Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments in the South Kensington museum, preceded by an essay on the history of musical instruments, 1874 › scan 336
Scan 336
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments in the South Kensington museum, preceded by an essay on the history of musical instruments, 1874
24 lines. Read by computer on 14 September 2026. Printed page 310. See the scan on archive.org.
1This rebab is an exact counterpart of the rebec formerly popular in Western Europe.
3(79.)
5KEMÂNGEH a'gouz. With bow. Egyptian. A species of Eastern violoncello, with two strings made of horse-hair. The body consists of the shell of a cocoa-nut, covered at the top with a bladder, and perforated at the back with a number of sound-holes.
7(80.)
9SAMSIEN. With a large plectrum of a white wood. Japan. Its three strings are of silk. The body is square, and is covered in front and at the back with parchment.
11The samsien is played especially by the Japanese ladies, and is as great a favourite with them as the lute was formerly with us.
13It is usually tuned in the following order of intervals:—
15but sometimes thus:—
17and also thus:—
19(8.)
21YUE-KIN, or "Moon-guitar." Mounted with four silken strings, which are arranged in two pairs, each pair being in unison. The two tones thereby produced are tuned in the interval of a fifth from each other. Chinese. Modern.
23This grotesquely-shaped instrument is a favourite one of the Chinese. The Canton pronunciation of yue-kin is yuet-kum, and this may be the reason why some European travellers in China have called the instrument gut-komm. The wood of which it is made is called by the
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