THE DOUBLE PIPE. Probably the _mishrokitha_ mentioned in Daniel. The
_mishrokitha_ is represented in the drawings of our histories of music
as a small organ, consisting of seven pipes placed in a box with a
mouthpiece for blowing. But the shape of the pipes and of the box as
well as the row of keys for the fingers exhibited in the representation
of the _mishrokitha_ have too much of the European type not to suggest
that they are probably a product of the imagination. Respecting the
illustrations of Hebrew instruments which usually accompany historical
treatises on music and commentaries on the Bible, it ought to be borne
in mind that most of them are merely the offspring of conjectures
founded on some obscure hints in the Bible, or vague accounts by the
Rabbins.
THE SYRINX OR PANDEAN PIPE. Probably the _ugab_, which in the English
authorized version of the Bible is rendered “organ.”
THE BAGPIPE. The word _sumphonia_, which occurs in the book of
Daniel, is, by Forkel and others, supposed to denote a bagpipe. It
is remarkable that at the present day the bagpipe is called by the
Italian peasantry Zampogna. Another Hebrew instrument, the _magrepha_,
generally described as an organ, was more likely only a kind of
bagpipe. The _magrepha_ is not mentioned in the Bible but is described
in the Talmud. In tract Erachin it is recorded to have been a powerful
organ which stood in the temple at Jerusalem, and consisted of a case
or wind-chest, with ten holes, containing ten pipes. Each pipe was
capable of emitting ten different sounds, by means of finger-holes or
some similar contrivance: thus one hundred different sounds could be
produced on this instrument. Further, the _magrepha_ is said to have
been provided with two pairs of bellows and with ten keys, by means of
which it was played with the fingers. Its tone was, according to the
Rabbinic accounts, so loud that it could be heard at an incredibly long
distance from the temple. Authorities so widely differ that we must
leave it uncertain whether the much-lauded _magrepha_ was a bagpipe,
an organ, or a kettle-drum. Of the real nature of the Hebrew bagpipe
perhaps some idea may be formed from a syrinx with bellows, which has
been found represented on one of the ancient terra-cottas excavated in
Tarsus, Asia-minor, some years since, and here engraved. These remains
are believed to be about 2000 years old, judging from the figures upon
them, and from some coins struck about 200 years B.C. having been found
embedded with them. We have therefore before us, probably, the oldest
representation of a bagpipe hitherto discovered.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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