Besides the names of Hebrew instruments already given there occur several others in the Old Testament, upon the real meaning of which much diversity of opinion prevails. _Jobel_ is by some commentators classed with the trumpets, but it is by others believed to designate a loud and cheerful blast of the trumpet, used on particular occasions. If _Jobel_ (from which _jubilare_ is supposed to be derived) is identical with the name _Jubal_, the inventor of musical instruments, it would appear that the Hebrews appreciated pre-eminently the exhilarating power of music. _Shalisbim_ is supposed to denote a triangle. _Nechiloth_, _gittith_, and _machalath_, which occur in the headings of some psalms, are also by commentators supposed to be musical instruments. _Nechiloth_ is said to have been a flute, and _gittith_ and _machalath_ to have been stringed instruments, and _machol_ a kind of flute. Again, others maintain that the words denote peculiar modes of performance or certain favourite melodies to which the psalms were directed to be sung, or chanted. According to the records of the Rabbins, the Hebrews in the time of David and Solomon possessed thirty-six different musical instruments. In the Bible only about half that number are mentioned.
Most nations of antiquity ascribed the invention of their musical instruments to their gods, or to certain superhuman beings. The Hebrews attributed it to man; Jubal is mentioned in Genesis as “the father of all such as handle the harp and organ” (_i.e._, performers on stringed instruments and wind instruments). As instruments of percussion are almost invariably in use long before people are led to construct stringed and wind instruments it might perhaps be surmised that Jubal was not regarded as the inventor of all the Hebrew instruments, but rather as the first professional cultivator of instrumental music.
Many musical instruments of the ancient Greeks are known to us by name; but respecting their exact construction and capabilities there still prevails almost as much diversity of opinion as is the case with those of the Hebrews.
It is generally believed that the Greeks derived their musical system from the Egyptians. Pythagoras and other philosophers are said to have studied music in Egypt. It would, however, appear that the Egyptian influence upon Greece, as far as regards this art, has been overrated. Not only have the more perfect Egyptian instruments――such as the larger harps, the tamboura――never been much in favour with the Greeks, but almost all the stringed instruments which the Greeks possessed are stated to have been originally derived from Asia. Strabo says: “Those who regard the whole of Asia, as far as India, as consecrated to Bacchus, point to that country as the origin of a great portion of the present music. One author speaks of ‘striking forcibly the Asiatic kithara,’ another calls the pipes Berecynthian and Phrygian. Some of the instruments also have foreign names, as Nablas, Sambyke, Barbitos, Magadis, and many others.”