The harp,chang, in olden time a favourite instrument of the Persians, has gradually fallen into desuetude. The illustration of a small harp given in the woodcut has been sketched from the celebrated sculptures, perhaps of the sixth century, which exist on a stupendous rock, called Tackt-i-Bostan, in the vicinity of the town of Kermanshah. These sculptures are said to have been executed during the lifetime of the Persian monarch Khosroo Purviz. They form the ornaments of two lofty arches, and consist of representations of field sports and aquatic amusements. In one of the boats is seated a man in an ornamental dress, with a haloround his head, who is receiving an arrow from one of his attendants; while a female, who is sitting near him, plays on a Trigonon. Towards the top of the bas-relief is represented a stage, on which are performers on small straight trumpets and little hand drums; six harpers; and four other musicians, apparently females,—the first of whom plays a flute; the second, a sort of pandean pipe; the third, an instrument which is too much defaced to be recognizable; and the fourth, a bagpipe. Two harps of a peculiar shape were copied by Sir Gore Ousely from Persian manuscripts about four hundred years old resembling, in the principle on which they are constructed, all other oriental harps. There existed evidently various kinds of thechang. It may be remarked here that the instrumenttschenk(orchang) in use at the present day in Persia, is more like a dulcimer than a harp. The Arabs adopted the harp from the Persians, and called itjunk. An interesting representation of a Turkish woman playing the harp (p. 53) sketched from life by Melchior Lorich in the seventeenth century, probably exhibits an old Persianchang; for the Turks derived their music principally from Persia. Here we have an introduction into Europe of the oriental frame without a front pillar.
The Persians appear to have adopted, at an early period, smaller musical intervals than semitones. When the Arabs conquered Persia (A.D.641) the Persians had already attained a higher degree of civilisation than their conquerors. The latter found in Persia the cultivation of music considerably in advance of their own, and the musical instruments superior also. They soon adopted the Persian instruments, and there can be no doubt that the musical system exhibited by the earliest Arab writers whose works on the theory of music have been preserved was based upon an older system of the Persians. In these works theoctave is divided in seventeenone-third-tones—intervals which are still made use of in the east. Some of the Arabian instruments are constructed so as to enable the performer to produce the intervals with exactness. The frets on the lute andtamboura, for instance, are regulated with a view to this object.
The Arabs had to some extent become acquainted with many of the Persian instruments before the time of their conquest of Persia. An Arab musician of the name of Nadr Ben el-Hares Ben Kelde is recorded as having been sent to the Persian king Khosroo Purviz, in the sixth century, for the purpose of learning Persian singing and performing on the lute. Through him, it is said, the lute was brought to Mekka. Saib Chatir, the son of a Persian, is spoken of as the first performer on the lute in Medina,A.D.682; and of an Arab lutist, Ebn Soreidsch from Mekka,A.D.683, it is especially mentioned that he played in the Persian style; evidently the superior one. The lute,el-oud, had before the tenth century only four strings, or four pairs producing four tones, each tone having two strings tuned in unison. About the tenth century a string for a fifth tone was added. The strings were made of silk neatly twisted. The neck of the instrument was provided with frets of string, which were carefully regulated according to the system of seventeen intervals in the compass of an octave before mentioned. Other favourite stringed instruments were thetamboura, a kind of lute with a long neck, and thekanoon, a kind of dulcimer strung with lamb’s gut strings (generally three in unison for each tone) and played upon with two little plectra which the performer had fastened to his fingers. Thekanoonis likewise still in use in countries inhabited by Mahomedans. The engraving, taken from a Persian painting at Teheran, represents an old Persiansantir, the prototype of our dulcimer, mounted with wire strings and played upon with two slightly curved sticks.
Al-Farabi, one of the earliest Arabian musical theorists known, who lived in the beginning of the tenth century, does not allude to the fiddle-bow. This is noteworthy inasmuch as it seems in some measure to support the opinion maintained by some historians that the bow originated in England or Wales. Unfortunatelywe possess no exact descriptions of the Persian and Arabian instruments between the tenth and fourteenth centuries,otherwise we should probably have earlier accounts of some instrument of the violin kind in Persia. Ash-shakandi, who lived in Spain aboutA.D.1200, mentions therebab, which may have been in use for centuries without having been thought worthy of notice on account of its rudeness. Persian writers of the fourteenth century speak of two instruments of the violin class, viz., therebaband thekemangeh. As regards thekemangeh, the Arabs themselves assert that they obtained it from Persia, and their statement appears all the more worthy of belief from the fact that both names,rebabandkemangeh, are originally Persian. We engrave therebabfrom an example at South Kensington.
Thenay, a flute, and thesurnay, a species of oboe, are still popular in the east.
The Arabs must have been indefatigable constructors of musical instruments. Kiesewetter gives a list of above two hundred names of Arabian instruments, and this does not include many known to us through Spanish historians. A careful investigation of the musical instruments of the Arabs during their sojourn in Spain is particularly interesting to the student of mediæval music, inasmuch as it reveals the eastern origin of many instruments which are generally regarded as European inventions. Introduced into Spain by the Saracens and the Moors they were gradually diffused towards northern Europe. The English, for instance, adopted not only the Moorish dance (morrice dance) but also thekuitra(gittern), theel-oud(lute), therebab(rebec), thenakkarah(naker), and several others. In an old Cornish sacred drama, supposed to date from the fourteenth century, we have in an enumeration of musical instruments thenakrys, designating “kettle-drums.” It must be remembered that the Cornish language, which has nowbecome obsolete, was nearly akin to the Welsh. Indeed, names of musical instruments derived from the Moors in Spain occur in almost every European language.
