An ancient instrument with contemporary use:
He kiste hire sweet and taketh his sawtrie
And pleyeth faste, and maketh melodie.
-from Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale'
It may date back to 300 B.C. or earlier, when an instrument with the same name was used for praise and celebration in ancient Greece. Centuries later in western Europe and Great Britain, psalteries were frequently used by minstrels, amateurs, and professional musicians at least until the 1600s. During that century, these instruments inspired new creations such as the hammered dulcimer and, very possibly, the harpsichord (another form of box zither which has strings that are similarly attached but operated by a keyboard).
To play the European psaltery, you hold the body of the instrument against your chest, which acts as a resonator to amplify the sound. Generally, you pluck the strings with your fingers or with a plectrum (pick), although some psalteries are bowed. Comparable instruments found throughout the Islamic world include the Turkish qanun, which has up to seventy-two strings, and the Javanese tjelempung (or celempung), a virtuousic improvising instrument used in the Gamelan. In Asia, the Chinese yang chi'in , which may have originated as early as 2000 BC, and the Japanese koto , the chief of contemporary Japanese traditional instruments, are other relatives of the psaltery and zither.
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