Across Centuries

and Cultures
Musicological Studies in Honor of
Joachim Braun
Edited by
Kevin C. Karnes and Levi Sheptovitsky
~
PETER LANG
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Contents
Introduction. . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . .. .. . .. . ..... . .. . ... .. . . . . . . . ... ... .. ... . ... .... 11
Publications by Joachim Braun: A Partial List.................... ...... ........ 13
Music in Ancient Israel and Jewish Music
Amnon Shiloah
King David and the Devil, Initiators of Two Kinds of Music. .......... ....... 21
Mira Waner
Ethnic/Religious Distinction Versus Syncretism in the
Musical Culture of Roman and Byzantine Sepphoris:
A Case Study in the Musical Culture of Ancient Israel. . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . ... . . 29
Jan St~szewski
Miindliche Musiktradition der Juden in Polen:
F orschungsaufgaben, Ausgangspunkte, Methodik,
Informations- und Quellen-Forschungsstand.................................... 51
Alexander Knapp
The Little Goat Meets the Little Chicken: Parallels Between
Two Celebratory Songs in the Jewish and Bukharan Traditions........ ....... 57
Bret Werb
Vu ahin zol ikh geyn? Music of Jewish Displaced Persons.. ......... ......... 75
Rachel Kollender
Jewish Music in the Holocaust as an Assertion of Plural
Identities........................................................... .................... 93
Baltic Musics
Kevin C. Karnes
"Where Space Becomes Time": Music, Landscape, and
Memory in the Latvian Rock Opera Liicplesis. . . . . .. . .. . . . . .. . ... .. . .. . .. . . . . .. 111
7
Mikus Ceie
Latvijas Nacioniilii Opera und ihre Geburtsdeutungen.
Das Problem von deplazierten Jubiliien.............. ........................ .... 139
Dagmiira Beitnere
Musicology and Power in the Discourse of Soviet Latvian
History and Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 151
Rilta StaneviCiilte
Ecriturejeminine? On Some Intertextual Gestures in
Works by Contemporary Lithuanian Women Composers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Vizbullte BerziT}a
"On a Road to Hell": Jekabs GraubiI).s and the Soviet Regime... ........ .... 187
Musical Instruments
Werner Bachmann
Die skythisch-sarmatische Harfe aus Olbia:
V orbericht zur Rekonstruktion eines unverOffentlichten
und im Kriege verschollenen Musikinstruments.................... .......... ... 199
Zdravko Blaiekovic
Perseus, the Harp, and the Scimitar: Iconographic Confusion
as Evidence for Early Terminology for the Harp.. .................. ... ... ...... 213
Myrna Herzog
The Division Viol: An Overview. . . . . . . . . . . ..... . ... ..... . . ....... . . . . . . . .... ...... 221
Free Historical Subjects
Levon Hakobian
Octoechos as an Idea: On the Example of Medieval
Armenian Sacred Hymnody......................... .......... ............... ...... 245
Dagmar Haffmann-Axthelm
Simone Martini's Investiture alSt. Martin:
An Iconographical Approach. ............... . ....... . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .... . . .. ...... . . 253
8
Fabio Carboni and Agostino Ziino
Una raccolta di mottetti per Leone X: una scoperta e
nuove osservazioni. .............. ................. ............... ......... ........... 271
Levi Sheptovitsky
Two Chromatic Fantasias by John Dowland: Were They
Composed as a Pair? ................................................................ 291
Wolfgang Ruf
Religiose Musik und Politik:
Die Auffuhrung von Handels "Messias" in Berlin 1786................. ........ 315
Bathia Churgin
Beethoven and the New Development-Theme in Sonata-
Form Movements.............................................................. ........ 327
Frans C. Lemaire
Dimitri Chostakovitch: Rester et resister.. ... .......... . . .. . . .... . . . . . . . . ........... 345
Tatyana Kurysheva
Music Criticism as an Art of Perception. ......................................... 359
Notes on Contributors............................................................... 369
9
.
Zdravko Blaiekovic
PERSEUS, THE HARP, AND THE SCIMITAR
Iconographic Confusion as Evidencefor Early Terminology for The Harp
On yonder side the Dragon beckons which glides between the two Bears; the
Charioteer still minding his car and Bootes his wain; the heavenly gift of
Ariadne's crown; Perseus, slayer of the abominable Medusa, blade yet in
hand; with his wife Cepheus sacrificing his daughter Andromeda; the region of
the sky where fly the Horse of stars, the Dolphin seeking to outstrip the swift
Arrow, and Jupiter in swan's disguise; together with the other stars that glide
at large throughout the heavens.