Not a few fanciful stories are traditionally preserved among the Arabs testifying to the wonderful effects they ascribed to the power of their instrumental performances. One example will suffice. Al-Farabi had acquired his proficiency in Spain, in one of the schools at Cordova which flourished as early as towards the end of the ninth century: and his reputation became so great that ultimately it extended to Asia. The mighty caliph of Bagdad himself desired to hear the celebrated musician, and sent messengers to Spain with instructions to offer rich presents to him and to convey him to the court. But Al-Farabi feared that if he went he should be retained in Asia, and should never again see the home to which he felt deeply attached. At last he resolved to disguise himself, and ventured to undertake the journey which promised him a rich harvest. Dressed in a mean costume, he made his appearance at the court just at the time when the caliph was being entertained with his daily concert. Al-Farabi, unknown to everyone, was permitted to exhibit his skill on the lute. Scarcer had he commenced his performance in a certain musical mode when he set all his audience laughing aloud, notwithstanding the efforts of the courtiers to suppress so unbecoming an exhibition of mirth in the royal presence. In truth, even the caliph himself was compelled to burst out into a fit of laughter. Presently the performer changed to another mode, and the effect was that immediately all his hearers began to sigh, and soon tears of sadness replaced the previous tears of mirth. Again he played in another mode, which excited his audience to such a rage that they would have fought each other if he, seeing the danger, had not directly gone over to an appeasing mode. After this wonderful exhibition of his skill Al-Farabi concluded in a mode which had the effect of making his listeners fall into a profound sleep, during which he took his departure.
It will be seen that this incident is almost identical with one recorded as having happened about twelve hundred years earlier at the court of Alexander the great, and which forms the subject of Dryden’s “Alexander’s Feast.” The distinguished flutist Timotheus successively aroused and subdued different passions by changing the musical modes during his performance, exactly in the same way as did Al-Farabi.
If the preserved antiquities of the American Indians, dating from a period anterior to our discovery of the western hemisphere, possess an extraordinary interest because they afford trustworthy evidence of the degree of progress which the aborigines had attained in the cultivation of the arts and in their social condition before they came in contact with Europeans, it must be admitted that the ancient musical instruments of the American Indians are also worthy of examination. Several of them are constructed in a manner which, in some degree, reveals the characteristics of the musical system prevalent among the people who used the instruments. And although most of these interesting relics, which have been obtained from tombs and other hiding-places, may not be of great antiquity, it has been satisfactorily ascertained that they are genuine contrivances of the Indians before they were influenced by European civilization.
Some account of these relics is therefore likely to prove of interest also to the ethnologist, especially as several facts may perhaps be found of assistance in elucidating the still unsolved problem as to the probable original connection of the American with Asiatic races.
Among the instruments of the Aztecs in Mexico and of the Peruvians none have been found so frequently, and have been preserved in their former condition so unaltered, as pipes and flutes. They are generally made of pottery or of bone, substances which are unsuitable for the construction of most other instruments,but which are remarkably well qualified to withstand the decaying influence of time. There is, therefore, no reason to conclude from the frequent occurrence of such instruments that they were more common than other kinds of which specimens have rarely been discovered.
The Mexicans possessed a small whistle formed of baked clay, a considerable number of which have been found. Some specimens (of which we give engravings) are singularly grotesque in shape, representing caricatures of the human face and figure, birds, beasts, and flowers. Some were provided at the top with a finger-hole which, when closed, altered the pitch of the sound, so that two different tones were producible on the instrument. Others had a little ball of baked clay lying loose inside the air-chamber. When the instrument was blown the current of air set the ball in a vibrating motion, thereby causing a shrill and whirring sound. A similar contrivance is sometimes made use of by Englishmen for conveying signals. The Mexican whistle most likely served principally the same purpose, but it may possibly have been used also in musical entertainments. In the Russianhorn band each musician is restricted to a single tone; and similar combinations of performers—only, of course, much more rude—have been witnessed by travellers among some tribes in Africa and America.
Rather more complete than the above specimens are some of the whistles and small pipes which have been found in graves of the Indians of Chiriqui in central America. The pipe or whistle which is represented in the accompanying engraving appears, to judge from the somewhat obscure description transmitted to us, to possess about half a dozen tones. It is of pottery, painted in red and black on a cream-coloured ground, and in length about five inches. Among the instruments of this kind from central America the most complete have four finger-holes. By means of three the following four sounds (including the sound which is produced when none of the holes are closed) can be emitted:the fourth finger-hole, when closed, has the effect of lowering the pitch a semitone. By a particular process two or three lower notes are obtainable.
