A Historical Account of Useful Inventions and Scientific Discoveries: Being a manual of instruction and entertainment.Grant, George
History
A Historical Account of Useful Inventions and Scientific Discoveries: Being a manual of instruction and entertainment.
Grant, George
Inventions -- History
If its origin was as previously suggested by Collins, there is occasion
to believe the shepherd’s simple life afforded it first existence; in
the native and wild notes of the pastoral reed, may be discovered the
germ of a science as various as its effects are beautiful. We shall for
the present presume the simple Pandean pipe was the first effort of
the construction of musical instruments; its soft tone being analogous
to the dulcet harmony of the voice. We are led to suppose this from
the evidence of ancient statuary, where those pipes are frequently
discovered; and this will, perhaps, deduce its origin from the
invention of the shepherd god, or oldest Pan. Nevertheless, the lyre,
or harp, is alleged from records the most ancient, having at first but
three strings, analogous to the three seasons of the primeval year; the
treble typical of spring, the tenor resembling summer, and the bass
representing winter.
The invention of that instrument, and of music altogether, is claimed
in the pagan world by Amphion, a successor of Cadmus, the first king
of Thebes, in Bœtia, who is reported, by the music of his harp or lyre
to have built the walls of the city; Cadmus having erected the citadel
only.
Flutes were first invented by Hyognis, the Phrygian, about the year
1506 before Christ, and first played on the flute the harmony, called
Phrygian, and other tunes of the mother of the gods, of Dionysius, of
Pan, and of the divinities of the country and the heroes. Terpander
also, who was the son of Derdineus, the Lesbian, directed the flute
players to reform the tunes of the ancients, and changed the old music,
about the year 645 before Christ, as we are informed by the Parian
Chronicle. The same Terpander, likewise, added three more strings to
the lyre.
When Timotheus, the Spartan musician, was banished his native country
for having increased his strings to the number of ten, he sought refuge
at the court of Macedon, and accompanied his patron, Alexander, into
Persia, when that prince conquered Darius.
From the sacred records of Judea, we may also infer the invention of
musical instruments at a date long prior to either of the periods above
mentioned, when they inform us in Genesis iv. 21, that Adah, one of the
wives of Lamech, had two sons, the name of one of whom was Jubal, who
is said to have been “the father of all such who handle the harp and
organ.” This infers the anterior invention of that instrument.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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