Manilius, Astronomica, 5: 19-26
The Introductorium maius in astronomiam by the Arabic astronomer Abu
Ma'sar, written in Baghdad in A.H. 234 (848 A.D.), is one of the treatises that
laid down the basis for Western astronomy during the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance. 1 The treatise summarized the entire knowledge of astronomy at the
time, incorporating elements of astrology, mythology, and science from the
Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, and Persians. In 1140-43 the Introducto-
rium was translated into Latin by Hermann of Carinthia. 2 In the late twelfth or
Abu Mas'ar Gafar ibn Muammad ibn 'Umar al-BalhI (also known by the Latin name AI-
bumasar) was born in or near Balkh in Khurasan, now northern Afghanistan, on 10 August
A.H. 173 (787 A.D.) and died almost a centenarian in al-Wasit, central Mesopotamia, on 8
March A.H. 272 (886 A.D.), having become the principal authority on astronomy and as-
trology among the Arabs.
2 Hermann of Carinthia (Hermann of Dalmatia; ca. 1110-after 26 February 1154) was both
the translator and the author of an original philosophical treatise, De essentiis. The largest
number of his translations deals with astronomy and mathematics: Ptolemy'S
Planisphaera (1143), Theodosius's De sphaeris, al-Khwarizmi's Tabulae astronomicae
(ca. 1140), Euclid's Geometria, arithmetica et stereometria (ca. 1140, also known under
the title Elementa), and Abu Ma'sar's lntroductorium maius in astronomiam. With these
translations he introduced the Arabic knowledge of mathematics and astronomy to the
West. Several of his translations and compilations were intended for practical use, such as
a compilation of two astrological works, De occultis and De indagatione cordis (after
1140), describing the planets and their influence on human life. A third group of transla-
tions includes Islamic religious texts. In 1142-43, he took part, together with Peter of
Toledo and Robert of Ketton, in the earliest translation of the Qur'an from the Arabic into
Latin, and he also translated two other texts: De generatione Mahumet and Doctrina Ma-
humet. Hermann's most important original work was the philosophical treatise De essen-
tiis (1143), which offers an insight both into the cultural context in which these transla-
tions were made and into the period when alchemy and rational astrology were introduced
213
early thirteenth century, the otherwise unknown Georgius Zothorus Zaparus
Fendulus extracted those parts of Hennann's translation of Abu Ma'sar's book
that describe the constellations and the planets, and he provided them with illus-
trations. 3 This abridgment is essentially an illustrated encyclopedia, with sev-
enty-six pages of images related to the three astrological systems used at the
time, and to the seven planets.
There are six preserved manuscripts with Georgius' s illustrated abridgment
that share identical contents and structure, although they are not all preserved in
their entirety. In chronological order, they are Bibliotheque Nationale de France,
lat. 7330 (1220-40); the British Library, Sloane 3983 (1325-50); the Morgan Li-
brary and Museum, M. 785 (circa 1400); the Bibliotheque Nationale de France,
lat. 7331 (1450-60), and lat. 7344 (shortly after 1488); and Smith-Lesouef 8 (the
end of the fifteenth century). The drawings in the six manuscripts are similar in
their overall composition, and the changes introduced reflect only the new ap-
pearances of the objects, such as the clothing of figures, architectural style, or
musical instruments updated to their shapes contemporaneous to the time the
manuscript was produced.
Each of the manuscripts depicts a variety of instruments, many of them sev-
eral times. However, with respect to present research on tenninology for the
harp, the most interesting source is the earliest known manuscript, lat. 7330,
which is of South-Italian origin and was produced for the court of Frederick II
(1194-1250), Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, Cyprus, and Jerusalem. 4
Frederick's Sicilian court was a center of intellectual activity and provided a
workplace for Michael Scotus, who translated some of Aristotle's treatises there;
for Leonard of Pisa (Fibonacci), who introduced Arabic numerals and algebra to
the West; and for several other Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scholars. The
King himself was acquainted with mathematics, philosophy, and natural sci-
ences, and was also interested in poetry, medicine, and architecture; at the time
of his coronation as King of Sicily, he spoke Greek, Latin, Arabic, Provenc;al,
and a Sicilian dialect. He was patron of a number of Arabian artists and encour-
aged their art in Sicily. In 1224 he founded the University in Naples, where he
assembled a large collection of Arabic manuscripts and translations of Greek
philosophers.
to the West. De essentiis constitutes the first notable application of Arabic astrology to
Latin metaphysical speculation, merging with the neo-Platonic traditions of Chartres.
