500 years ago, Da Vinci invented a ‘‘viola organista’’ but it was never built… until today… thanks to Poland (I love Polish people). Listen to this gorgeous thing in concert for the very first time.
It is a marvel.
Read more about the instruments history and creation by “a Polish concert pianist with a flair for instrument-making.”
-Unpopular, bullied kid falls in love with the most popular and beautiful girl in school
-A war between heaven and hell
-Lines like ‘you are sorely mistaken’
The first book I wrote was over 300 pages and it was absolute TRASH. Half way through the story, I couldn’t even read the beginning anymore because it was too cringey.
In the beginning, your lines will be sloppy, your writing will be armature, you will sing and play off key. It’s FINE. You are still learning! You will use those clichés and mistakes to learn how to write, how to draw, how to sing.
Don’t let ANYONE get you down when they say 'that’s so cliché’ or 'that sounds boring’, you need time to build. Continue to build and nothing you make will be cliché after enough time.
This post was written by Nicole Arnold, Summer 2021 Classics Department Intern.
(Above: A modern approximation of a decacordum. Image from Liuteria Severini.)
One of the most constant aspects of music across time has been instruments. Even if their names are different than what they once were, the sound and function of the instrument is often the same. The instruments of ancient and medieval times very much inform the modern music world. Similar instruments often exist across multiple cultures and religions too. Churches in the Middle Ages included certain instruments in their music that had connections to ancient Greece and Rome, especially string instruments. Some of these included the decacordum and cithara.
The decacordum is defined as a ten-stringed instrument (perseus.tufts.edu). The prefix “deca” means “ten”; the “cordum” suffix refers to the strings. The word itself seems to have been a general term for ten-stringed instruments. Some scholars believe that ten-stringed instruments in the church referenced the ten commandments while the sides of them represented the four gospels. (Kolyada 31) Other sources, like the Musurgia Universalis (circa 1650) of University of Pittsburgh Library Systems’ Archives & Special Collections, describe the instrument’s strings as similar to a spiderweb. This is most likely in reference to their intricate weaving. Modern depictions of the instrument resemble a small harp. It is possible that could be what the spiderweb comment means; the trapezoid in a spiderweb looks much like the harp. The decacordum was one of several string instruments commonly used in the church.
(Above: Apollo, the Greek god of music, playing a cithara. Image from wikipedia.org.)
Another instrument of the medieval European church was the cithara. Although it was used like a harp in the church, the cithara originated in ancient Greece as a type of lyre, which resembled a guitar. The ancient Romans adopted it into their culture as well, and it became the most common instrument in Rome. It had anywhere between three and twelve strings. It is believed that “cithara” is the etymological stem of “guitar” (britannica.com). Descriptions of its features in medieval church music imply a resemblance between the two instruments. The “choking strap” of the cithara is mentioned in the psalm “Confitebor Angelorum,” in the Archives & Special Collections’ Psalmodia vespertina. (circa 1710) Since this instrument was a kind of lyre and had a strap that went around the neck, it can be inferred that the modern twelve-string guitar bears a resemblance to it. Notably, 21st-century musician Taylor Swift plays a twelve-string guitar rather than a typical six-string one; the doubled number of strings creates a more intricate sound.
(Above: Taylor Swift performing “Sparks Fly” on a twelve-string guitar. YouTube video.)
Works Cited
Kolyada, Y. (2014). A compendium of musical instruments and instrumental terminology in the bible. ProQuest Ebook Central <aonclick=window.open(‘http://ebookcentral.proquest.com’,’_blank’) href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com’ target=’_blank’ style='cursor: pointer;’>http://ebookcentral.Created from pitt-ebooks on 2021-06-14 20:13:12.
Kircher, Athanasius, and Jacobus Viva. Musurgia universalis; sive, Ars magna consoni et dissoni in X. libros digesta … Romae: Ex typographia haeredum Francisci Corbelletti, 1650.
Baroni, Filippo. “Psalmodia vespertina: totius anni, duplici choro perbreuiter concinenda : opus secundum” Bononiæ: Typis Marini Siluani, 1710.
Finished drawing this ttun-ttun, a string drum from the Pyrenees that plays a buzzing drone and accompanies a tabour pipe. They’re too cool for school.
