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Wing Psaltery or Micanon
Harpsichord seems
to come from psaltery(lat.psalterium, from the Greek psalterion,
from psallo: " to sing playing the cithara").
From psallo comes
the name psalm. Psalms are 150 rythmical prayers to be singed partly
ascribed to King David, collected in the Psalm Book of the Jewish and Christian
Bible. Psaltery, thanks to its magic sound, was the instrument appointed
to accompany these prayers.
My
elaboration of this instrument is inspired to a Flemish Jan Van Eyck painting
entitled "The Grace Spring" (1423-1426 ca.) and preserved at the Prado
Museum of Madrid.
Two groups of three angel musicians are
represented in the central part of the painting. In the group on the right
one of the three angels is playing with quills a wing psaltery named also
"micanon" which is a half of a
"qanun". The qanun was and is still
nowadays an Arabian plucked psaltery introduced in Europe from North Africa
and through Spain about in the XI century.
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Copyright © 2001 Andrea Cavigliotti All rights reserved.