Sometimes, when I've done a podcast episode on a topic, I tend to deprioritize other publications on that topic in order to keep myself fresh with new material. And there are some topics where there's so many publications that each one adds relatively little new information, so I'd rather focus on expanding the overall content. But sometimes its just worth getting caught up on various topics that aren't "top priority" simply because they're there in the to-do folder. Which is why I'm currently working through a number of journal articles that fall in the aforementioned categories. Some of them feel like just housekeeping with not much substantial interest. But some of them--like this one--add significantly to the understanding of those topics.
Comments1
plectra
"a leather worker who “could not even stitch the plectrum for a lyre” which makes no sense in a musical context, as a musical plectrum would be made of a hard substance such as horn, ivory, or wood"
My spouse has a number of plectra for citoles, lutes, etc., mostly made of either horn or quill. If horn, they're carved extremely thin so they have some flexibility (comparable to a plastic guitar pick), and if quill, they're made from a part of the quill that's neither too stiff nor too soft. There's also good evidence from, say, 15-16th centuries for lutenists using a small loop of gut string held between the fingers as a plectrum: it's the exact same material as the strings, so it won't scratch them, and it's stiffened just enough by the loop tension to work as a plectrum.
All of which adds up to "plectra aren't necessarily HARD, they need some flexibility," which suggests that the mention of sewing a leather plectrum for a lyre could be taken literally: sew together two or more narrow strips of leather to make them stiffer than one strip alone.
Not to dismiss the sexual connotation, of course.