Notes
1. Sendrey
considers Pi-santir to be the root of the name pesanterin
quite in isolation, apparently, for all other recent writers give psanterin
(etc.) as the root of santur - and continues
"from
this picture (that referred to in paragraph 17.1.1. above and the
etymology of the word pesanterin it becomes evident that the
Semitic peoples of Antiquity have known a dulcimer-like instrument...
Villoteau (36) and Fétis (37) link the two... Galpin defines
it (pesanterin) correctly as a dulcimer-like instrument...
The santir must have been known and used by Oriental peoples
much earlier than the psalterion by the Greeks" (38)
Unfortunately
Sendrey does not give any more detailed reasoning for his etymology
or consequent argument, and although most recent authors - notably Farmer
- take a different view, he does not mention any such, and only quotes
19th century scholars in support of his own; Farmer's case is much more
convincingly argued, and although it chronologically precedes Sendrey,
in substance it supercedes him, and Sendrey's view can therefore not
be accepted.
2. In
parentheses, it is interesting to note Marcuse's statement that bagpipes
did not exist at the time of the symponia (etc.) sources (34),
although Baines tentatively traces them from Aristophanes (39).
3. The
references to 'dulcimer' in the English versions of the Bible are rather
surprisingly taken at face value by a number of authors: of a Victorian
dulcimer in the Victoria & Albert Museum, Engel wrote "Modern
as this specimen is, it is of the old stamp, and may be regarded as
a faithful representation of the dulcimer mentioned in the English translation
of the Bible"(40). It is also fairly common in America to hear
the Biblical instruments spoken of as being actual rather than symbolic,
in terms such as the following:
"The
instrument started back in early times, maybe three thousand years
before Christ, and was at that time called the 'santir'. The Greeks,
being a very original people then took the instrument and developed
it with tunings of their own, and with adding bridges to the instrument,
they named it 'psaltery'. Then they passed it back to the original
people who played it ... and liking the name 'psaltery' very much,
but not wishing to use exactly the Greek expression, they called the
instrument a 'psanterim', with a p on the beginning of it.
Now they've completely done away with the p and they still
play the instrument in the Near East, calling it a 'santur', and that's
as much as I can tell you." (44).
"It
is no wonder that King Nebuchadnessar's decree was opposed, for the
sound of the dulcimer makes me feel much more like dancing than 'worshipping'
...
"All
evidence seems to indicate that the Appalachian dulcimer dates back
no more than 200 years and that bibles refer to the hammered type"
(42).
"They
tell me they have found a stone carving of some king holding a dulcimer.
But, anyway, it goes back to Biblical times at least. Dulcimers are
mentioned in chapter three of Daniel, verses 5,10 and 15. Just make
sure you've got the King James Version" (43).
4. Whilst
the above amount to little more than romantic fantasy, more scholarly
opinions are given by Ogilvie, Weekley, Galpin, and editors of the Authorised
Version, all of whom reject the suggestion that symponia was
a dulcimer:
"Dulcimer
- an ancient musical instrument, the name of which has been used by
our Bible translators in rendering Daniel chap. iii ver.5. What its
precise nature and shape was is uncertain" (1859 (44)).
"Dulcimer:
... Orig. a stringed instrument and wrongly used (Dan iii,5 etc) for
bagpipe" (1921 (45)).
"Our
translators however, did the best they could to mark the grandeur
of the music used on this occasion, and as the exact explanation of
Assyrian instruments was beyond them, as in many details it is still
beyond us, they gave us a list of representative English instruments
used in their own day: for the 'cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery
and dulcimer' we should probably read 'the horn, pipe, lyre, harp,
psaltery and bagpipe'. " (46)
The
editors of the 1810 Authorised Version added two footnotes to the name
'dulcimer': "1. or singing 2. Chald. symphony"
Thus,
while it is beyond the scope of this study to prove positively that
there were no dulcimers in ancient times, the it can at least show that
the consensus of scholarly opinion is that there were none.