3 Knowledge of Georgius's involvement in the production of the abridgment comes from
the opening line of the text: "In nomine domini pii e misericordissimi. Incipit prologus viri
cognomine Georgii Zothori Zapari Fenduli. G. sacerdotis atque philosophi translatus de
Persica lingua in Latinam liber Albumazaris."
4 The manuscript is fully described in Fran90is Avril, et aI., Manuscrits enlumimis d'origine
italienne, vol. 2, XIIle siecle (Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale, 1981-84), 160-62, pI. P, cxvi-
cxviii; cf. also the facsimile edition, Marie-Therese Gousset and Jean-Pierre Verdet, eds.,
Georgius Zothorus Zaparus Fendulus: Liber astrologie (Paris: Herscher, 1989).
214
 The core of Georgius' s abridgment contains, in its first half, book VI, chap-
ter 2 of Abu Ma'sar's Introductorium maius, entitled "De 12 signis et de figuris
eorum et que stellae orientur in eis et que sunt significationes eorum," which is
devoted to the twelve signs of the zodiac. Here Abu Ma'sar provided descrip-
tions of three different astrological systems: the Greek firmament, based on the
writings of Ptolemy (second century A.D.); a system of Indian decans, adopted
from the Hindu astrologer Varahamihira (sixth century A.D.); and the system
codified by Teukros, an astronomer from Asia Minor (first century A.D.), who
combined Egyptian with Greek and Babylonian astronomy. His presentation fol-
lows the pre-Copernican astronomical assumption that the sun revolves around
the earth along the ecliptic, in the course of which appears a belt of twelve signs
of the zodiac. Each sign-occupying approximately thirty degrees of the celes-
tial ecliptic and corresponding to a thirty-day period when the sun is in that par-
ticular section of the arc-Georgius illustrated in three segments, each measur-
ing ten degrees. Each such ten-degree arc Georgius displayed on one page, di-
vided horizontally into three parts. The bottom third depicts Ptolemaic constella-
tions that are visible in either the southern or the northern sky above the ten-
degree arc of the ecliptic (sphaera graecanica). The middle section includes il-
lustrations of the Indian system of decans (sphaera indica), in which each decan
dominates with its astrological influences during a ten-day period. Finally, at the
top of the page are illustrated constellations of the sphaera barbarica, which si-
multaneously rise to the north and to the south of the celestial equator at the time
when the sun is in the corresponding ten-degree arc of the ecliptic. The manu-
script is a particularly interesting source because many of the objects depicted
are identified by their names in Latin.
In Georgius' s representation of the sky, the constellation of Perseus appears
in both the sphaera graecanica and the sphaera barbarica. The constellation is
approximately twenty-eight degrees in length in the sky, which makes it one of
the most extended in the heavens, stretching from the raised hand of Cassiopeia
nearly to the Pleiades. s Since Georgius included on each page of his celestial at-
las in the sphaera graecanica, only those elements of the constellation that ap-
pear in the sky during a particular ten-day period, parts of Perseus are extended
over several decans, beginning from the middle period of Aries and spreading to
the end of Taurus. In the second decan of Aries (fo1. 7r) are shown Perseus's
head (caput Persei), his hand (finis manus), the head of Medusa (caput Meduse),
and a harp (harpes Persei) (Figure 1). Since the large number of constellations
rising during this period did not leave enough space in the section usually re-
served for the sphaera barbarica at the bottom of the page, some elements are
incorporated among the elements of the sphaera indica in the middle band.
5 Cf. Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (New York: Dover,
1963),331.
215
 7
Figure 1. Georgius Zothorus Zaparus Fendulus, abridgment of Abu Ma'sar's Illtro-
dllc-torilllll maills i1l astrOllomiam ( 1220-40), showing the second decan
of Aries. MS, Bibli otheque Nationale de France, lat. 7330, fol. 7r.
