The triangle nearly resembled the instrument of this name in use at the present day; it was more elegant in shape and had some metal ornamentation in the middle.
The tintinnabulum consisted of a number of bells arranged in regular order and suspended in a frame.
Fig. 35.—Bas relief, representing a group of Musicians, formerly at the Abbey of St. Georges de Boscherville. Late 11th century(?). After an engraving in N.N. Willemin’s Monuments Français Inédits, Vol. I., pl. 52.
Museum of Rouen.
IX.
EUROPEAN INSTRUMENTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
(Continued).
Respecting the orchestras, or musical bands, represented on monuments of the Middle Ages, there can hardly be a doubt that the artists who sculptured them were not unfrequently led by their imagination rather than by an adherence to actual fact. It is, however, not likely that they introduced into such representations instruments that were never admitted in the orchestras, and which would have appeared inappropriate to the contemporaries of the artists. An examination of one or two of the orchestras may therefore find a place here, especially as they throw some additional light upon the characteristics of the instrumental music of mediæval time.