The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

13.Aharsh (asperus)voiceishoarse, and uttered with
brief irregular beats. A blind (caecus) voiceisone that
stops short as soon as it is emitted, and being stifled is
not prolonged any further, like the sound of clay utensils.
Acharming (vinnolus) voiceissoft and flexible; and it
is so named from vinnus, that is, ‘softly modulated.’ 14.
Aperfect (perfectus) voiceishigh,sweet, and distinct:
high, so that it can reach the high range; distinct, so that
it fills the ears; sweet, so that it soothes the spirits of the
listeners. If a voice lacks any of these qualities, it is not
perfect.
xx. The second division, which is called organicus (De
secunda divisione, quae organica dicitur) 1. Thesecond
division is organicus, and it is produced by those
instruments that, when they are filled with the breath
that is blown into them, are animated with the sound
of a voice, like trumpets, reed pipes, pipes, organs, pandoria,
20 and instruments similar to these. 2. Organum is
the general word for all musical instruments. The Greeks
call that instrument to which bellows are attached by a
different name (i.e. ), but to call it an organ
(organum)israther the common usage of the Greeks.
3. Thetrumpet (tuba) wasinvented first by the Etruscans,
about which Vergil says (Aen. 8.526):
And the Etruscan blaring of the trumpets (tuba)
bellowed through the air.
Trumpets were employed not only for battles, but also
for all festive days, thanks to their clarity in praise or joy.
For this reason, the Psalter says (cf. Psalm 80:4,Vulgate),
“Sing with a trumpet (tuba)atthe onset of the month, on
the noted day of your solemnity” – for it was commanded
for the Jews to sound a trumpet at the onset of the new
moon, and they do this even up to this day.
20 The pandorium or pandorius (see section 8 below) is usually
in Latin not a wind instrument (pan-pipes?) but a kind of lute, the
bandore.
21 The text has ablative Idi.This may be a corruption of Daphnis,
ablative Daphnide, the legendary Sicilian inventor of pastoral song
Alternatively, it may be a corruption of Idas; the shepherd Idas boasts,
in the second Eclogue (28–31)ofCalpurnius Siculus (“the Sicilian”),
that Silvanus introduced him to the fistula.
22 Isidore nods; he knows that means “light” (see XV.ii.37,
etc.), and that ‘vocal sound’ is in Greek (VIII.xi.87).
23 Here a symphonia –aword used for several types of instruments
– is a kind of flute, but a sambuca in classical Latin is a small
harp, and sambucus is the elder-tree.
The Etymologies III.xx.13–xxii.2 97
4.People say that flutes (tibia)wereinventedinPhrygia.
For a long time, they were used only at funeral rites,
and soon after at other sacred rites of the pagans. Moreover,
people think that flutes were so named because at
first they were fashioned from the leg-bones (tibia) of
deer and the shin-bones of asses. Then, through incorrect
usage, they began to be called by this name even
when they were not made of shin-bones or other bones.
Thus we also get ‘flute player’ (tibicen), as if from tibiarum
cantus (“song of flutes”).
5.‘Reed’(calamus, i.e. the reed plant, and also a name
for a reed-pipe) is the particular name of a tree, and
comes from ‘rousing’ (calere), that is, from ‘pouring
forth’ voices. 6. Some people think that the fistula (lit.
“pipe,” also another name for a reed-pipe) was invented
by Mercury, and others by Faunus, whom the Greeks
call Pan. And not a few think that it was invented by
Idis, a shepherd from Agrigentum in Sicily. 21 The fistula
is so named because it emits a voice, for voice is in
Greek, 22 and is the word meaning ‘sent forth.’ 7.
Among musicians, the sambuca isatypeofsymphonia. 23
It is made of the kind of fragile wood from which flutes
are constructed. 8.Thepandorius took its name from its
inventor, and Vergil says (cf. Ecl. 2.32):
Pan was the first to teach joining many reeds together
with wax, Pan whose concern is the flock and the
keepers oftheflock.
For among the pagans, Pan was the pastoral god, who
was the first to fit together reeds of different lengths for
the purpose of song, and he put them together with
diligent art.
xxi. The third division of music, which is called rhythmic
(De tertia divisione, quae rythmica nuncupatur)
1.The third division of music is called ‘rhythmic’ (rhythmicus),
and it pertains to strings and percussion. Different
types of cithara belong to this division, and also
drums, cymbals, rattles, and bronze and silver vessels,
and others that when struck produce a sweet ringing
sound from the hardness of their metal, as well as other
instruments of this sort.
2. Tubal is reputed to have been the discoverer of
the cithara and the psaltery, as was mentioned above.
However, according to the opinion of the Greeks it is
believed that the use of the cithara was discovered by
Apollo. The shape of the cithara is said to have been