In the following decan, the constellation continues with the figure of Perseus
shown from the waist up, holding a sword in his right hand and Medusa's head
in his left (Perseus cum manu sinistra tenens caput Meduse) (F igure 2). In the
2 16
first decan of Taurus, th e left side of Perseus's body is represented; in the fol-
lowing decan, his right knee (Perseus gel/u); and, finally, in the third decan of
Taums, his entire figure.
- I
Figure 2. Fendulu5, abridgment of Abu Ma'sar's lntroductorillm , showing the third
decan of Aries. MS, Bibliotheque National e de France, lal. 7330, fol. 7v.
2 17
 Such features of the constellation might not be of interest for a music histo-
rian if the harp had any connection with Perseus in mythology. However, music
is associated with Perseus only indirectly. In the Metamorphosis, Ovid mentions
that, after Perseus liberated Andromeda, "incense in abundance fed the flames,
garlands hung from the roof, and everywhere was heard the sound of lyres and
pipes, and singing that gives happy proof of joyful hearts.,,6 Thus the harp in-
cluded by Georgius among the illustrations of Perseus's elements has no rela-
tionship to him in mythological terms, and the question as to why it is included
here-and, moreover, unmistakably associated with him through the inscription
harpes Persei-makes this image not only interesting but also significant for a
consideration of the early terminology for the harp.
In fact, Georgius's depiction results from a misreading and misunderstand-
ing of Hermann's Latin description of the constellation. The word harpa had
been used during the Middle Ages for a number of objects, ranging from a har-
row, a com sieve, an instrument of torture, and a shelf for drying com to the mu-
sical instrument itsele The Latin term harpe, or its Greek equivalent, ap7r:l1, also
signified a sickle-shaped sword, the kind that Perseus received from Hermes be-
fore the fight with the Gorgon Medusa, which became one of his standard
iconographic attributes in celestial atlases. 8 He is normally represented as a nude
youth wearing the talaria (winged sandals) with a light scarf thrown around his
body. In his left hand he holds the Gorgoneion (the head of Medusa) and in his
right the scimitar. 9 The word harpe (designating this sickle-shaped sword) is
used in the Greek description of the Perseus constellation in the manuscript
Vatican, gr.1056 (fo1. 28v),10 and also in Hermann's translation of Abu Ma'sar.
Apparently lacking sufficient familiarity with the mythology and failing to un-
derstand the text, Georgius depicted the harpe as a musical instrument, instead
of as a scimitar.
If we were concerned with the astrological significance of the constellation
of Perseus, the image of the harp would be confusing, and we might dismiss it as
insignificant. In an organological context, however, it is a different matter alto-
gether. Georgius's confusion of the harp for the scimitar indicates that he based
his imagery, at this point, on the textual source. He did not, in other words, fol-
low the established iconographic tradition surrounding the figure of Perseus.
6 Ovid, Metamorphosis, trans. by Mary M. Innes (London: Penguin, 1955), 114.
7 Cf. Martin van Schaik, The Harp in the Middle Ages: The Symbolism of a Musical Instru-
ment (Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1992), 16.
8 Cf. Mirko Divkovic, Latinsko-hrvatski rjeenik za skole, 2nd ed. (Zagreb, 1900) and the
facsimile ed. (Zagreb: Naprijed, 1980),465; and D.P. Simpson, Cassell"s Latin Dictionwy
(New York: Macmillan, 1988),272.
9 Cf. Allen, Star Names, 329.
10 Cf. Franz Boll, Sphaera: Neue griechische Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der
Sternbilder (Leipzig: Teubner, 1903),57.
218
=
The layout of his celestial atlas, representing parts of constellations within ten-
day periods, was unusual, and we do not know what he used as a model for this
design. 11 Indeed, errors of this kind speak in favor of the assumption that this
layout might well have been entirely his own design. However, on the following
page (fol. 7v), which shows the constellations of the third decan of Aries, we
find a traditional representation of Perseus, holding a sword in his right hand and
Medusa's head in his left (Figure 2). Since the text here calls for the entire figure
of Perseus rather than just parts of the constellation, Georgius was able to return
to the established iconographic tradition and to show him in his usual posture,
rather than being compelled to invent a new image. Interestingly, however, the
misrepresentation of the scimitar as a harp was transmitted through all later cop-
ies of the Georgius manuscripts, indicating that the artists who produced those
later manuscripts did not verify the accuracy of pictures in the accompanying
textual introduction, but slavishly copied them from a model.