The pipe of the Aztecs, which is called by the Mexican Spaniardspito, somewhat resembled our flageolet: the material was a reddish pottery, and it was provided with four finger-holes. Although among about half a dozen specimens which the writer has examined some are considerably larger than others they all have, singularly enough, the same pitch ofsound. The smallest is about six inches in length, and the largest about nine inches. Severalpitoshave been found in a remarkably well-preserved condition. They are easy to blow, and their order of intervals is in conformity with the pentatonic scale, thus:The usual shape of thepitois that here represented; showing the upper side of one pipe, and a side view of another. A specimen of a less common shape, also engraved, is in the British museum. Indications suggestive of the popular estimation in which the flute (or perhaps, more strictly speaking, the pipe) was held by the Aztecs are not wanting. It was played in religious observances and we find it referred to allegorically in orations delivered on solemn occasions. For instance, at the religious festival which was held in honour of Tezcatlepoca—a divinity depicted as a handsomeyouth, and considered second only to the supreme being—a young man was sacrificed who, in preparation for the ceremony, had been instructed in the art of playing the flute. Twenty days before his death four young girls, named after the principal goddesses, were given to him as companions; and when the hour arrived in which he was to be sacrificed he observed the established symbolical rite of breaking a flute on each of the steps, as he ascended the temple.
Again, at the public ceremonies which took place on the accession of a prince to the throne the new monarch addressed a prayer to the god, in which occurred the following allegorical expression:—“I am thy flute; reveal to me thy will; breathe into me thy breath like into a flute, as thou hast done to my predecessors on the throne. As thou hast opened their eyes, their ears, and their mouth to utter what is good, so likewise do to me. I resign myself entirely to thy guidance.” Similar sentences occur in the orations addressed to the monarch. In reading them one can hardly fail to be reminded of Hamlet’s reflections addressed to Guildenstern, when the servile courtier expresses his inability to “govern the ventages” of the pipe and to make the instrument “discourse most eloquent music,” which the prince bids him to do.
M. de Castelnau in his “Expédition dans l’Amérique” gives among the illustrations of objects discovered in ancient Peruvian tombs a flute made of a human bone. It has four finger-holes at its upper surface and appears to have been blown into at one end. Two bone-flutes, in appearance similar to the engraving given by M. de Castelnau, which have been disinterred at Truxillo are deposited in the British museum. They are about six inches in length, and each is provided with five finger-holes. One of these has all the holes at its upper side, and one of the holes is considerably smaller than the rest. The specimen which we engrave (p. 64) is ornamented with some simple designs in black.
The other has four holes at its upper side and one underneath,the latter being placed near to the end at which the instrument evidently was blown. In the aperture of this end some remains of a hardened paste, or resinous substance, are still preserved. This substance probably was inserted for the purpose of narrowing the end of the tube, in order to facilitate the producing of the sounds. The same contrivance is still resorted to in the construction of the bone-flutes by some Indian tribes in Guiana. The bones of slain enemies appear to have been considered especially appropriate for such flutes. The Araucanians, having killed a prisoner, made flutes of his bones, and danced and “thundered out their dreadful war-songs, accompanied by the mournful sounds of these horrid instruments.” Alonso de Ovalle says of the Indians in Chili: “Their flutes, which they play upon in their dances, are made of the bones of the Spaniards and other enemies whom they have overcome in war. This they do by way of triumph and glory for their victory. They make them likewise of bones of animals; but the warriors dance only to the flutes made of their enemies.” The Mexicans and Peruvians obviously possessed a great variety of pipes and flutes, some of which are still in use among certain Indian tribes. Those which were found in the famous ruins at Palenque are deposited in the museum in Mexico. They are:—Thecuyvi, a pipe on which only five tones were producible; thehuayllaca, a sort of flageolet; thepincullu, a flute; and thechayna, which is described as “a flute whose lugubrious and melancholy tones filled the heart with indescribable sadness, and brought involuntary tears into the eyes.” It was perhaps a kind of oboe.
The Peruvians had the syrinx, which they calledhuayra-puhura. Some clue to the proper meaning of this name may perhaps be gathered from the wordhuayra, which signifies “air.” Thehuayra-puhurawas made of cane, and also of stone. Sometimes an embroidery of needle-work was attached to it as an ornament. One specimen which has been disinterred is adorned with twelve figures precisely resembling Maltese crosses. The cross is a figure which may readily be supposed to suggest itself very naturally; and it is therefore not so surprising, as it may appear at a first glance, that the American Indians used it not unfrequently in designs and sculptures before they came in contact with Christians.
The British museum possesses ahuayra-puhuraconsisting of fourteen reed pipes of a brownish colour, tied together in two rows by means of thread, so as to form a double set of seven reeds. Both sets are almost exactly of the same dimensions and are placed side by side. The shortest of these reeds measure three inches, and the longest six and a half. In one set they are open at the bottom, and in the other they are closed. Consequently, octaves are produced. The reader is probably aware that the closing of a pipe at the end raises its pitch an octave. Thus, in our organ, the so-called stopped diapason, a set of closed pipes, requires tubes of only half the length of those which constitute the open diapason, although both these stops produce tones in the same pitch; the only difference between them being the quality of sound, which in the former is less bright than in the latter.
The tones yielded by thehuayra-puhurain question are as follows:The highest octave is indistinct, owing to some injury done to the shortest tubes; butsufficient evidence remains to show that the intervals were purposely arranged according to the pentatonic scale. This interesting relic was brought to light from a tomb at Arica.
