Sambuca (instrument) - Original

Original

The original sambuca is generally supposed to have been a small triangular harp of shrill tone., probably identical with the Phoenician sabecha and the Aramaic sabbekā, the Greek form being σαμβύκη or σαμβύχη.

The sambuca has been compared to the siege 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 Egyptian nanga best answers to these descriptions, which are doubtless responsible for the medieval drawings representing the sambuca as a kind of tambourine, for Isidore of Seville elsewhere defines the symphonia as a tambourine.

The sabka is mentioned in the Bible (Daniel 3 verses 5 to 15). In the King James Bible it is erroneously translated as "sackbut".

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