At 4:36 PM +1000 8/28/07, Kenneth Kuhlmann wrote:
Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
[re a greek word in a baroque score]
What does the Greek symbol and word mean?
Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
Looks like psi, with the full word reading psalmos (psalm).
Exactly so!
But consideration of the meaning of 'psalmos' has long pricked my
musicolgical curiosity. Perhaps some members of this list, more
informed of liturgical practice than me, can satisfy it.
I should explain that in its full sense 'psalmos' does not
specifically denote a biblical text or the musical setting of the
same; but more generally denotes a mode of musical performance; and
when applied to text referred to a text which was to be sung; and
sung most specifically with the accompaniment of a harp.
Hmm. One must be rather careful in assuming how words were actually
used, and what they actually meant in different situations, because
they can tie us up in knots. Do you happen to know when the Old
Testament Book of Psalms was first concatenated, and whether the
(presumably Hebrew) word for "Psalms" was attached as its title from
the beginning?
The other thing I would question is your assumption that the harp was
the stringed instrument that was meant. The two stringed instruments
best associated with Greek antiquity were the lyra and the kithara,
not the harp. No question that harps of various kinds were known in
antiquity, both arched harps (without forepillar) and angled harps
(with forepillars, and therefore capable of supporting greater string
tension). Most Egyptian drawings show the arched harp. But, "There
is little evidence of arched harps in Mesopotamia after the end of
the 3rd millennium BC, but later instruments of this type were
depicted in sculpture in India," and various places in Southeast
Asia. And, "Although Palestine was between two regions where the
harp was widely used--Mesopotamia and Egypt--its music was different,
and harps seem to have been unknown there until the 11th century BC
(when Israel became a kingdom) or perhaps even until Hellenistic
thimes, about a millennium later. Flavius Josephus (b. AD37 or 38)
stated that the strings of the nebel (which was possibly a harp) were
thicker and rougher than those of the kinnor (a lyre, which was
probably the instrument played by King David, despite medieval
iconography of him as a harpist)." The medieval use of terminology
is rather hopelessly confused, but medieval artists depicted
instruments that they were familiar with, not instruments from
antiquity which they had never seen, whether in angel bands or in
other settings.
(All quotations from New Grove I, "Harp.")
My classical greek lexicon explains 'psalmos' in these terms
1. a pulling or twanging of musical strings with the fingers;
2. a strain or burst of music;
later meaning, a song sung to a stringed instrument; a psalm.
A closely related word is 'psalma' meaning explicitly a tune played
on a stringed instrument.
Another relative is 'psalter' meaning a harp player
These words derive from a verb 'psallo' meaning, iner alia,
to pull and let go again, to pull, twang with the fingers;
to play a stringed instrument with the fingers instead of with the
plectrum;
later meaning, to sing to a harp.
I will not argue your definitions, since I cannot, except for the
word "harp," but bridging the gap between practice and terminology in
classical Greece and liturgical practice in the early Christians
church seems a bit of a stretch. They were two very different
worlds, and in fact the early church fathers did what they could to
stamp out all influences from pagan Greece and Rome.
The liturgical tradition with which I am familiar does not include
the use of the harp; but, faced with this lexical evidence, I think
I am entitled to conclude that the depiction of angels playing harps
is not merely a charming painter's whim but a clear reference to an
ancient tradition of liturgical practice.
No, I don't really think you are so entitled. Not a painter's whim,
but the depiction of instruments they were familiar with, and at a
time when "the ancients" were one's grandfathers' generation! What
they knew of antiquity was basically nothing!
Assuming the harp did have its place in liturgy, I am curious as to
As I suggested, an unsupported assumption.
a) whether there are any extant religious traditions (Christian or
otherwise) in which the use of the harp remains an essential part of
liturgical practice; and
I'm no expert, but I don't know of any, at least in Christian use.
b) in the cases where it is no longer used, when and why did its use cease.
Not a valid question if there never was such a tradition. Now we DO
know, from various writings, that harp was used to accompany secular
song in the middle ages, and from various iconography that the harp
with forepillar as we would recognize it was known in the middle
ages. Christopher Page wrote an entire monograph on the subject,
although the examples he gives have a tendency to "prove" the exact
opposite of his predetermined assumptions.
I wish I knew more about these fascinating matters, Kenneth. In fact
it's quite amazing how much we do NOT know! What I do know is that
relying exclusively on lexigraphical "evidence" puts one on rather
dangerous ground.
John
--
John R. Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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