Anotherhuayra-puhura, likewise still yielding sounds, was discovered placed over a corpse in a Peruvian tomb, and was procured by the French general, Paroissien. This instrument is made of a greenish stone which is a species of talc, and contains eight pipes. In the Berlin museum may be seen a good plaster cast taken from this curious relic. The height is 5⅜ inches, and its width 6¼ inches. Four of the tubes have small lateral finger-holes which, when closed, lower the pitch a semitone. These holes are on the second, fourth, sixth, and seventh pipe, as shown in the engraving. When the holes are open, the tones are:and when they are closed:The other tubes have unalterable tones. The following notation exhibits all the tones producible on the instrument:
The musician is likely to speculate what could have induced the Peruvians to adopt so strange a series of intervals: it seems rather arbitrary than premeditated.
If (and this seems not to be improbable) the Peruvians considered those tones which are produced by closing the lateral holes as additional intervals only, a variety of scales or kinds ofmodesmay have been contrived by the admission of one or other of these tones among the essential ones. If we may conjecture from some remarks of Garcilasso de la Vega, and other historians, the Peruvians appear to have used different orders of intervals for different kinds of tunes, in a way similar to what we find to be the case with certain Asiatic nations. We are told for instance “Each poem, or song, had its appropriate tune, and they could not put two different songs to one tune; and this was why the enamoured gallant, making music at night on his flute, with the tune which belonged to it, told the lady and all the world the joy or sorrow of his soul, the favour or ill-will which he possessed; so that it might be said that he spoke by the flute.” Thus also the Hindus have certain tunes for certain seasons and fixed occasions, and likewise a number of different modes or scales used for particular kinds of songs.
Trumpets are often mentioned by writers who have recorded the manners and customs of the Indians at the time of the discovery of America. There are, however, scarcely any illustrations to be relied on of these instruments transmitted to us. The Conch was frequently used as a trumpet for conveying signals in war.
The engraving represents a kind of trumpet made of wood, and nearly seven feet in length, which Gumilla found among theIndians in the vicinity of the Orinoco. It somewhat resembles thejuruparis, a mysterious instrument of the Indians on the Rio Haupés, a tributary of the Rio Negro, south America. Thejuruparisis regarded as an object of great veneration. Women are never permitted to see it. So stringent is this law that any woman obtaining a sight of it is put to death—usually by poison. No youths are allowed to see it until they have been subjected to a series of initiatory fastings and scourgings. Thejuruparisis usually kept hidden in the bed of some stream, deep in the forest; and no one dares to drink out of that sanctified stream, or to bathe in its water. At feasts thejuruparisis brought out during the night, and is blown outside the houses of entertainment. The inner portion of the instrument consists of a tube made of slips of the Paxiaba palm (Triartea exorrhiza). When the Indians are about to use the instrument they nearly close the upper end of the tube with clay, and also tie above the oblong square hole (shown in the engraving) a portion of the leaf of the Uaruma, one of the arrow-root family. Round the tube are wrapped long strips of the tough bark of the Jébaru (Parivoa grandiflora). This covering descends in folds below the tube. The length of the instrument is from four to five feet. The illustration, which exhibits thejurupariswith its cover and without it, has been taken from a specimen in the museum at Kew gardens. The mysteries connected with this trumpet are evidently foundedon an old tradition from prehistoric Indian ancestors.Juruparimeans “demon”; and with several Indian tribes on the Amazon customs and ceremonies still prevail in honour of Jurupari.
The Caroados, an Indian tribe in Brazil, have a war trumpet which closely resembles thejuruparis. With this people it is the custom for the chief to give on his war trumpet the signal for battle, and to continue blowing as long as he wishes the battle to last. The trumpet is made of wood, and its sound is described by travellers as very deep but rather pleasant. The sound is easily produced, and its continuance does not require much exertion; but a peculiar vibration of the lips is necessary which requires practice. Another trumpet, theturé, is common with many Indian tribes on the Amazon who use it chiefly in war. It is made of a long and thick bamboo, and there is a split reed in the mouthpiece. It therefore partakes rather of the character of an oboe or clarinet. Its tone is described as loud and harsh. Theturéis especially used by the sentinels of predatory hordes, who, mounted on a lofty tree, give the signal of attack to their comrades.
Again, the aborigines in Mexico had a curious contrivance of this kind, theacocotl, now more usually calledclarin. The former word is its old Indian name, and the latter appears to have been first given to the instrument by the Spaniards. Theacocotlconsists of a very thin tube from eight to ten feet in length, and generally not quite straight but with some irregular curves. This tube, which is often not thicker than a couple of inches in diameter, terminates at one end in a sort of bell, and has at the other end a small mouthpiece resembling in shape that of a clarinet. The tube is made of the dry stalk of a plant which is common in Mexico, and which likewise the Indians callacocotl. The most singular characteristic of the instrument is that the performer does not blow into it, but inhales the air through it; or rather, he produces the sound by sucking the mouthpiece. It is said to require strong lungs to perform on theacocotleffectively according to Indian notions of taste.
Thebotuto, which Gumilla saw used by some tribes near the river Orinoco (of which we engrave two examples), was evidently an ancient Indian contrivance, but appears to have fallen almost into oblivion during the last two centuries. It was made of baked clay and was commonly from three to four feet long: but some trumpets of this kind were of enormous size. Thebotutowith two bellies was usually made thicker than that with three bellies and emitted a deeper sound, which is described as having been really terrific. These trumpets were used on occasions of mourning and funeral dances. Alexander von Humboldt saw thebotutoamong some Indian tribes near the river Orinoco.
