ANDREA CAVIGLIOTTI
        CLAVICEMBALI & SALTERI-RESTAURO FORTEPIANI

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PSALTERIES

Harpsichord seems to come from psaltery(lat.psalterium, from the Greek psalterion, from psallo: " to sing playing the cithara").
From psallo comes the name psalm. Psalms are 150 rythmical prayers to be singed partly ascribed to King David, collected in the Psalm Book of the Jewish and Christian Bible. Psaltery, thanks to its magic sound, was the instrument appointed to accompany these prayers.
My elaboration of this instrument is inspired to a Flemish Jan Van Eyck painting entitled "The Grace Spring" (1423-1426 ca.) and preserved at the Prado Museum of Madrid.

Two groups of three angel musicians are represented in the central part of the painting. In the group on the right one of the three angels is playing with quills a wing psaltery named also "micanon" which is a half of a
"qanun". The qanun was and is still nowadays an Arabian plucked psaltery introduced in Europe from North Africa and through Spain about in the XI century.