Barbiton

The barbat or barbud, began being translated into Latin as barbiton sometime during the late Middle Ages, a mistaken practice which has passed into English and other European languages through long misuse.

Since neither instrument was familiar to European musicians of the late Middle Ages – both had fallen out of use in the occident sometime between the mid-Imperial period and the end of the Roman empire – the error was neither caught nor corrected.

The barbiton (bass kithara) was rare and considered exotic in the Hellenic world – only popular in Anatolia and the eastern Aegean.

[1] There are much fewer descriptions of it than the well-regarded kithara, and some depictions of it on painted vases were made by painters and sculptors who may have rarely seen one themselves, if ever.

[3] Anacreon[4] (a native of Teos in Asia Minor) sings that his barbitos "only gives out erotic tones"[3] – a remark which could have been metaphorical, but could also be a literal reference to the instrument's being tuned in the Greek harmonia called Ιαςτιαν (Iastian).

[2] In spite of the few meagre shreds of authentic information extant concerning this somewhat elusive instrument, it is possible nevertheless to identify the barbiton as it was known among the Greeks and Romans.

[13] The word barbud applied to the barbiton is said to be derived[14] from a famous musician living at the time of Chosroes II (590–628 CE), who excelled in playing the instrument.

Musicologist Kathleen Schlesinger identified a stringed instrument of unknown name that combines the characteristics of both lyre and rebab; It is represented in least four different ancient sculptures:[24] She writes: It has the vaulted back and gradual narrowing to form a neck which are typical of the rebab and the stringing of the lyre.

Most authors in reproducing these sculptures showing it represent the instrument as boat-shaped and without a neck, as, for instance, Carl Engel.

This is because the part of the instrument where neck joins body is in deep shadow, so that the correct outline can hardly be distinguished, being almost hidden by hand on one side and drapery on the other.