Besides those which have been noticed, other antique wind instruments of the Indians are mentioned by historians; but the descriptions given of them are too superficial to convey adistinct notion as to their form and purport. Several of these barbarous contrivances scarcely deserve to be classed with musical instruments. This may, for instance, be said of certain musical jars or earthen vessels producing sounds, which the Peruvians constructed for their amusement. These vessels were made double; and the sounds imitated the cries of animals or birds. A similar contrivance of the Indians in Chili, preserved in the museum at Santiago, is described by the traveller S. S. Hill as follows:—“It consists of two earthen vessels in the form of our india-rubber bottles, but somewhat larger, with a flat tube from four to six inches in length, uniting their necks near the top and slightly curved upwards, and with a small hole on the upper side one third of the length of the tube from one side of the necks. To produce the sounds the bottles were filled with water and suspended to the bough of a tree, or to a beam, by a string attached to the middle of the curved tube, and then swung backwards and forwards in such a manner as to cause each end to be alternately the highest and lowest, so that the water might pass backwards and forwards from one bottle to the other through the tube between them. By this means soothing sounds were produced which, it is said, were employed to lull to repose the drowsy chiefs who usually slept away the hottest hours of the day. In the meantime, as the bottles were porous, the water within them diminished by evaporation, and the sound died gradually away.”
As regards instruments of percussion, a kind of drum deserves special notice on account of the ingenuity evinced in its construction. The Mexicans called itteponaztli. They generally made it of a single block of very hard wood, somewhat oblong square in shape, which they hollowed, leaving at each end a solid piece about three or four inches in thickness, and at its upper side a kind of sound-board about a quarter of an inch in thickness. In this sound-board, if it may be called so, they made three incisions; namely, two running parallel some distance lengthwise of thedrum, and a third running across from one of these to the other just in the centre. By this means they obtained two vibrating tongues of wood which, when beaten with a stick, produced sounds as clearly defined as are those of our kettle drums. By making one of the tongues thinner than the other they ensured two different sounds, the pitch of which they were enabled to regulate by shaving off more or less of the wood. The bottom of the drum they cut almost entirely open. The traveller, M. Nebel,was told by archæologists in Mexico that these instruments always contained the interval of a third, but on examining several specimens which he saw in museums he found some in which the two sounds stood towards each other in the relation of a fourth; while in others they constituted a fifth, in others a sixth, and in some even an octave. This is noteworthy in so far as it points to a conformity with our diatonic series of intervals, excepting the seventh.
Theteponaztli(engraved above) was generally carved with various fanciful and ingenious designs. It was beaten with two drumsticks covered at the end with an elastic gum, calledule, which was obtained from the milky juice extracted from the ule-tree. Some of these drums were small enough to be carried on a string or strap suspended round the neck of the player; others, again, measured upwards of five feet in length, and their sound was so powerful that it could be heard at a distance of three miles. In some rare instances a specimen of theteponaztliis still preserved by the Indians in Mexico, especially among tribes who have been comparatively but little affected by intercourse with their European aggressors. Herr Heller saw such an instrument in the hands of the Indians of Huatusco—a village near Mirador in the Tierra templada, or temperate region, occupying the slopes of the Cordilleras. Its sound is described as so very loud as to be distinctly audible at an incredibly great distance. This circumstance, which has been noticed by several travellers, may perhaps be owing in some measure to the condition of the atmosphere in Mexico.
Instruments of percussion constructed on a principle more or less similar to theteponaztliwere in use in several other parts of America, as well as in Mexico. Oviedo gives a drawing of a drum from San Domingo which, asit shows distinctly both the upper and under side of the instrument, is here inserted.
The largest kind of Mexicanteponaztliappears to have been generally of a cylindrical shape. Clavigero gives a drawing of such an instrument. Drums, also, constructed of skin or parchment in combination with wood were not unknown to the Indians. Of this description was, for instance, thehuehuetlof the Aztecs in Mexico, which consisted, according to Clavigero, of a wooden cylinder somewhat above three feet in height, curiously carved and painted and covered at the top with carefully prepared deer-skin. And, what appears the most remarkable, the parchment (we are told) could be tightened or slackened by means of cords in nearly the same way as with our own drum. Thehuehuetlwas not beaten with drumsticks but merely struck with the fingers, and much dexterity was required to strike it in the proper manner. Oviedo states that the Indians in Cuba had drums which were stretched with human skin. And Bernal Diaz relates that when he was with Cortés in Mexico they ascended together theTeocalli(“House of God”), a large temple in which human sacrifices were offered by the aborigines; and there the Spanish visitors saw a large drum which was made, Diaz tells us, with skins of great serpents. This “hellish instrument,” as he calls it, produced, when struck, a doleful sound which was so loud that it could be heard at a distance of two leagues.
The name of the Peruvian drum washuanca: they had also an instrument of percussion, calledchhilchiles, which appears to have been a sort of tambourine.
The rattle was likewise popular with the Indians before the discovery of America. The Mexicans called itajacaxtli. In construction it was similar to the rattle at the present day commonly used by the Indians. It was oval or round in shape, and appears to have been usually made of a gourd into which holes were pierced, and to which a wooden handle was affixed. A number of little pebbles were enclosed in the hollowed gourd.They were also made of pottery. The little balls in theajacaxtliof pottery, enclosed as they are, may at a first glance appear a puzzle. Probably, when the rattle was being formed they were attached to the inside as slightly as possible; and after the clay had been baked they were detached by means of an implement passed through the holes.
