|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Greek melody, however, being overwhelmingly vocal and so normally constrained by the natural compass of the voice, may be supposed to have moved within much narrower limits, even in purely instrumental compositions; after all, the common instruments, the lyres and pipes, had a range matched to that of the voice. The extra capacity of the harp was probably used not to accommodate a peculiar style of harp melody that meandered up and down across two or three octaves, butin the main, at leastfor that doubling or answering of the basic melody in the upper or lower octave which we hear of in connection with this instrument.112 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Harps had similar tuning arrangements to lyres, the tension of the strings being adjusted at the neck by means of bandages, beads, or rings.113 Sometimes the neck of the pektis was raised off the player's thigh by a parallel bar below it, to protect the tuning from disturbance by contact. The strings were plucked with both hands; only exceptionally was a plectrum used.114 The female harpists who might be hired for parties were called psaltriai, literally 'pluckers'.115 In the later fourth century psalterion, 'plucking instrument', emerged as the ordinary generic word for the harp. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There is no special word for someone who sings to the harp (like kitharoidos, lyroidos, auloidos), and it is sometimes held that the instrument was not used to accompany the voice. Literary evidence, however, proves that it sometimes was, and while most harpists in art seem to have their mouths closed, there is at least one apparent exception.116 The fifth-century comic poets associate the harp with |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
112 Anac., Diogenes, above, n. 101; cf. Pind. fr. 125, Phrynichus, TrGF 3 F 11, Soph. fr. 412. Aristox. Harm 1.20 gives two and a half octaves as the maximum range of any one voice or instrument; but it is possible that he is leaving harps out of account. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
113 See R. Herbig. MDAI(A) 54 (1929), facing p. 168; 180-3 figs. 6-10; and his somewhat agnostic discussion. pp. 184-6. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
114 The evidence of art agrees with that of literary references, where plucking is often emphasized, and with the statement of Aristox. fr. 99. Only on two 4th-c. Italian vases is a plectrum shown (Paquette. 187 pl. VIIIa, 201 H14). In Mesopotamia there was a type of horizontal harp that was played with a plectrum, like a lyre, but vertical harps were played with the fingers alone, as also elsewhere in the ancient Near East. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
115 Ion, TrGF 19 F 22 (Lydian setting), Eubulus, Psaltria (title). Pl. Prt. 347d, Theopomp. FGrH 115 F 213, Men. fr. 264, Arist. Ath. Pol. 50. 2 (distinguished from kitharistriai, as the respective verbs are distinguished, Hdt. 1. 155. 4, SIG 578. 15ff. (Teos. 2nd c. BC). 959. 10 (Chios). Nic. Dam. FGrH 90 F 4 p. 334. 7 J.). There is a story that the Spartans fined a visiting harpist 'because he plays (kitharizei) with his fingers' (ps.Plut. Apophthegmata Laconica 233f.). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
116 Sappho 21, 22?, Phrynichus, TrGF 3 F 11 (oriental setting), Ion, TrGF 19 F 22 (Lydian), Eup. fr. 148, Plato Com. fr. 71. 14; New York 07.286. 35 (Paquette, 195 H2). |
|
|
|
|
|