The lyre has its origins inancient history. Lyres were used in several ancient cultures surrounding theMediterranean Sea. The earliest known examples of the lyre have been recovered at archeological sites that date to c. 2700 BCE inMesopotamia.[1][2] The oldest lyres from theFertile Crescent are known as theeastern lyres and are distinguished from other ancient lyres by their flat base. They have been found at archaeological sites inEgypt,Syria,Anatolia, and theLevant.[1] In a discussion of the Nubian lyre, Carl Engel notes that modern Egyptians call itqytarah barbarîyeh, reflecting its association with the Barbaras (Berbers)[3]—linked to the brbrta ofancient Egyptian references toPunt, a region identified with present-daySomalia, where the shareero lyre remains in use.
Theround lyre or theWestern 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 inancient Greece c. 1700–1400 BCE,[4] and then later spread throughout theRoman Empire.[1] This lyre served as the origin of the European lyre known as theGermanic lyre orrotte that was widely used in north-western Europe from pre-Christian to medieval times.[5]
ARoman fresco fromPompeii, 1st century CE, depicting a man in a theatre mask and a woman wearing a garland while playing a lyre
The earliest reference to the word "lyre" is theMycenaean Greekru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists" and written in theLinear B script.[6] In classical Greek, the word "lyre" could either refer specifically to an amateur instrument, which is a smaller version of the professionalcithara and eastern-Aegeanbarbiton, or "lyre" can refer generally to all three instruments as a family.[7] The English word comes viaLatin from theGreek.[8]
The Minoan sarcophagus of Hagia Triada, 14th century BCE, depicting the earliest lyre with seven strings, held by a man with long robe, third from the left.
Hornbostel–Sachs classifies the lyre as a member of thelute-family of instruments which is one of the families under thechordophone classification of instruments. Hornbostel–Sachs divide lyres into two groups, Bowl lyres (321.21) and Box lyres (321.22).[9] Inorganology, a lyre is considered ayoke lute, since it is alute in which the strings are attached to ayoke that lies in the same plane as thesound table, and consists of two arms and a crossbar.[10]
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]
In theBaltic region, archaeological remains have been discovered that suggest the existence of lyre-like stringed instruments sinceprehistoric times. Although finds are scarce, fragments of wood and other materials have been found that could have been parts of stringed instruments used in rituals and ceremonies. These discoveries indicate thatancient Baltic cultures developed primitive forms of lyres, adapted to their cultural contexts and available materials. In particular, remains of lyre-like stringed instruments have been found in areas ofLithuania andLatvia. These instruments, known locally askanklės in Lithuania andkokle in Latvia, are part of a musical tradition that dates back to ancient times.[11]
Eastern lyres, also known as flat-based lyres, are lyres which originated in theFertile Crescent (Mesoptamia) in what is present day Syria, Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt. The eastern lyres all containsound boxes with flat bases. They are the oldest lyres with iconographical evidence of their existence, such as depictions of the eastern lyre on pottery, dating back to 2700 BCE.[1]
While flat-based lyres originated in the East, they were also later found in the West after 700 BCE.[1] By theHellenistic 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 are a type of eastern lyre that have a flat base and bull's head on one side.[12] Thelyres of Ur are bull lyres excavated inancient Mesopotamia (modernIraq), which date to 2500 BCE and are considered to be the world's oldest survivingstringed instruments.[13] However, older pictorial evidence of bull lyres exist in other parts of Mesopotamia andElam, includingSusa.[12]
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 thickersound 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 thesound 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 aplectrum 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]
Excavated atTel Megiddo, a lyre player 1350-1150 BCE, identified as a likelykinnor by scholars.[14] During the Iron Age, Megiddo was a royal city in the Kingdom of Israel.
Thin lyres are a type of flat-based eastern lyre with a thinnersoundbox where thesound hole is created by leaving the base of theresonator open. The earliest known example of the thin lyre dates to c. 2500 BCE inSyria. After this, examples of the thin lyre can be found throughout theFertile Crescent. The thin lyre is the only one of the ancient eastern lyres that is still used in instrument design today among current practitioners of the instrument. As a means of support, players of the thin lyre wear a sling around the left wrist which is also attached to the base of the lyre's right arm. It is played using a plectrum or pic to strike the strings; a technique later used by the Greeks on the western lyres.[1]
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 andPhoenicia (c. 700 BCE) were symmetrical in shape and had straight arms with a perpendicular yoke which formed the outline of a rectangle.[1]
Thekinnor is an ancientIsraelite musical instrument that is thought to be a type of thin lyre based on iconographic archaeological evidence.[1] It is the first instrument from the lyre family mentioned in theOld Testament. Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre",[15]: 440 and associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly theBar Kochba coins.[15]: 440 It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people,[16] and modernluthiers have created reproduction lyres of the "kinnor" based on this imagery.