The Tezcucans (or Acolhuans) belonged to the same race as the Aztecs, whom they greatly surpassed in knowledge and social refinement. Nezahualcoyotl, a wise monarch of the Tezcucans, abhorred human sacrifices, and erected a large temple which he dedicated to “The unknown god, the cause of causes.” This edifice had a tower nine stories high, on the top of which were placed a number of musical instruments of various kinds which were used to summon the worshippers to prayer. Respecting these instruments especial mention is made of a sonorous metal which was struck with a mallet. This is stated in a historical essay written by Ixtlilxochitl, a native of Mexico and of royal descent, who lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and who may be supposed to have been familiar with the musical practices of his countrymen. But whether the sonorous metal alluded to was a gong or a bell is not clear from the vague record transmitted to us. That the bell was known to the Peruvians appears to be no longer doubtful, since a small copper specimen has been found in one of the old Peruvian tombs. This interesting relic is now deposited in the museum at Lima. M. de Castelnau has published a drawing of it, which is here reproduced. The Peruvians called their bellschanrares; it remains questionable whether this name did not designate rather the so-called horsebells, which were certainly known to the Mexicans who called themyotl. It is noteworthy that theseyotlare found figured in the picture-writings representing the various objects which the Aztecs used to pay as tribute to their sovereigns. The collection of Mexican antiquities in the British museum contains a cluster of yotl-bells. Being nearly round, they closely resemble theSchellenwhich the Germans are in the habit of affixing to their horses, particularly in the winter when they are driving their noiseless sledges.
Again, in south America sonorous stones are not unknown, and were used in olden time for musical purposes. The traveller G. T. Vigne saw among the Indian antiquities preserved in the town of Cuzco, in Peru, “a musical instrument of green sonorous stone, about a foot long, and an inch and a half wide, flat-sided, pointed at both ends, and arched at the back, where it was about a quarter of an inch thick, whence it diminished to an edge, like the blade of a knife.... In the middle of the back was a small hole, through which a piece of string was passed; and when suspended and struck by any hard substance a singularly musical note was produced.” Humboldt mentions the Amazon-stone, which on being struck by any hard substance yields a metallic sound. It was formerly cut by the American Indians into very thin plates, perforated in the centre and suspended by a string. These plates were remarkably sonorous. This kind of stone is not, as might be conjectured from its name, found exclusively near the Amazon. The name was given to it as well as to the river by the first European visitors to America, in allusion to the female warriors respecting whom strange stories are told. The natives pretending,according to an ancient tradition, that the stone came from the country of “Women without husbands,” or “Women living alone.”
As regards the ancient stringed instruments of the American Indians our information is indeed but scanty. Clavigero says that the Mexicans were entirely unacquainted with stringed instruments: a statement the correctness of which is questionable, considering the stage of civilization to which these people had attained. At any rate, we generally find one or other kind of such instruments with nations whose intellectual progress and social condition are decidedly inferior. The Aztecs had many claims to the character of a civilized community and (as before said) the Tezcucans were even more advanced in the cultivation of the arts and sciences than the Aztecs. “The best histories,” Prescott observes, “the best poems, the best code of laws, the purest dialect, were all allowed to be Tezcucan. The Aztecs rivalled their neighbours in splendour of living, and even in the magnificence of their structures. They displayed a pomp and ostentatious pageantry, truly Asiatic.” Unfortunately historians are sometimes not sufficiently discerning in their communications respecting musical questions. J. Ranking, in describing the grandeur of the establishment maintained by Montezuma, says that during the repasts of this monarch “there was music of fiddle, flute, snail-shell, a kettle-drum, and other strange instruments.” But as this writer does not indicate the source whence he drew his information respecting Montezuma’s orchestra including the fiddle, the assertion deserves scarcely a passing notice.
The Peruvians possessed a stringed instrument, calledtinya, which was provided with five or seven strings. To conjecture from the unsatisfactory account of it transmitted to us, thetinyaappears to have been a kind of guitar. Considering the fragility of the materials of which such instruments are generally constructed, it is perhaps not surprising that we do not meet with any specimens of them in the museums of American antiquities.
A few remarks will not be out of place here referring to themusical performances of the ancient Indians; since an acquaintance with the nature of the performances is likely to afford additional assistance in appreciating the characteristics of the instruments. In Peru, where the military system was carefully organised, each division of the army had its trumpeters, calledcqueppacamayo, and its drummers, calledhuancarcamayo. When the Inca returned with his troops victorious from battle his first act was to repair to the temple of the Sun in order to offer up thanksgiving; and after the conclusion of this ceremony the people celebrated the event with festivities, of which music and dancing constituted a principal part. Musical performances appear to have been considered indispensable on occasions of public celebrations; and frequent mention is made of them by historians who have described the festivals annually observed by the Peruvians.
