&sq=Google&lang=en&file=File:Cantigas_de_Santa_Maria,_Musician%27s_Codex,_page_Bl-2_062V.jpg) Triangular psalteries held as harps in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, Musician's Codex, 1280 A.D. On the near face of each rotte, 17 strings are visible. | |
| String instrument | |
|---|---|
| Other names | rotte, rote, rotta, rota |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 314.122 box zithers ((Box zither. Chordophone with one or more strings stretched between fixed points, a board for a string bearer, parallel to the plane of the strings, with a resonator box)) |
| Related instruments | |
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During the 11th to 15th century A.D., rotte (German) or rota (Spanish) referred to a triangular psaltery illustrated in the hands of King David and played by jongleurs (popular musicians who might play the music of troubadours) and cytharistas (Latin word for a musician who plays string instruments).[1][2] Besides being played in popular music, the church may have used them as well; a letter from Cuthbert, Abbot of Jarrow, England survives, in which he asks an archbishop to send him a cytharista to play the rotta.[2]
The instruments least 10 strings on each side and were held like a harp in front of the musician.[1][3] Rottes were also described as having 17 stings and 22 strings on each side.[2] The playing position was different from other psalteries, as the Rotte might be held like a harp, leaned sideways (flat against the musician's chest), or rested on the lap.[4] Two styles of rotte have been inferred from images: the first is a triangular box with strings on one side, the other has strings on both sides (both hands playing at once, resembling a harp).[1] The instruments are shown played with both plectrum and with fingers.[1]
The names chrotta, rotte, rotta, rota and rote have been applied to different stringed instruments, including a psaltery, lyre and to a Crwth (necked lyre played as a fiddle or lute).[3][5][6] In the 15th century it was also used to name a fiddle, synonymous with the rebec.[3]
Knowing a rotte (psaltery) from a triangular harp in the medieval minatures can be challenging; rottes may have sound holes visible, if the artist is putting that level of detail into the painting.[7] Similarly, harps show background through the strings if the artist painted sufficient detail.
- ^ a b c d Alvarez, Rosario (June 1999). "El arpa-cítara (rota): su probable origen bizantino y su trayectoria mediterránea hacia la Europa Occidental" [The harp-zither (rota): its probable Byzantine origin and its Mediterranean trajectory towards Western Europe]. Journal of Musicology (in Spanish). 22 (1): 11–48. doi:10.2307/20797571. JSTOR 20797571.
[translated to English from Spanish] There must have been two models of this type, judging from the images: one with a double row of strings and a sound box between them, with two soundboards, an instrument that was played in the same way as the harp...and another simpler one, with a single plane of strings under which a sound box or simply a plank ran...
- ^ a b c Pittaway, Ian. "The medieval harp (1/3): origins and development". Early Music Muse.
- ^ a b c Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1984). "Rotte". The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 3. p. 260.
a copyiest...complained that the ancient ten-string psaltery had been adopten by musicians and actors, who had...increased the number of strings...and given it the barbarian name 'rotta'...
- ^ Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1984). "Psaltery Frame zither". The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. pp. 39, 151–154. Volume 3.
- ^ Schlesinger, Kathleen (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). pp. 395–397.
- ^ Sachs, Curt (1940). The History of Musical Instruments. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-393-02068-7.
- ^ Alvarez, Rosario (June 1999). "El arpa-cítara (rota): su probable origen bizantino y su trayectoria mediterránea hacia la Europa Occidental" [The harp-zither (rota): its probable Byzantine origin and its Mediterranean trajectory towards Western Europe]. Journal of Musicology (in Spanish). 22 (1): 11–48. doi:10.2307/20797571. JSTOR 20797571.
[prior to the 13th century] its images raise doubts, since there are times when we do not know whether we are in the presence of a harp in which the three sides of its outline are straight, that is, a chordophone without a sound box parallel to the strings, a symbolic psalterium or an authentic harp-zither.