Lyre
chordophone sounded with a plectrum) | |
Developed | Sumer, Iraq, Bronze Age |
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Related instruments | |
The lyre (
The lyre has its origins in ancient history. Lyres were used in several ancient cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The earliest known examples of the lyre have been recovered at archeological sites that date to c. 2700 BCE in Mesopotamia. [1] [2] The oldest lyres from the Fertile Crescent are known as the eastern lyres and are distinguished from other ancient lyres by their flat base. They have been found at archaeological sites in Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, and the Levant.[1]
The round lyre or the Western lyre also originated in Syria and Anatolia, but was not as widely used and eventually died out in the east c. 1750 BCE. The round lyre, so called for its rounded base, reappeared centuries later in
Etymology
The earliest reference to the word "lyre" is the
Classification
Ancient lyres
There is evidence of the development of many forms of lyres from the period 2700 BCE through 700 BCE. Lyres from the ancient world are divided by scholars into two separate groups, the eastern lyres and the western lyres, which are defined by patterns of geography and chronology.[1]
Eastern lyres
Eastern lyres, also known as flat-based lyres, are lyres which originated in the
While flat-based lyres originated in the East, they were also later found in the West after 700 BCE.[1] By the Hellenistic period (c. 330 BCE) what was once a clearly divided use of flat-based lyres in the East and round-based lyres in the West had disappeared, as trade routes between the East and the West dispersed both kinds of instruments across more geographic regions.[1]
Eastern lyres are divided into four main types: bull lyres, thick lyres, thin lyres and giant lyres.[1]
Bull lyres
Bull lyres are a type of eastern lyre that have a flat base and bull's head on one side.
Thick lyres
Thick lyres are a type of flat-based eastern lyre that comes from Egypt (2000–100 BCE) and Anatolia (c. 1600 BCE). The thick lyre is distinguished by a thicker sound box which allowed for the inclusion of more strings. These strings were held on a larger 'box-bridge' than the other type of eastern lyres, and the sound hole of the instrument was cut in the body of the lyre behind the box-bridge.[1]
While similar to the bull lyre in size, the thick lyre did not contain the head of an animal, but did depict images of animals on the arms or yoke of the instrument. Like the bull lyre, the thick lyre did not use use a plectrum but was plucked by hand.[1]
While the clearest examples of the thick lyre are extant to archaeological sites in Egypt and Anatolia, similar large lyres with thicker soundboxes have been found in Mesopotamia (1900–1500 BCE). However, these Mesopotamia lyres lack the box-bridge found in the instruments from Egypt and Anatolia.[1]
Thin lyres
Thin lyres are a type of flat-based eastern lyre with a thinner
There are several regional variations in the design of thin lyres. The Egyptian thin lyre was characterized by arms that bulged outwards asymmetrically; a feature also found later in Samaria (c. 375–323 BCE). In contrast, thin lyres in Syria and Phoenicia (c. 700 BCE) were symmetrical in shape and had straight arms with a perpendicular yoke which formed the outline of a rectangle.[1]
The
Giant lyres
Giant lyres are a type of flat-based eastern lyre of immense size that typically required two players. Played from a standing position, the instrument stood taller than the instrumentalists. The oldest extent example of the instrument was found in the ancient city of Uruk in what is present day Iraq, and dates to c. 2500 BCE. Well preserved giant lyres dating to c. 1600 BCE have been found in Anatolia. The instrument reached the height of its popularity in Ancient Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten (c. 1353—1336 BCE). A giant lyre found in the ancient city of Susa (c. 2500 BCE) is suspected to have been played by only a single instrumentalist, and giant lyres in Egypt dating from the Hellenistic period most likely also required only a single player.[1]
Western lyres
Western lyres, sometimes referred to as round-based lyres, are lyres from the ancient history that were extant in the Aegean, Greece and Italy. They initially contained only round rather than flat bases; but by the Hellenistic period both constructs of lyre could be found in these regions. Like the flat-based Eastern lyres, the round-based lyre also originated in northern Syria and southern Anatolia in the 3rd millennium BCE. However, this round-based construction of the lyre was less common than its flat-based counterparts in the east, and by c. 1750 BCE the instrument had died out completely in this region. The round-based lyre re-appeared in the West in Ancient Greece where it was sole form of lyre used between 1400 BCE and 700 BCE.[1]
Like the eastern flat-based lyre, the western round-based lyre also had several sub-types.
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5th century BCE. Lyra or barbitos from the Tomb of the Diver.
Phorminx
Kitharis
Cultural use in Ancient Greece
In
The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed like a guitar or a zither, rather than being plucked with the fingers as with a harp. A pick called a plectrum was held in one hand, while the fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings.
