CHAPTER 7: Controversies and Misunderstandings

11 of 17 - Connections with the Pantaleon in France

"Von dort [Deutschland] wurde es dann nach Italien ... und Frankreich, wo das instrument nicht mehr mit Hämmern geschlagen, sondern nur gezupft wurde"(9)

'... to France... where the instrument was no longer hammered but only plucked' (van der Meer); striking techniques are mentioned by Mersenne, Furetière, Diderot and Laborde and illustrated in earlier paintings, a point with which Dr. van der Meer concurs.

He continues:

"Curious is, however, that Diderot and d'Alembert consider the struck type to be 'modern'. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that the striking was still known to Mersenne, but then disappeared. Afterwards, after Pantaleon Hebenstreit gave his concerts at Paris, the striking was again introduced and considered as 'modern'"(2)

- but this does not fit either: Diderot and d'Alembert borrowed their account from earlier writers from the period between Mersenne and themselves, and it seems clear from the earlier part of their section that the distinction is between Hebrew times and those of the Baroque and later.

No sources so far located connect the tympanon as played in 17th and 18th century France with the Pantaleon in any practical way.