The Tamboura. Minnim, machalath, and nebel are usually supposed to be the names of instruments of the lute or guitar kind. Minnim, however, appears more likely to imply stringed instruments in general than any particular instrument.
The Single Pipe. Chalil and nekeb were the names of the Hebrew pipes or flutes.
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.
The Trumpet. Three kinds are mentioned in the Bible, viz. the keren, the shophar, and the chatzozerah. The first two were more or less curved and might properly be considered as horns. Most commentators are of opinion that the keren—made of ram’s horn—was almost identical with the shophar, the only difference being that the latter was more curved than the former. The shophar is especially remarkable as being the only Hebrew musical instrument which has been preserved to the present day in the religious services of the Jews. It is still blown in the synagogue, as in time of old, at the Jewish new-year’s festival, according to the command of Moses (Numb. xxix. I). The chatzozerah was a straight trumpet, about two feet in length, and was sometimes made of silver. Two of these straight trumpets are shown in the famous triumphal procession after the fall of Jerusalem on the arch of Titus, engraved on the next page.
The Drum. There can be no doubt that the Hebrews had several kinds of drums. We know, however, only of the toph, which appears to have been a tambourine or a small hand-drum like the Egyptian darabouka. In the English version of the Bible the word is rendered timbrel or tabret. This instrument was especially used in processions on occasions of rejoicing, and also frequently by females. We find it in the hands of Miriam, when she was celebrating with the Israelitish women in songs of joy the destruction of Pharaoh’s host; and in the hands of Jephtha’s daughter, when she went out to welcome her father. There exists at the present day in the East a small hand-drum called doff, diff, or adufe—a name which appears to be synonymous with the Hebrew toph.
The Sistrum. Winer, Saalfchütz, and several other commentators are of opinion that the menaaneim, mentioned in 2 Sam. vi. 5, denotes the sistrum. In the English Bible the original is translated cymbals.