The Byzantine lyra or lira ( gr, λύρα) was a
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
bowed
Bowed string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by a bow rubbing the strings. The bow rubbing the string causes vibration which the instrument emits as sound.
Despite the numerous specialist studies devoted to th ...
string musical instrument in the
Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinop ...
. In its popular form, the lyra was a
pear-shaped instrument with three to five
strings, held upright and played by stopping the strings from the side with fingernails. The first known depiction of the instrument is on a Byzantine ivory casket (900–1100 AD), preserved in the
Bargello
The Bargello, also known as the Palazzo del Bargello, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, or Palazzo del Popolo (Palace of the People), was a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy.
Terminology
The word ''bargello'' appear ...
in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
(''Museo Nazionale, Florence, Coll. Carrand, No.26'').
Versions of the Byzantine lyra are still played throughout the former lands of the Byzantine Empire:
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
(
Politiki lyra, lit. "lyra of the City" i.e.
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
), Crete (
Cretan lyra
)
* Lira da braccio
* Rabāb (Arabic الرباب)
* Lijerica
* Violin
, musicians =
* Andreas Rodinos
* Alekos Karavitis
* Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas)
* Kostas Mountakis
* Nikos Xilouris
* Psarantonis
* Ross Daly
* Yiorgos K ...
),
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and share ...
,
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = ...
,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
,
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
,
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capi ...
(
Dalmatian Lijerica),
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
(
Calabrian lira) and
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''O ...
.
History
The most likely origin is the pear-shaped
pandura, however with the introduction of a
bow. The first recorded reference to the bowed lyra was in the 9th century by the
Persian geographer
Ibn Khurradadhbih
Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh ( ar, ابوالقاسم عبیدالله ابن خرداذبه; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking Persian bureaucrat and ...
(d. 911); in his lexicographical discussion of instruments he cited the lyra (lūrā) as the typical instrument of the Byzantines along with the ''urghun'' (organ), ''shilyani'' (probably a type of
harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orc ...
or
lyre
The lyre () is a string instrument, stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the History of lute-family instruments, lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it ...
) and the ''salandj'' (probably a
bagpipe
Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, ...
).
Together with the Arabic ''
rebab
The ''rebab'' ( ar, ربابة, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via I ...
'', lira is considered by many as the ancestor of European bowed instruments.
[
The lyra spread widely via the ]Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
trade routes that linked the three continents; in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms ''fiddle
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the ...
'' and ''lira'' interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments. In the meantime, the rabāb, the bowed string instrument of the Arabic world, was introduced to Western Europe possibly through the Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
and both instruments spread widely throughout Europe giving birth to various European bowed instruments such as the medieval rebec
The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and other spellings, pronounced or ) is a bowed stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to five strings.
Origi ...
, the Scandinavian and Icelandic talharpa. A notable example is the Italian ''lira da braccio
The lira da braccio (or ''lyra de bracio''Michael Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum Theatrum Instrumentorum seu Sciagraphia Wolfenbüttel 1620) was a European bowed string instrument of the Renaissance. It was used by Italian poet-musicians in court ...
'', a 15th-century bowed
Bowed string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by a bow rubbing the strings. The bow rubbing the string causes vibration which the instrument emits as sound.
Despite the numerous specialist studies devoted to th ...
string instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the s ...
which is considered by many as the predecessor of the contemporary violin.
Terminology
From the organological point of view, the Byzantine lyra is in fact an instrument belonging to the family of bowed lutes; however, the designation ''lyra'' (''Greek: λύρα ~ lūrā, English: lyre'') constitute of a terminological survival relating to the performing method of an ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
instrument. The use of the term ''lyra'' for a bowed instrument was first recorded in the 9th century, probably as an application of the term lyre
The lyre () is a string instrument, stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the History of lute-family instruments, lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it ...
of the stringed musical instrument of classical antiquity
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
to the new bowed string instrument.
The Byzantine lyra is sometimes informally called a ''medieval fiddle'', or a ''pear-shaped rebec'', or a ''kemanche'', terms that may be used today to refer to a general category of similar stringed instruments played with a horsehair bow.
Characteristics
The Byzantine lyra had rear tuning pegs set in a flat peg similarly to the medieval fiddle
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the ...
and unlike the rabāb and rebec
The rebec (sometimes rebecha, rebeckha, and other spellings, pronounced or ) is a bowed stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to five strings.
Origi ...
. However, the strings were touched by the nails laterally and not pressed from above with the flesh of the finger such as in the violin.
The lyra depicted on the Byzantine ivory casket of Museo Nazionale, Florence (900 – 1100 AD) has two strings and pear-shaped body with long and narrow neck. The soundboard is depicted without soundholes and as a distinct and attached piece, however this might be due to stylistic abstraction
Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abst ...
. The lyras of Novgorod (1190 AD) are closer morphologically to the present bowed lyras ('' see gallery''): they were pear-shaped and 40 cm long; they had semi-circular soundholes and provision for three strings. The middle string served as a drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...
while fingering the others by finger or fingernail alone, downwards or sidewards against the string, for there was no fingerboard
The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The s ...
to press them against: a method which gives the notes as clearly as the violin and remains normal in lyras both in Asia as well as on present bowed instruments in post-Byzantine regions such as the Cretan lyra
)
* Lira da braccio
* Rabāb (Arabic الرباب)
* Lijerica
* Violin
, musicians =
* Andreas Rodinos
* Alekos Karavitis
* Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas)
* Kostas Mountakis
* Nikos Xilouris
* Psarantonis
* Ross Daly
* Yiorgos K ...
.
