two and a half to three octaves of a diatonic scale, rendering the dulcimer
a modal instrument. The two most commonly used modes seem to have been the ionian (major scale) beginning on the third fret
and the mixolydian, beginning on the open string. The dorian (4th fret) and aeolian (1st fret) were probably also used.
Contemporary dulcimers frequently include a 6 1/2 fret, and some makers now offer a 1 1/2 fret or even a complete chromatically
fretted instrument.
On traditional dulcimers the strings are tuned according to the mode being used. Two common ionian tunings had the melody and
middle strings at the same pitch, a fifth or octave above the bass string. Other tunings included the melody and bass strings an
octave apart with the middle string a fifth above the bass or the strings tuned to create either a major or minor chord.
Contemporary players have devised even more tunings and have adopted the use of capos to change keys without retuning.
Traditional playing styles on the dulcimer were probably varied, consisting of adaptations of other instrumental techniques, notably
the bowing of the scheitholt and fiddle and the strumming by hand or plectrum of the banjo and guitar. The instrument was usually
placed horizontally across a table or the player's lap with the right hand sounding the strings with fingers or a plectrum made
from wood or a feather quill while the left hand played a melody line by pressing down on the fretboard with a noter (usually a
rounded stick or twig) or fingers. Generally melodies were played on the first string only (the other strings functioned as drones)
resulting in a musical effect similar to that of bagpipes.
The word dulcimer is believed to have originated centuries ago. It was derived, it is thought, from the greek word "dulce"
(which means sweet) and the latin word "melos" (which means song). The Appalachian Dulcimer is not to be confused with its
biblical counterpart, the hammered dulcimer, rather in its current incarnation, it is believed to have evolved from a northern
European instrument, the German, "scheitholt" which like the Appalachian Dulcimer is played with a bow and plucked or strummed
as well. The instrument is found in many European cultures, Sweden, Holland, in various forms. In each of these countries the
instrument took on local characteristics . It is believed that this "scheitholt" made it to Appalachia toward the end of the
18th century, and once again it evolved and was modified to suit the needs of the local players.
It is commonly thought that the Appalachian dulcimer was widely used throughout the mountains and hollows of the Appalachian area.
But, technically the experts believe that in its heyday and prior to its recent reintroduction to folk music, there were perhaps as
few as 1,000 dulcimers throughout the whole region. There are as many shapes and styles of dulcimers as there are players and mountain
craftsmen. Except for adhering to a few basic conventions, the builder was free to explore options and possibilities in the creation
of the dulcimer.
History of the Bowed Psaltery
The conventional bowed psaltery is triangular in shape, allowing each string to extend a little farther than the one
before it, so that each can be individually bowed. Chromatic bowed psalteries have the sharps and flats on one side and
the diatonic notes on the opposite.
It is a psaltery in the traditional sense of a wooden soundbox with unstopped strings over the soundboard. It significantly
differs from the Medievalplucked psaltery only in that its strings are arranged to permit bowing. The soundboard has a soundhole
rose in the center. It is normally played with a smallbow, often made in the earlier semicircular style, rather than a modern
concave violin bow.
Historians have suggested that the psaltery, like the lute, came to the courts of Europe with Crusaders returning from the
Holy Land. A comparison between European Psalteries and Persian Santirs or Arabian Kanuns reveals a likely connection. Although
this explanation seems to be well founded and the most widely accepted, two other possibilities exist. The psaltery was well
known in Classical Greece and could easily have been brought to Europe by the conquering Romans along with the many other
items of Greek culture which they avidly acquired. Earlier still, the Phoenicians traded all over the Mediterranean and
along the Atlantic and North Sea coastlines of Europe. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that psalteries were
amongst the items traded by the Phoenicians for Cornish tin.
Psalteries declined in popularity as court instruments in the later Middle Ages in favor of virginals and spinets. Like many
other medieval instruments, however, the psaltery did not die out, but continued as a folk instrument passed down, in some versions
completely unaltered to the present time.
In the main we know from medieval paintings and sculptures that psalteries were originally played by plucking, either with the
fingers or a plectrum. This does not necessarily mean, however, that in medieval or Elizabethan times the psaltery was never played
with a bow. The exact origins of the bowed psaltery are shrouded in the mists of time. As a folk instrument, the use of the bow could
have gone unrecorded.
A harmonium is a free-standing musical keyboard instrument similar to a Reed Organ or Pipe Organ. It consists of free
reeds and sound is produced by air being blown through reeds resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion. The air
is supplied, as with the type of harmonium used in Indian music, by hand-operated bellows alternately depressed by the player.
The harmonium is also known as peti or baja. This instrument is not a native Indian instrument. It is a European
instrument which was imported in the 19th century. It is a reed organ with hand pumped bellows. Although it is a
relatively recent introduction, it has spread throughout the subcontinent.
Although this is a European invention, it has evolved into a truly bi-cultural instrument. The keyboard is European,
but it has a number of drone reeds which are particularly Indian. European models came in both hand pumped and foot pumped
models. The foot pumped models disappeared in India many years ago. This is because the foot pedals required one to sit in
a chair; something which is unusual for an Indian musician. Also the only advantage of the foot model was that it freed
both hands so that both melody and chords could be played. Indian music has no chords, so this was no advantage. Although
the hand pumped models required one hand to pump they were more portable and comfortable when played on the floor.
History of the Dumbek
Arabian in origin, the dumbek is commonly found in Turkey, the Balkan countries, and North Africa. The Dumbek is a
drum with a goblet or chalice-like shape. Also known as the Dombak, Doumbek, Darabuka, and Darbukka it is commonly
associated with Middle Eastern music, often as the lead voice of percussion. The name is an approximation of the two
basic sounds the drum makes: "Dum" (the bass tone) and "Bek" (the high-pitched crack from the edge of the drum). There is
actually a great deal of variety available in the sound.
History of the Djembe
A djembe is a skin covered hand drum, shaped like a large goblet,and meant to be played with bare hands.
The Djembe is named from the Djem tree, which is largely found in Mali was used originally used in the making
of Djembe shells. The In the Djembe creation process the shell would be carved in one piece, in the shape of
a goblet, with two open ends out of a significant section of a Djem tree. On the larger open end a animal (typically Goat)
skin was then stretched the top and secured by a special tightening process using rope. The process hasn't changed too
much today, except many djembes, use lugs rather than rope for tightening.
The traditional African way to play the Djembe is by standing. A should harness strap helps support the
drum and the lower portion of the drum rests between the legs. Sometimes the strap is even wrapped around the
players waist. Both hands are used to play the Djembe but the legs are also important for balancing and controlling
the instrument. The Djembe is played in countries around the globe now. It is also common to play Djembe while sitting
down. The players legs wrap around or 'hug' the shell for control but the should harness is not typically used or necessary
for the sitting position.
The Djembe produces a range of percussive sounds. This enables the Djembe to be used effectively as a bass drum or solo
instrument. It may have the widest range of tones of all hand drums.
History of the Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instument used in the classical, popular and religious music of
the Indian subcontinent and in Hindustani classical music. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums
of contrasting sizes and timbres. The term tabla is derived from an Arabic word, tabl, which simply means "drum".
Although the tabla is probably only a few hundred years old, the music of tabla goes back several thousand years to
the Vedic period. It is a modern vehicle for the expression of ancient music. According to one theory, the tabla was
invented in the 13th century by Amir Kushru (to whom some attribute the invention of the sitar), who is supposed to
have divided a Mridanga into two separate pieces. This explanation is unlikely, however, because there are temple carvings
of double hand drums resembling tabla that date back to 500 BC.