monochord

Latin for "one-string": an instrument constructed of a sound-box and a single string, with several bridges used to delineate various rational or geometrical (irrational) intervals.

The instrument was not assumed to have any practical value in the playing of music, but was strictly for purposes of theoretical demonstration and experiment, and was widely used for such from the time of ancient Greece until about the baroque.

[from Joe Monzo, JustMusic: A New Harmony]

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