In use today
The lyra of the Byzantine empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
survives in many post-Byzantine regions until the present day even closely to its archetype
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...
form. Examples are the ''Politiki lyra'' (i.e. lyra of the Polis, or City, referring to Constantinople) ( gr, πολίτικη λύρα) also known as the Classical kemence ( Turkish: Klasik kemençe or Armudî kemençe) from Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, used in today's Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
and Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
, the Cretan lyra
)
* Lira da braccio
* Rabāb (Arabic الرباب)
* Lijerica
* Violin
, musicians =
* Andreas Rodinos
* Alekos Karavitis
* Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas)
* Kostas Mountakis
* Nikos Xilouris
* Psarantonis
* Ross Daly
* Yiorgos K ...
( gr, κρητική λύρα) and the one used in the Greek islands of the Dodecanese, the gadulka
The gadulka ( bg, гъдулка) is a traditional Bulgarian bowed string instrument. Alternate spellings are "gǎdulka", "gudulka" and "g'dulka". Its name comes from a root meaning "to make noise, hum or buzz". The gadulka is an integral part o ...
( bg, Гъдулка) in Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
, the gusle in Serbia and Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = ...
, the Calabrian lira ( it, lira Calabrese) in Italy, and the Pontic lyra
Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to:
The Black Sea Places
* The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores
* Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores
* The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from ...
(Greek: ποντιακή λύρα; Turkish: Karadeniz kemençe) in the Pontic Greek communities, that existed (or still exist) around the shores of the Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
. The gudok
The gudok (, russian: гудок), gudochek (, russian: гудочек) is an ancient Eastern Slavic string musical instrument, played with a bow. , a historical Russian instrument that survived until the 19th century, is also a variant of the Byzantine lyra.
Similarly to the lyras found at Novgorod, the Cretan lyra
)
* Lira da braccio
* Rabāb (Arabic الرباب)
* Lijerica
* Violin
, musicians =
* Andreas Rodinos
* Alekos Karavitis
* Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas)
* Kostas Mountakis
* Nikos Xilouris
* Psarantonis
* Ross Daly
* Yiorgos K ...
, the Gadulka
The gadulka ( bg, гъдулка) is a traditional Bulgarian bowed string instrument. Alternate spellings are "gǎdulka", "gudulka" and "g'dulka". Its name comes from a root meaning "to make noise, hum or buzz". The gadulka is an integral part o ...
, the Calabrian Lira
The Calabrian lira ( it, lira Calabrese) is a traditional musical instrument characteristic of some areas of Calabria, region in southern Italy.
Characteristics
The lira of Calabria is a bowed string instrument with three strings. Like most bo ...
and the Greek lyras of Karpathos
Karpathos ( el, Κάρπαθος, ), also Carpathos, is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller Saria Island it forms the municipality of Karpathos, which is part o ...
, Macedonia, Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...
and Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...
are manufactured from a single wood block ( monoblock), sculpted into a pear-shaped body. The slightly rounded body of the lyra is prolonged by a neck ending on the top in a block which is also pear-shaped or spherical. In that, are set the pegs facing and extending forward. The soundboard is also carved with a shallower arch and has two small semi-circular, D-shaped soundholes. The Cretan lyra
)
* Lira da braccio
* Rabāb (Arabic الرباب)
* Lijerica
* Violin
, musicians =
* Andreas Rodinos
* Alekos Karavitis
* Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas)
* Kostas Mountakis
* Nikos Xilouris
* Psarantonis
* Ross Daly
* Yiorgos K ...
is probably the most widely used surviving form of the Byzantine lyra, except that in Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
instrument-making has been influenced by that of the violin. Currently, numerous models tend to integrate the shape of the scroll, the finger board and other morphology of some secondary characteristics of the violin.
The modern variants of the lyra are tuned in various ways: LA–RE–SOL (or a–d–g, i. e. by fifths) on the Cretan lyra
)
* Lira da braccio
* Rabāb (Arabic الرباب)
* Lijerica
* Violin
, musicians =
* Andreas Rodinos
* Alekos Karavitis
* Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas)
* Kostas Mountakis
* Nikos Xilouris
* Psarantonis
* Ross Daly
* Yiorgos K ...
; LA–RE–SOL (or a–d–g, where SOL gis a perfect fourth
A fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending interval from C to ...
higher than RE drather than a fifth lower) in Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...
and on Karpathos
Karpathos ( el, Κάρπαθος, ), also Carpathos, is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller Saria Island it forms the municipality of Karpathos, which is part o ...
and the Dodecanese; LA–LA–MI (a–a–e, with the second LA aan octave lower), in Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
; MI–SOL–MI (e–g–e, i. e. a minor third
In music theory, a minor third is a musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones. Staff notation represents the minor third as encompassing three staff positions (see: interval number). The minor third is one of two com ...
and a major sixth
In music from Western culture, a sixth is a musical interval encompassing six note letter names or staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major sixth is one of two commonly occurring sixths. It is qualified as ''major ...
) on the gadulka
The gadulka ( bg, гъдулка) is a traditional Bulgarian bowed string instrument. Alternate spellings are "gǎdulka", "gudulka" and "g'dulka". Its name comes from a root meaning "to make noise, hum or buzz". The gadulka is an integral part o ...
; LA–RE–LA (a–d–a, a fifth and a fourth) on the Classical Kemenche.
Gallery
File:Gdulka-bow copy.jpg, Bulgarian Gadulka
File:Creatn Lyre2.jpg, Cretan lyra
File:Lira calabrese.JPG, Calabrian lira
File:Lirica Dalmacija EMZ 300109.jpg, A Lijerica from Dalmatia
File:Lyres2.jpg, Different types of Cretan lyra in the Museum of Greek Folk Instruments in Athens
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byzantine Lyra
Bowed string instruments
Byzantine music
Early musical instruments
European music
Greek musical instruments