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 ofUruk 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 inAncient Egypt during the reign ofPharaohAkhenaten (c. 1353—1336 BCE). A giant lyre found in the ancient city ofSusa (c. 2500 BCE) is suspected to have been played by only a single instrumentalist, and giant lyres in Egypt dating from theHellenistic period most likely also required only a single player.[1]
Terracotta figurine of a woman with a lyre, Egypt, 4th century A.D.
Pothos (Desire) holding a flat-basedkithara. The deity in the artwork was restored asApollo Citharoedus during the Roman era (1st or2nd centuryCE, based on a Greek workc. 300BCE); the kithara strings are not extant.
Western lyres, sometimes referred to as round-based lyres, are lyres from the ancient history that were extant in theAegean, mainlandGreece, and southernItaly. They initially contained only round rather than flat bases; but by theHellenistic 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 inAncient Greece where it was sole form of lyre used between 1400-700 BCE.[1]
Like the eastern flat-based lyre, the western round-based lyre also had several sub-types.Homer described two different western lyres in his writings, thephorminx andkitharis. However, both of these terms have not had uniform meaning across time, and their use during Homer's time was later altered. Today, scholars divide instruments referred to as kitharis into two subgroups, the round-based cylinder kithara and the flat-based concert kithara.
The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by beingstrummed like aguitar or azither, rather than beingplucked with the fingers as with a harp. A pick called aplectrum was held in one hand, while the fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings.
A classical lyre has a hollow body or sound-chest (also known assoundbox or resonator), which in Greek tradition was anciently made out of a turtle shell.[8][20] Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are sometimes hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke. An additional crossbar, fixed to the sound-chest, makes the bridge, which transmits the vibrations of the strings. The deepest note was that closest to the player's body; since the strings did not differ much in length, more weight may have been gained for the deeper notes by thicker strings, as in theviolin and similar modern instruments, or they were tuned by having a slackertension. The strings were ofgut (animal intestines). They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge. There were two ways of tuning: One was to fasten the strings to pegs that might be turned, while the other was to change the placement of the string on the crossbar; it is likely that, as expedient, both methods were used simultaneously.[7]
Lyres were used without afingerboard, 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).[7]
Before Greek civilization had assumed its historic form (c. 1200 BCE), 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 (quarter-tone) tunings - pointing to an early exuberance, and perhaps also to a bias towards refinements of intonation.[original research?] The number of strings on the classical lyre therefore varied, with three, four, six, seven, eight and ten having been popular at various times.
The priest and biographerPlutarch (c. 100 CE) wrote of the musicians of thearchaic periodOlympus andTerpander, 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 atetrachord 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.[7]
According to ancientGreek mythology, the young godHermes 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 atortoise/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.[21]
Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were theAeolian andIonian Greek colonies on the coasts of Asia (ancientAsia Minor, modern dayTurkey) bordering the Lydian empire. Some mythic masters likeMusaeus, andThamyris were believed to have been born inThrace, another place of extensive Greek colonization. The namekissar (cithara) given by the ancient Greeks to Egyptian box instruments reveals the apparent similarities recognized by Greeks themselves. The cultural peak ofancient Egypt, and thus the possible age of the earliest instruments of this type, predates the 5th century classicGreece. This indicates the possibility that the lyre might have existed in one of Greece's neighboring countries, eitherThrace,Lydia, orEgypt, and was introduced into Greece at pre-classic times.
2nd or 1st century BCEbuste-socle found in the fortress ofPaule, in Brittany
Example of lyre (early 6th century A.D.) in Roman city ofTrier at the time when the GermanicFranks took over the city (mid-5th century A.D.)
