Thesambuca (alsosambute,sambiut,sambue,sambuque, orsambuke[1]) was an ancientstringed instrument of Asiatic origin. The termsambuca is also applied to a number of other instruments.
The original sambuca is generally supposed to have been a small triangularancient Greek harp of shrill tone,[2] probably identical withPhoenician:sabecha andImperial Aramaic:סַבְּכָא,romanized: sabbǝkhā, theGreek form beingσαμβύκη orσαμβύχη[3] orσαβύκη.[4]
Eusebius wrote that theTroglodytae invented the sambuca,[5][6] whileAthenaeus wrote that the writer Semus of Delos said that the first person who used the sambuca was Sibylla, and that the instrument derives its name from a man named Sambyx who invented it.[7]Athenaeus also wrote that Euphorion in his book on the Isthmian Games mentioned that Troglodytae used sambuca with four strings like theParthians.[8] He also add that theMagadis was an ancient instrument, but that in latter times it was altered, and had the name also changed to that of the sambuca.[9]
The sambuca has been compared to thesiege engine of the same name by some classical writers;Polybius likens it to a rope ladder; others describe it as boat-shaped. Among the musical instruments known, the Egyptianenanga best answers to these descriptions, which are doubtless responsible for the medievaldrawings representing the sambuca as a kind oftambourine,[10] forIsidore of Seville elsewhere defines thesymphonia as a tambourine.[3]
Thesabka is mentioned in the Bible (Daniel 3 verses 5 to 15). In theKing James Bible it is erroneously translated as "sackbut".[3]
During theMiddle Ages the word "sambuca" was applied to:[3]
In an oldglossary article onvloyt (flute), the sambuca is said to be a kind of flute:[11]
Sambuca vel sambucus est quaedam arbor parva et mollis, unde haec sambuca est quaedam species symphoniae qui fit de illa arbore.
Isidore of Seville describes it in hisEtymologiae as:[12]
Sambuca in musicis species est symphoniarum. Est enim genus ligni fragilis unde et tibiae componuntur.
The sambuca is in the symphonia family of musical instruments. It is also a kind of softwood from which these pipes are made.
In a glossary by Papias of Lombardy (c. 1053), first printed atMilan in 1476, the sambuca is described as acithara, which in that century was generally glossed "harp":[3]
Sambuca, cytherae rusticae.
Sambucas, simple harps.
InTristan und Isolde (bars 7563-72) when the knight is enumerating to King Marke all the instruments upon which he can play, thesambiut is the last mentioned:
Waz ist daz, lieber mann?
— Daz veste Seitspiel daz ich kann.
What is this now, you free man?
— It's the Seitspiel, yes, I can.
ALatin–Frenchglossary[13] has the equivalencePsalterium =sambue. During the later Middle Agessambuca was often translated "sackbut" in the vocabularies, whether merely from the phonetic similarity of the two words has not yet been established.[3]
The great BoulognePsalter (11th Century) contains many fanciful instruments which are evidently intended to illustrate the equally vague and fanciful descriptions of instruments in the apocryphal letter ofSaint Jerome,ad Dardanum ("to Dardanus"). Among these is aSambuca, which resembles a somewhat primitive sackbut without thebell joint. In the 19th Century it was reproduced byEdmond de Coussemaker,Charles de la Croix andEugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, and has given rise to endless discussions without leading to any satisfactory solution.[3]
Fabio Colonna created the pentecontachordon, a keyboard instrument which he called a sambuca.[14][15]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Schlesinger, Kathleen (1911). "Sambuca". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 114.