![GirlWithLyreGuitar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/GirlWithLyreGuitar.jpg)
A musical instrument of the
chordophone
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 ...
family, the lyre-guitar was a type of
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
shaped to look like a
lyre, popular as a
fad
A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period.
Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short- ...
-instrument in the late 1800s. It had six single
courses, with a
fretboard
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 st ...
located between two curved arms recalling the shape of the ancient Greek
kithara. It was
tuned and played like the conventional
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
.
The lyre-guitar nearly always had a built-in pedestal allowing it to stand upright when not in use.
History
![Retrato de la Marquesa de Santa Cruz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Retrato_de_la_Marquesa_de_Santa_Cruz.jpg)
Pierre Charles Mareschal claimed to have invented it in 1780, what he called the ''Lira Anacreòntica''. Mareschal was a prominent French
luthier, and accused the French musician Phillis Pleyel of stealing his design.
The lyre-guitar enjoyed great popularity as a
salon instrument, especially in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
between 1780 and 1820. It became very much in vogue and pervaded the highest levels of society;
Marie Antoinette played one and the great guitarists of the day such as
Ferdinando Carulli,
Fernando Sor,
Matteo Carcassi
Matteo Carcassi (8 April 1796 – 16 January 1853)Raffaele Carpino, Mario dell'Ara: "Matteo Carcassi. Un nuovo aggiornamento biografico", in: ''Il Fronimo'' no. 184 (2018), p. 5–9. was an Italian guitarist and composer.
Life
Carcassi was born i ...
,
Mauro Giuliani
Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani (27 July 1781 – 8 May 1829) was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century.
Biography
Although born in Bisceglie, Giuliani's cent ...
, and
Pierre Jean Porro
Pierre-Jean Porro (7 December 1750 – 31 May 1831) was an influential French classical guitarist, composer and music publisher.
Life
Porro was born in Bagnols, Provence, France, with the French surname ''Porre'', later italianising his name a ...
wrote music and method books for it.
![Beethoven18045JosephMähler](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Beethoven18045JosephM%C3%A4hler.jpg)
Its decline coincided with the waning of the popularity of the guitar as a salon instrument, increasingly supplanted by the
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
which benefited from ongoing improvements to its keyboard action.
The lyre-guitar persisted, but not so much as a musical instrument, instead it persisted as a common symbol of
classicist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
ideals, and appeared in numerous
allegorical
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...
paintings (e.g.
Mähler's portrait of Beethoven). Later on it was used in photographs as a prop for evoking ancient Greek and Roman themes.
The idea was to create an instrument which looked pretty and provided a visual accessory to help ladies of fashion to assume the gracious pose of Greek '' kithara'' players. This visual likeness became a potent ingredient of the culture of the upper classes.
Although the lyre-guitar is rarely heard or recorded it is not extinct. A body of nearly forgotten repertoire exists often by highly notable guitarists of the golden age of the guitar. Today lyre-guitars can be made to order by luthiers and authentic examples exist in museums and private collections.
Lyre-guitar luthiers
*
Robert Wornum (1780–1852)
* César Pons (1748–1831)
* Francois Roudhloff (Mauchand, France)
[The Steve Howe Guitar Collection (Balfon Books UK) - () - (First British Edition 1994) - p51. Image of Roudhloff Lyre Guitar c.1815. The lyre guitar is marked with "Roudhloff the elder son" who is known to have opened a workshop in Fitzroy Square, London in the early 1900s.]
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
External links
Historical sources
Einige Worte über die neue französische Lyra (Lyre-Guitarre.) AMZ, August 1801 (includes an image on page 789)
General music teacher: adapted to self-instruction...embracing also an extensive dictionary of musical termsby Gottfried Weber; Publisher: J.H. Wilkins, & R.B. Carter, 1842
Adams' new musical dictionary"> Adams' new musical dictionaryby John Stowell Adams; Publisher: S.T. Gordon & Son, 1865
Sheet music
Carcassi, Matteo "Fantaisie pour la guitare ou lyre"
Websites
*https://web.archive.org/web/20100504121502/http://www.eleonoravulpiani.com/history.htm
*http://www.harpguitars.net/history/org/org-lyres.htm#lg
Recordings
Museums
Cité de la musique, Paris(search-phrase: Mot-clé(s) : ''lyre guitare'')
Museum of Fine Arts, BostonThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York*
ttp://www.digitaltmuseum.no/search?query=lyregitar&js=1 Ringve Museum, Trondheim (in Norwegian)br>
Museo Civico d'Arte di Modena(shows a lyre guitar by Gennaro Fabricatore)
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Guitars