Construction
A classical lyre has a hollow body or sound-chest (also known as
Lyres were used without a fingerboard, no Greek description or representation having ever been met with that can be construed as referring to one. Nor was a bow possible, the flat sound-board being an insuperable impediment. The pick, or plectrum, however, was in constant use. It was held in the right hand to set the upper strings in vibration; when not in use, it hung from the instrument by a ribbon. The fingers of the left hand touched the lower strings (presumably to silence those whose notes were not wanted).[6]
Number of strings
Before Greek civilization had assumed its historic form (c. 1200 BC), there was likely to have been great freedom and independence of different localities in the matter of lyre stringing, which is corroborated by the antique use of the chromatic (half-tone) and enharmonic (
The priest and biographer Plutarch (c. 100 AD) wrote of the musicians of the archaic period Olympus and Terpander, that they used only three strings to accompany their recitation; but there is no evidence for or against this dating from that period. The earliest known lyre had four strings, tuned to create a tetrachord or series of four tones filling in the interval of a perfect fourth. By doubling the tetrachord a lyre with seven or eight strings was obtained. Likewise the three-stringed lyre may have given rise to the six-stringed lyre depicted on many archaic Greek vases. The accuracy of this representation cannot be insisted upon, the vase painters being little mindful of the complete expression of details; yet one may suppose their tendency would be rather to imitate than to invent a number. It was their constant practice to represent the strings as being damped by the fingers of the left hand of the player, after having been struck by the plectrum held in the right hand.[6]
Origin
According to ancient Greek mythology, the young god Hermes stole a herd of sacred cows from Apollo. In order not to be followed, he made shoes for the cows which were facing backwards, making it appear that the animals had walked in the opposite direction. Apollo, following the trails, could not follow where the cows were going. Along the way, Hermes slaughtered one of the cows and offered all but the entrails to the gods. From the entrails and a tortoise/turtle shell, he created the Lyre. Apollo, figuring out it was Hermes who had his cows, confronted the young god. Apollo was furious, but after hearing the sound of the lyre, his anger faded. Apollo offered to trade the herd of cattle for the lyre. Hence, the creation of the lyre is attributed to Hermes. Other sources credit it to Apollo himself.[18]
Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were the
Central and Northern European lyres
Other instruments known as lyres have been fashioned and used in Europe outside the
In 1988, a stone bust from the 2nd or 1st century BC was discovered in Brittany, France which depicts a figure wearing a torc playing a seven-string lyre.[22]
The Germanic lyre is representative of a separate strand of lyre development. Appearing in warrior graves of the first millennium AD, these lyres differ from the lyres of the Mediterranean antiquity, by a long, shallow and broadly rectangular shape, with a hollow soundbox curving at the base, and two hollow arms connected across the top by an integrated crossbar or ‘yoke.[23] Famous examples include the lyre from the ship burial at Sutton Hoo, and the decayed lyre discovered in silhouette at the Prittlewell royal Anglo-Saxon burial in Essex.[23] The waterlogged lyre recovered from a grave at Trossingen, Germany, in 2001 is the best-preserved example found so far.[23]
Bowed lyres
Some instruments called "lyres" were played with a bow in Europe and parts of the Middle East, namely the Arabic rebab and its descendants,[24] including the Byzantine lyra.[25]
After the bow made its way into Europe from the
There came to be two different kinds of bowed European lyres: those with fingerboards, and those without.
The last surviving examples of instruments within the latter class were the Scandinavian talharpa and the Finnish jouhikko. Different tones could be obtained from a single bowed string by pressing the fingernails of the player's left hand against various points along the string to fret the string.
The last of the bowed lyres with a fingerboard was the "modern" (c. 1485–1800) Welsh crwth. It had several predecessors both in the British Isles and in Continental Europe. Pitch was changed on individual strings by pressing the string firmly against the fingerboard with the fingertips. Like a violin, this method shortened the vibrating length of the string to produce higher tones, while releasing the finger gave the string a greater vibrating length, thereby producing a tone lower in pitch. This is the principle on which the modern violin and guitar work.
Modern lyres
In popular culture
The term is also used metaphorically to refer to the work or skill of a poet, as in Shelley's "Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is"[27] or Byron's "I wish to tune my quivering lyre, / To deeds of fame, and notes of fire".[28]
Other instruments called "lyres"
Over time, the name in the wider Hellenic space came to be used to label mostly bowed lutes such as the Byzantine lyra, the Pontic lyra, the Constantinopolitan lyra, the Cretan lyra, the lira da braccio, the Calabrian lira, the lijerica, the lyra viol, the lirone.
Global variants and parallels
- Europe
- Armenia: քնար (knar)
- British Isles: Scotland
- England: Anglo-Saxon Lyre, giga , rote or crowd
- Continental Europe: Germanic or Anglo-Saxon lyre (hearpe), rotte or crotte
- Estonia: talharpa
- Finland: jouhikko
- Greece: λύρα (lýra; Modern Greek pronunciation: líra) with the subtypes of kemençe)
- Italy: the Latin chorus, the modern Calabrian lira
- Lithuania: lyra
- Norway: giga, Kraviklyra
- Poland: lira
- Russia: Lyre-shaped gusli
- Asia
- Arabian peninsula: tanbūra
- Iraq (tanbūra, zami, zinar
- iran: chang romi
- Israel: kinnor
- India and Pakistan: tanpura
- Kazakhstan: kossaz[1]
- Siberia: nares-jux
- Yemen: tanbūra, simsimiyya
- Africa
- Egypt: tanbūra, simsimiyya
- Ethiopia and Eritrea: begena, dita, krar
- Kenya: kibugander, litungu, nyatiti, obokano
- Sudan: tanbūra
- Uganda: endongo, ntongoli
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Burmese lyre, a Byat saung.