Reproduction of the round Germanic-lyre from theSutton Hoo royal burial (England),c. 600 CE
Other instruments known as lyres have been fashioned and used in Europe outside theGreco-Roman world since at least theIron Age.[22] Lyres are depicted on ceramic and bronze vessels of the Proto-CelticHallstatt culture across central Europe.[23] Among them there are lyres with rounded bottoms, stringed instruments whose resonators seem to be missing and lyres with strongly curved yokes and single or double bulging resonators.[23] The number of strings depicted varies from two to ten.[23] Fragmented tuning pegs and bridges made of wood have been discovered from the Iron Age industrial settlement in the Ramsau valley atDürrnberg, Austria.[23] Possible further wooden tuning pegs have been found inGlastonbury in Somerset in England andBiskupin in Poland.[23] The remains of what is thought to be the bridge of a2300-year-old lyre were discovered on theIsle of Skye,Scotland in 2010.[22][24]
In 1988, a stone bust from the 2nd or 1st century BCE was discovered inBrittany, France which depicts a figure wearing atorc playing a seven-string lyre.[25]
TheGermanic lyre is representative of a separate strand of lyre development. Appearing in warrior graves of the first millennium CE, 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.[26] Famous examples include the lyre from the ship burial atSutton Hoo, and the decayed lyre discovered in silhouette at thePrittlewell royal Anglo-Saxon burial in Essex.[26] The waterlogged lyre recovered from a grave atTrossingen, Germany, in 2001 is the best-preserved example found so far.[26]
After the bow made its way into Europe from theMiddle-East, it was applied to several species of those lyres that were small enough to make bowing practical. The dates of origin and other evolutionary details of the European bowed lyres continue to be disputed among organologists, but there is general agreement that none of them were the ancestors of modern orchestral bowed stringed instruments, as once was thought.
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 Scandinaviantalharpa and the Finnishjouhikko. 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)Welshcrwth. 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.
12th century A.D.[29] Carolingian Empire. Bowed round lyre on theLothair Psalter. Engraving lacks fine details in the original, such as the mechanism to adjust the tension of the bow.
1029-1050 A.D., Germany. Werner Psalter. Bowed Germanic lure (far left)
1025-1050, England. Asaph playingbowed lyre, detail from Winchcombe Psalter, Cambridge University Library, Ff.1.23, folio 4v
Early 13th century A.D., Aldersbach, Germany. Bowed lyre without fingerboard from, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munchen, BSB, CLM 2599, folio 96v.
13th century, Russia. Bowed lyre, from Simonovskaya Psalter, State Historical Museum, Moscow
The term is also usedmetaphorically to refer to the work or skill of a poet, as inShelley's "Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is"[30] orByron's "I wish to tune my quivering lyre, / To deeds of fame, and notes of fire".[31]
Greece: λύρα (lýra; Modern Greek pronunciation:líra) with the subtypes ofPolitiki lyra ("Constantinopolitan lyre"),Cretan lyra andPontic lyra ("lyre of the Black Sea", also known askemençe)
^Engel, Carl.A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum: Preceded by an Essay on the History of Musical Instruments. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode (H.M. Stationery Office), 1874, p. 149.https://archive.org/details/musicofmostancie64enge/page/156/mode/2up
^Michael Chanan (1994).Musica Practica: The Social Practice of Western Music from Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism. Verso. p. 170.ISBN978-1-85984-005-4.
^Montagu, Jeremy (1984). "'Kinnor". In Sadie Stanley (ed.).The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. London: MacMillan Press. pp. 432–433.[In New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, this is the caption accompanying the image:] Kinnor played before a king: ivory plaque (1350-1150 BC) from Megiddo (Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem.
^"Add MS 37768/1". British Library: Digitized Manuscripts. Archived fromthe original on 11 April 2022.Date 1100-1199...Detached ivory from the cover of Add MS 37768 (the 'Lothar Psalter')
^Percy Bysshe Shelley,Ode to the West Wind, I, 57–61.
Ensemble Kérylos a music group directed by scholarAnnie 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.
![5th century BCE. Lyra or barbitos from the Tomb of the Diver. Tortoiseshell body.[17]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aDiver_Paestum_30.JPG)
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![12th century A.D.[29] Carolingian Empire. Bowed round lyre on the Lothair Psalter. Engraving lacks fine details in the original, such as the mechanism to adjust the tension of the bow.](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aBritannica_Bow_Earliest_Cr%25C3%25A9maill%25C3%25A8re_Type.png)
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