STRUMENTI MUSICALI. - I. IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Among the Hebrews, music was practiced primarily in religious manifestations by the priestly class in the Temple and outside it, and thus had an eminently sacred character. Of the musical instruments used by them, no exact indications are available regarding their form or precise terminology for each; valuable references are provided by Egyptian, Assyrian, and Phoenician civilizations, from which Israel drew its instrumental types.
Among stringed instruments, the Bible most often mentions the **nébhel** or large harp, probably of Phoenician origin, with 12 strings, which according to the historian Josephus was played with the fingers; the **kinnôr** or smaller harp, of lesser sonorous power and lower range, with ten strings, played with a plectrum and seemingly akin in form to the Greek *kithara*: this was the instrument David preferred to accompany the singing of his psalms and his dances around the Ark of the Covenant. More numerous are the wind instruments; among them the **ôphôr**, made from a ram’s horn, which, given the scant number of sounds it could produce (tonic, fifth, and octave), was not used for melodies but for signals—it is the only one still in use today in the Synagogue for the religious service celebrating the New Year; the **maghribah** was a powerful-sounding syrinx; the **hasôrâh** was a long silver trumpet played by priests (Solomon assembled 120 of them for the festival of the Dedication of the Temple; two **hasôrâh** are depicted in a relief inside the Arch of Titus); the **hâlîl** was a double-reed wind instrument of the oboe family; the **'âghâb** was a pastoral flute: it was used in the First Temple and is mentioned only in Psalm 150. Of the many percussion instruments, by far the most important are those required for the ritual of sacred dances, which were an integral part of Israelite liturgy: first the **tôph**, a kind of tambourine with which the prophetess Miriam accompanied the singing of Moses’ canticle (Ex. 15:20) and which Jephthah’s daughter joined in the dance (Judg. 11:34); other instruments of this kind include the **cimbalî** or bronze cymbals (**selsêlim**) played by the Levites, of which the **mê-siltajim** or castanets may be considered a variant; the **sâlîsîm** (triangles), used like the **tôph**, especially by women to accompany their dancing; the **mêna'an'im** or sistra, of which many examples are found in museums. The bells (**pa'dmônim**) of Egyptian derivation, which the high priest wore attached to the hem of his garment, cannot be said to have had a musical function but rather belonged to the ensemble of insignia accompanying the supreme priestly dignity.
Particularly noteworthy is the grouping of Hebrew musical instruments in the stable orchestra of the Temple: the minimum number of 12 players (the number 12 being sacred, corresponding to the identical number of singers, like the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 strings of the large **nébel** harp, etc.) consisted of 2 **nébel** (which could number up to 6), 9 **kinnôr** (which could be increased without limit), 2 **hâlîl** (which could rise to 12 and were used only on certain festivals), and a pair of **cimbalî**, i.e., a pair of cymbals. This basic nucleus was considerably expanded on special occasions, sometimes to hundreds or even thousands of performers. Accounts of such mass performances are given especially by the Jewish historian Josephus in his *Antiquitates Judaicae*, which, together with the Mishnah (c. 220 A.D.), constitute the most important sources in this regard.
II. IN THE EARLY CHURCH
Instruments not only had no place in official use but were sternly prohibited by all the Fathers, who saw in them signs of paganism. The Roman world had inherited from the Greeks the principal types of instruments, represented by the *kithara* and the lyre for stringed instruments, and by the various families of *auloi* for wind instruments. Some Fathers explain the abundance of instruments among the Jews as a special concession by God to the weakness of their spirit, and St. John Chrysostom includes in this concept even Christian communities recently converted from idolatry, which confirms the unofficial use of instruments such as the timbrel and the psaltery even among early Christians. Clement of Alexandria tolerates the lyre and the *kithara*, because they were used by King David, but admits their use only at agape feasts.
III. IN THE MIDDLE AGES
As regards the musical instruments used in the Church after the early centuries and in the early Middle Ages, it is not easy to give complete and exact references. Walafrid Strabo provides information about a rich instrumental practice, speaking in particular of the Abbey of Reichenau, where the school, founded in 824, provided an education including the theory and practice of singing as well as the art of playing various instruments: organ, harp, flute, trumpet, trombone, cornett, triangular zither, and three-stringed lyre. At the Abbey of St. Gall, too, the sons of nobles received from Tutilo a complete instrumental education: “in omnium genere fidium et fistularum,” as Ekkehard writes in *De casibus monasterii Sancti Galli*. In other chronicles and in many medieval treatises, instruments were increasingly documented and assigned a place, adapting also to the growing development of dance music. In the women’s monasteries of the 10th century, the *organistrum* had become widespread—a kind of vielle operated by a wheel under the strings instead of a bow, and because it was a nearly mechanical rather than artistic instrument, it was called “viola da orbo”: in Italy it was commonly called “ghironda,” in France “vielle (à roue),” and in England “hurdy-gurdy.” It had 4–6 strings (two of which were drone strings, and the others movable by means of buttons) and, in its larger models, was played by two people. After the year 1000, with the rise of early polyphonic forms, a system also developed of accompanying singing with certain instruments intended to reinforce and substitute for vocal parts, though it cannot be said with precision which and how many instruments were used, for example, in the *Cantoria* of Notre Dame in Paris, which is nevertheless one of the best known. On the occasion of a great feast in a church in Ghent in 1389, the use of trumpets, clarions, and instruments of every kind is attested by Jean Froissart (1338–c. 1410). With the *ars nova*, the instruments participating in sacred functions became more numerous and more closely connected with the very character of the compositions: traces of the use of organs and trumpets, for example, are found in the lower voices of Machaut’s Mass, which have an instrumental character, and in the Trent codices, works in which irregular intervals, overly abundant melismatic figurations, and unusual subdivisions of words under the notes reveal remnants of instrumental performances.
S. percussion instruments in the Middle Ages (timpani, crotali, tamburelli, bells, bronze cymbals, etc.) were characteristic of jongleurs and, in general, of secular music, especially dance music. One of the oldest string instruments is the harp, which dates back to the Hebrew *nébel* and, in Europe, to the *chihara Anglica* or Irish harp. The harp was widely used in the churches of France and Spain; in the latter, its use was preserved in the Cathedral of Pamplona until relatively recent times. Other string instruments include the lyre, psaltery, zither, lute, cithara, and guitar; the virginal, spinet, and harpsichord are plucked instruments, while the clavichord (the forerunner of the piano) is a percussion instrument. Among these keyboard instruments, the virginal was the one most widely used in women’s monasteries. It originated in the 15th century and saw particular development in the 1600s; it had a rectangular shape and a very sweet sound. A typical bowed instrument used in women’s monasteries since the Middle Ages and prevalent especially in the 17th century was the *tromba mariana*, an elongated instrument with a hexagonal body open at the bottom, fitted with a handle, and over a person’s height. It had one or at most two strings and was played with a bow, held against the shoulder. It was called *trompette marine* in France and *Trumschmitt* and *Nonnengeige* (nun’s fiddle) in Germany.
A rudimentary and very ancient type of wind instrument is the Greek *syrinx* or Pan’s flute, to which are added various flutes, both end-blown and transverse, fifes, the ocarina, and the organ; clarinets and saxophones are single-reed instruments (with a flexible reed situated near the mouthpiece that opens and closes the air tube), while double-reed instruments include oboes, bassoons, double bassoons, bagpipes, the harmonium, regal, and accordion. Among brass instruments are various types of simple horns, the *carretto*, *oficelle*, natural horn, and valved horn; the natural trumpet, keyed trumpet, slide trumpet, valve trombone, and valve trumpet.