About the month of October the Peruvians celebrated a solemn feast in honour of the dead, at which ceremony they executed lugubrious songs and plaintive instrumental music. Compositions of a similar character were performed on occasion of the decease of a monarch. As soon as it was made known to the people that their Inca had been “called home to the mansions of his father the sun” they prepared to celebrate his obsequies with becoming solemnity. Prescott, in his graphic description of these observances, says: “At stated intervals, for a year, the people assembled to renew the expressions of their sorrow; processions were made displaying the banner of the departed monarch; bards and minstrels were appointed to chronicle his achievements, and their songs continued to be rehearsed at high festivals in the presence of the reigning monarch,—thus stimulating the living by the glorious example of the dead.” The Peruvians had also particular agricultural songs, which they were in the habit of singing while engaged in tilling the lands of the Inca; a duty which devolved upon the whole nation. The subject of these songs, or rather hymns, referred especially to the noble deeds and glorious achievements of the Inca and his dynasty. While thus singing,the labourers regulated their work to the rhythm of the music, thereby ensuring a pleasant excitement and a stimulant in their occupation, like soldiers regulating their steps to the music of the military band. These hymns pleased the Spanish invaders so greatly that they not only adopted several of them but also composed some in a similar form and style. This appears, however, to have been the case rather with the poetry than with the music.
The name of the Peruvian elegiac songs washaravi. Some tunes of these songs, pronounced to be genuine specimens, have been published in recent works; but their genuineness is questionable. At all events they must have been much tampered with, as they exhibit exactly the form of the Spanishbolero. Even allowing that the melodies of these compositions have been derived from Peruvianharivaris, it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty how much in them has been retained of the original tunes, and how much has been supplied besides the harmony, which is entirely an addition of the European arranger. The Peruvians had minstrels, calledharavecs(i.e., “inventors”), whose occupation it was to compose and to recite theharavis.
The Mexicans possessed a class of songs which served as a record of historical events. Furthermore they had war-songs, love-songs, and other secular vocal compositions, as well as sacred chants, in the practice of which boys were instructed by the priests in order that they might assist in the musical performances of the temple. It appertained to the office of the priests to burn incense, and to perform music in the temple at stated times of the day. The commencement of the religious observances which took place regularly at sunrise, at mid-day, at sunset, and at midnight, was announced by signals blown on trumpets and pipes. Persons of high position retained in their service professional musicians whose duty it was to compose ballads, and to perform vocal music with instrumental accompaniment.The nobles themselves, and occasionally even the monarch, not unfrequently delighted in composing ballads and odes.
Especially to be noticed is the institution termed “Council of music,” which the wise monarch Nezahualcoyotl founded in Tezcuco. This institution was not intended exclusively for promoting the cultivation of music; its aim comprised the advancement of various arts, and of sciences such as history, astronomy, &c. In fact, it was an academy for general education. Probably no better evidence could be cited testifying to the remarkable intellectual attainments of the Mexican Indians before the discovery of America than this council of music. Although in some respects it appears to have resembled the board of music of the Chinese, it was planned on a more enlightened and more comprehensive principle. The Chinese “board of music,” calledYo Poo, is an office connected with theLé Pooor “board of rites,” established by the imperial government at Peking. The principal object of the board of rites is to regulate the ceremonies on occasions of sacrifices offered to the gods; of festivals and certain court solemnities; of military reviews; of presentations, congratulations, marriages, deaths, burials,—in short, concerning almost every possible event in social and public life.
The reader is probably aware that in one of the various hypotheses which have been advanced respecting the Asiatic origin of the American Indians China is assigned to them as their ancient home. Some historians suppose them to be emigrants from Mongolia, Thibet, or Hindustan; others maintain that they are the offspring of Phœnician colonists who settled in central America. Even more curious are the arguments of certain inquirers who have no doubt whatever that the ancestors of the American Indians were the lost ten tribes of Israel, of whom since about the time of the Babylonian captivity history is silent. Whatever may be thought as to which particular one of these speculations hits the truth, they certainly have all proved usefulin so far as they have made ethnologists more exactly acquainted with the habits and predilections of the American aborigines than would otherwise have been the case. For, as the advocates of each hypothesis have carefully collected and adduced every evidence they were able to obtain tending to support their views, the result is that (so to say) no stone has been left unturned. Nevertheless, any such hints as suggest themselves from an examination of musical instruments have hitherto remained unheeded. It may therefore perhaps interest the reader to have his attention drawn to a few suggestive similarities occurring between instruments of the American Indians and of certain nations inhabiting the eastern hemisphere.
We have seen that the Mexican pipe and the Peruvian syrinx were purposely constructed so as to produce the intervals of the pentatonic scale only. There are some additional indications of this scale having been at one time in use with the American Indians. For instance, the music of the Peruvian dancecachuais described as having been very similar to some Scotch national dances; and the most conspicuous characteristics of the Scotch tunes are occasioned by the frequently exclusive employment of intervals appertaining to the pentatonic scale. We find precisely the same series of intervals adopted on certain Chinese instruments, and evidences are not wanting of the pentatonic scale having been popular among various races in Asia at a remote period. The series of intervals appertaining to the Chiriqui pipe, mentioned page 61, consisted of a semitone and two whole tones, like thetetrachordof the ancient Greeks.
In the Peruvianhuayra-puhuramade of talc some of the pipes possess lateral holes. This contrivance, which is rather unusual, occurs on the Chinesecheng. Thechayna, mentioned page 64, seems to have been provided with a reed, like the oboe: and in Hindustan we find a species of oboe calledshehna. Theturéof the Indian tribes on the Amazon, mentioned page 69, reminds us of the trumpetstooree, ortootooree, of the Hindus. The nameappears to have been known also to the Arabs; but there is no indication whatever of its having been transmitted to the peninsula by the Moors, and afterwards to south America by the Portuguese and Spaniards.