The earliest evidence for the Latin word harpe being used to refer to the mu-
sical instrument is found in a poem by Valentinus Fortunatus (ca. 530-601),
Bishop of Poitiers. 12 Subsequently, the word was used to signify the instrument
in Latin and other European languages, but it is difficult to ascertain the identity
of the instrument to which the term referred. "In the eleventh century, the terms
cithara and harpa are often used synonymously. In glossaries dating from the
tenth and thirteenth centuries, the term harpa is used for a large number of di-
verse musical instruments.,,13 For example, Regino of Prom, in his Epistola de
harmonica institutione (ca. 900), included the harpa among the tensibilia
(stringed instruments), but he did not provide a specific description of the in-
strument. 14 In the Anglo-Saxon Vita Sancti Dunstani (presumably written
around 1000), the term "cithara" is explained to refer to the harp. IS The word
"salterium" was also interpreted as having several different meanings, one of
them being the instrument today known as the harp.16 According to Martin van
Schaik, the earliest literary source indicating how the harp was played-and
11 The common tradition at the time followed the layout of the lavishly illustrated Carolin-
gian manuscript the Leiden Aratea (Lei den, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Voss. lat. Q.
79), in which each constellation is either represented as an isolated picture or included in
the planisphere, which shows all celestial phenomena at a given time.
12 "Romanusque lyra, plaudat tibi barbarus harpa, Graecus Achilliaca, crotta Britannus ca-
nat." (And may the Roman bring you homage with the lyra, the German with the harpa,
the Greek sing Achilles's songs, and the Briton sound the crotta). Van Schaik, The Harp, 19.
13 Ibid., 36-37.
14 Ibid., 21.
15 "sumpsit secum ex more cytharam suam quam lingua paterna hearpam vocamus" (as usual
took up his cithara which we call harpa in our language). Ibid., 21.
16 Cf. ibid., 21. In the Utrecht Psaltery (Utrecht, Rijksuniversiteit, MS 819), the text of Psalm
149 reads (fo1. 83r): "Laudent nomen eius in choro, in tympano et psalterio psallant ei,
quia bene placitum est." However, the accompanying illustrations show a harpist.
219
therefore positively detennining the object and its name-is the anonymous
Gennan Roudlieb epic, datable to the period between the years 1043 and circa
1075. 17 "From the beginning of the thirteenth century," Van Schaik concludes,
"the tenn harp seems to have been used consistently in poetry as the name for
the musical instrument, the harp.,,18
Although the manuscript lat. 7330 does not contain the earliest iconographic
source for the harp, the label that accompanies its picture in the second decan of
Aries certainly makes this source a very important one. Indeed, that image can
be regarded as iconographic proof of Van Schaik's argument regarding usage of
the word. 19 If Georgius mistook the word harpe in the context of Perseus for the
musical instrument, it suggests that the term was, in his environment, more
commonly used to denote the musical instrument than the scimitar. We do not
have any indication as to who Georgius was or where he came from, nor do we
have any proof as to where he produced the prototype of his celestial atlas. But,
assuming that lat. 7330 is the prototype itself, we do have, in this instance, a rare
proof that the word harp was, by the first third of the thirteenth century, ac-
cepted in the Latin language of southern Italy to denote the same instrument that
we understand today to be the harp. And, if this manuscript is a copy of an ear-
lier Georgius prototype, the present-day meaning of the word could well have
been established even earlier.
17 Lines 38-39 from fragment IX read: "Pulsans mox leva digitis geminis, modo dextra tan-
gendo chordas dulces reddit nimis odas." (He played the sweetest songs, now plucking the
strings with two fingers of the left hand and then again with the right hand.) Cf. ibid., 22.
18 Ibid.
19 Iconographic sources for the harp preceding and approximately contemporary to the earli-
est Georgius manuscript include the York Psalter, Glasgow, University Library, Hunterian
MS 229, fol. 21 v (ca. 1175); the Bible of St. Alban (England), The Morgan Museum and
Library, M. 791, fol. 170 (1215-20); an English psalter, Morgan, G. 25, fol. 3v and 5v
(1225); and a French Bible, Morgan G. II, fo1. 166 (1240). These sources, however, do
not name the instrument depicted. The earliest Georgius manuscript predates, by several
decades, depictions of instruments in the famous Cantigas de Santa Marla (El Escorial,
MS b.L2 E 1).
220
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