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Byzantine lyra
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The Byzantine lyra (Latin: lira, Greek: ???a), or Byzantine lira, or lyra, or lira was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine Empire and is considered as the ancestor of most European bowed instruments. 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.
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Encyclopedia
The Byzantine lyra (Latin: lira, Greek: ???a), or Byzantine lira, or lyra, or lira was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine Empire and is considered as the ancestor of most European bowed instruments. 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. Remains of two actual examples of Byzantine lyras from the Middle ages have been found in excavasions at Novgorod ; one dated to 1190 AC .
Origins and history
The first recorded reference to the bowed lyra was in the 9th century by the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 911); in his lexicographical discussion of instruments he cited the lyra (lura) as a bowed instrument equivalent to the Arab rabab and typical instrument of the Byzantines along with the urghun (organ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre) and the salandj (probably a bagpipe) . The lyra spread widely via the Byzantine trade routes that linked the three continents; in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms fiddle and lira interchangeably when refering to bowed instruments . In the meantime, the rabab, the equivalent of the Arabic world, was introduced to Western Europe possibly through the Iberian Peninsula and both bowed instruments spread widely throughout Europe giving birth to various European bowed instruments such as the medieval rebec, the Scandinavian and Icelandic talharpa, and the Celtic crwth. A notable example is the Italian lira da braccio, a 15th-century bowed string instrument 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 (like the rabab); however, the designation lyra (Greek: ???a ~ lura, English: lyre) may constitute a terminological survival relating to the performing method of an ancient Greek 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 of the stringed musical instrument of classical antiquity to the new bowed string instrument.
Characteristics
The Byzantine lyra had rear tuning pegs set in a flat peg similarly to the medieval fiddle and unlike the rabab and rebec. 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 Byzantine lyras found at Novgorod (one dated to 1190 AC) were pear-shaped and 40cm long; they had D-shaped soundholes and provision for three strings . The middle string served as a drone while fingering the others by finger or fingernail alone, downwards or sidewards against the string, for there is no fingerboard 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 .
In use today
The lyra of the Byzantine empire survives in many post-Byzantine regions until the present day even closely to its archetype form. Examples are the gadulka () in Bulgaria, the Calabrian Lira (Italian: Lira Calabrese) in Italy, the lyra (Greek: ???a) of Crete and the Dodecanese and the Classical Kemenche (Turkish: Armudî kemençe, Greek: ????t??? ???a) in Turkey.
Similarly to the lyras found at Novgorod, the Cretan lyra, the Gadulka, the Calabrian Lira and the lyras of Karpathos and Olympos are manufactured from a single wood block (monoblock), sculpted into a pear-shaped body. The slightly rounded body of 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 is probably the most widely used surviving form of the Byzantine lyra, except that in Crete 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.
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