The wooden tongues in the drumteponaztlimay be considered as a contrivance exclusively of the ancient American Indians. Nevertheless a construction nearly akin to it may be observed in certain drums of the Tonga and Feejee islanders, and of the natives of some islands in Torres strait. Likewise some negro tribes in western and central Africa have certain instruments of percussion which are constructed on a principle somewhat reminding us of theteponaztli. The method of bracing the drum by means of cords, as exhibited in thehuehueilof the Mexican Indians, is evidently of very high antiquity in the east. It was known to the ancient Egyptians.
Rattles, pandean pipes made of reed, and conch trumpets, are found almost all over the world, wherever the materials of which they are constructed are easily obtainable. Still, it may be noteworthy that the Mexicans employed the conch trumpet in their religious observances apparently in much the same way as it is used in the Buddhist worship of the Thibetans and Kalmuks.
As regards the sonorous metal in the great temple at Tezcuco some inquirers are sure that it was a gong: but it must be borne in mind that these inquirers detect everywhere traces proving an invasion of the Mongols, which they maintain to have happened about six hundred years ago. Had they been acquainted with the little Peruvian bell (engraved on page 75) they would have had more tangible musical evidence in support of their theory than the supposed gong; for this bell certainly bears a suggestive resemblance to the little hand-bell which the Buddhists use in their religious ceremonies.
The Peruvians interpolated certain songs, especially those which they were in the habit of singing while cultivating the fields, with the wordhailliwhich signified “Triumph.” As thesubject of these compositions was principally the glorification of the Inca, the burdenhailliis perhaps all the more likely to remind Europeans of the Hebrewhallelujah. Moreover, Adair, who lived among the Indians of north America during a period of about forty years, speaks of some other words which he found used as burdens in hymns sung on solemn occasions, and which appeared to him to correspond with certain Hebrew words of a sacred import.
As regards the musical accomplishments of the Indian tribes at the present day they are far below the standard which we have found among their ancestors. A period of three hundred years of oppression has evidently had the effect of subduing the melodious expressions of happiness and contentedness which in former times appear to have been quite as prevalent with the Indians as they generally are with independent and flourishing nations. The innate talent for music evinced by those of the North American Indians who were converted to Christianity soon after the emigration of the puritans to New England is very favourably commented on by some old writers. In the year 1661 John Elliot published a translation of the psalms into Indian verse. The singing of these metrical psalms by the Indian converts in their places of worship appears to have been actually superior to the sacred vocal performances of their Christian brethren from Europe; for we find it described by several witnesses as “excellent” and “most ravishing.”
In other parts of America the catholic priests from Spain did not neglect to turn to account the susceptibility of the Indians for music. Thus, in central America the Dominicans composed as early as in the middle of the sixteenth century a sacred poem in the Guatemalian dialect containing a narrative of the most important events recorded in the Bible. This production they sang to the natives, and to enhance the effect they accompanied the singing with musical instruments. The alluring music soon captivated the heart of a powerful cazique, who was thus inducedto adopt the doctrines embodied in the composition, and to diffuse them among his subjects who likewise delighted in the performances. In Peru a similar experiment, resorted to by the priests who accompanied Pizarro’s expedition, proved equally successful. They dramatized certain scenes in the life of Christ and represented them with music, which so greatly fascinated the Indians that many of them readily embraced the new faith. Nor are these entertainments dispensed with even at the present day by the Indian Christians, especially in the village churches of the Sierra in Peru; and as several religious ceremonies have been retained by these people from their heathen forefathers, it may be conjectured that their sacred musical performances also retain much of their ancient heathen character.
Most of the musical instruments found among the American Indians at the present day are evidently genuine old Indian contrivances as they existed long before the discovery of America. Take, for example, the peculiarly shaped rattles, drums, flutes, and whistles of the North American Indians, of which some specimens in the Kensington museum are described in the large catalogue. A few African instruments, introduced by the negro slaves, are now occasionally found in the hands of the Indians, and have been by some travellers erroneously described as genuine Indian inventions. This is the case with the Africanmarimba, which has become rather popular with the natives of Guatemala in central America: but such adaptations are very easily discernible.
Many representations of musical instruments of the middle ages have been preserved in manuscripts, as well as in sculptures and paintings forming ornamental portions of churches and other buildings. Valuable facts and hints are obtainable from these evidences, provided they are judiciously selected and carefully examined. The subject is, however, so large that only a few observations on the most interesting instruments can be offered here. Unfortunately there still prevails much uncertainty respecting several of the earliest representations as to the precise century from which they date, and there is reason to believe that in some instances the archæological zeal of musical investigators has assigned a higher antiquity to such discoveries than can be satisfactorily proved.
It appears certain that the most ancient European instruments known to us were in form and construction more like the Asiatic than was the case with later ones. Before a nation has attained to a rather high degree of civilisation its progress in the cultivation of music, as an art, is very slow indeed. The instruments found at the present day in Asia are scarcely superior to those which were in use among oriental nations about three thousand years ago. It is, therefore, perhaps not surprising that no material improvement is perceptible in the construction of the instruments of European countries during the lapse of nearly a thousand years. True, evidences to be relied on referring to the first five or six centuries of the Christian era are but scanty; although indications are not wanting which may help the reflecting musician.