The Evolution Of The Psalteries

By Essie Osborn


During the olden times, many musicians would make use of a beautiful string instrument that is known as the psaltery in order to entertain royal families. In those old times, psalteries were small square string instruments that one would play by strumming and plucking just like a guitar. Today, this instrument has evolved and has become very popular among those who like string instruments.

Now just to give people an idea of what this instrument looks like, it is actually a triangle shaped box with a few strings on it and a little bit of pins. In the modern setting, people would make use of bows to make music just like one would do with a violin. Now even if this is the normal way to play it, a lot of people would still use their hands and play it like a harp or guitar.
Now the original psaltery was not what the modern psaltery would look like as the modern psaltery was only created some time during the twentieth century. Now the old version was a square shaped instrument that did not come at all with a bow so people really had to use their hands to play it. This old version was first mentioned in the Bible during the time of the famous king known as King Nebuchadnezzar.

Now other than the Bible, one could actually also find some records of this instrument that would date back to the Medieval period or even the Renaissance period. Of course during this time, this instrument was already slightly modernized in order to sound better. The middle of the psaltery now had a hole so that the sound could echo further and make a solid sound.

It was only during the nineteen twenties that the bowed version was introduced into the modern world. It was created by a German and a patent of it was issued to the German company Clemens Neuber Company which meant that only they could reproduce the instrument during that time. During this time, they were known as violin zithers and it was also during this time that they began to get really popular.

After the original bowed psaltery, the Americans tried to create something similar but with some Hawaiian inspiration to it. They called this the Ukelin and this was usually used to make music during Hawaiian themed parties or luaus that would take place. Now the Hawaiians did have their own version of this instrument and was often used by people as a hobby.

Now the end of the Second World war saw the wide popularity of this thing known as the psaltery. It was first popularized by none other than the musical teacher Edgar Stahmer as he used it when cond
It was only during the nineteen twenties that the bowed version was introduced into the modern world. It was created by a German and a patent of it was issued to the German company Clemens Neuber Company which meant that only they could reproduce the instrument during that time. During this time, they were known as violin zithers and it was also during this time that they began to get really popular.

After the original bowed psaltery, the Americans tried to create something similar but with some Hawaiian inspiration to it. They called this the Ukelin and this was usually used to make music during Hawaiian themed parties or luaus that would take place. Now the Hawaiians did have their own version of this instrument and was often used by people as a hobby.

Now the end of the Second World war saw the wide popularity of this thing known as the psaltery. It was first popularized by none other than the musical teacher Edgar Stahmer as he used it when conducting his music classes. German primary school teacher Walter Mittman followed in his footsteps and eventually made the instrument even more popular.

These days, many people still play this instrument as a hobby. Now there have been many innovative ways that were created in order for people to play them. From the traditional hand plucking and strumming method, people were then able to play them with bows and nowadays there are many types of bows that one can play this instrument with.




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