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Tanbūra In Cairo, played by aNubian, 1858.
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Lyre Player c. 1640–1660, Deccan sultanates
See also
- Asor — an otherwise-unknown instrument mentioned in the Old Testament which may have been a type of lyre or a type of harp.
- Ancient Greek harps
- Barbiton (barbitos) — a bass version of the kithara (cithara).
- Kithara (cithara) — the version of the lyre used by professional musicians.
- Lyre-guitar — a modern instrument that combines a guitar and a zither. Also called a "harp guitar".
- Phorminx — an ancient wooden-frame lyre intermediate in size between the smaller tortoise-shell lyre and larger kithara, which replaced it.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Klaus Wachsmann; Bo Lawergren; Ulrich Wegner; John Clark (2002). "Lyre (from Gk.; Lat. lyra)". .
- ^
Lawergren, Bo (February 1998). "Distinctions among Canaanite Philistine and Israelite Lyres and their Global Lyrical Contexts" (pdf). Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (309): 41–68. S2CID 163212339.
- ^ Josho Brouwers (15 October 2019). "The Agia Triada sarcophagus". Ancient World Magazine. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
- .
- ^
"Palaeolexicon".
word study tool of ancient languages
- ^ a b c d
ISBN 0-19-814975-1.
- ^ a b / Perseus Digital Library.
- ^ Ghirardini, Cristina (2020). "Reflecting on Hornbostel-Sachs's Versuch a century later" (PDF). Edizioni Fondazione Levi. Quaderni di Etnomusicologia. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
- ISBN 9780198165040.
- ^ .
- ISBN 978-1-85984-005-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8028-3785-1. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
- ^ Nathanael D. Putnam; Darrell E. Urban; Horace Monroe Lewis (1968). Three Dissertations on Ancient Instruments from Babylon to Bach. F. E. Olds. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
- ^ Bellia, Angela. Strumenti musicali e oggetti sonori nell'Italia meridionale e in Sicilia (VI-III sec. a.C.). pp. 51–84.
- ^ Image of Hagia Triada Sarcophagus, University of Arkansas.
- ^ J. A. Sakellarakis. Herakleion Museum. Illustrated Guide to the Museum. Ekdotike Athinon, Athens 1987, p. 113 f.
- ^ Entry "Lyre" at Dictionary.com. Retrieved on 2012-09-17.
- ^ For example, the Annales Cambriae (B Text).
- ^ a b "Skye cave find western Europe's 'earliest string instrument'". BBC.co.uk. BBC News. 28 March 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
- ^ ISSN 1335-0102.
- ^ "'Europe's oldest stringed instrument' discovered on Scots island". STV. 28 March 2012. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
- ^ Bernadette Arnaud (28 March 2019). "Bretagne: le barde à la Lyre, où les secrets d'une statue gauloise révélée par la 3D". Sciences Avenir.
- ^ ISSN 0003-598X.
- ^ "rabab (musical instrument) – Encyclopædia Britannica". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
- Encyclopædia Britannica Online, retrieved 2009-02-20
- ^ "Pushkin's works were removed from the Kharkiv metro (photo)". Status Quo (in Ukrainian). 12 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
- ^ Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind, I, 57–61.
- ^ Lord Byron (1807), Hours of Idleness: To His Lyre.
Bibliography
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Andersson, Otto. The Bowed Harp, translated and edited by Kathleen Schlesinger (London: New Temple Press, 1930).
- Bachmann, Werner. The Origins of Bowing, trans. Norma Deane (London: Oxford University Press, 1969).
- Jenkins, J. "A Short Note on African Lyres in Use Today." Iraq 31 (1969), p. 103 (+ pl. XVIII).
- Kinsky, George. A History of Music in Pictures (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1937).
- Sachs, Curt. The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, East and West (New York: W.W. Norton, 1943).
- Sachs, Curt. The History of Musical Instruments (New York: W.W. Norton, 1940).
External links
- Anglo Saxon Lyres at Yahoo!Groups
- Ensemble Kérylos a music group directed by scholar Annie Bélis, dedicated to the recreation of ancient Greek and Roman music, and playing instruments reconstructed on archaeological reference.
- "The Universal Lyre – From Three Perspectives" Article by Diana Rowan: a survey of three current lyre practitioners and builders – Temesgen Hussein of Ethiopia, Michalis Georgiou of Cyprus and Michael Levy of the United Kingdom.
- Hornbostel-Sachs classification for classification category
- Summary of Schemes of Tonal Organizations
- The Agia Triada sarcophagus