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The Calabrian Lira (Italian: Lira Calabrese) is a traditional musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
 characteristic of some areas of Calabria
Calabria

Calabria , is a Regions of Italy in Southern Italy Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the Ionian Sea....
, region
Regions of Italy

The Region#Political regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state. There are twenty regions autonomous, five of them are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
 in southern Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
.

Lira of Calabria is a bowed
Bow (music)

In music, a bow is moved across some part of a musical instrument, causing vibration which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones....
 string instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
 with three strings
Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
. Like most bowed liras, it is played upright, usually supported on the knee, held with the left hand touching the strings with the nails laterally while the right hand moves the bow.






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The Calabrian Lira (Italian: Lira Calabrese) is a traditional musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
 characteristic of some areas of Calabria
Calabria

Calabria , is a Regions of Italy in Southern Italy Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the Ionian Sea....
, region
Regions of Italy

The Region#Political regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state. There are twenty regions autonomous, five of them are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
 in southern Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
.

Characteristics

The Lira of Calabria is a bowed
Bow (music)

In music, a bow is moved across some part of a musical instrument, causing vibration which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones....
 string instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
 with three strings
Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
. Like most bowed liras, it is played upright, usually supported on the knee, held with the left hand touching the strings with the nails laterally while the right hand moves the bow. The repertory
Repertory

Repertory or rep, called stock in the US, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation....
 of the lira includes accompaniment songs (e.g. serenades
Serenade

In music, a serenade is, in its most general sense, a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. There are three general categories of serenade in music history....
 and songs of anger
Anger

Anger is an emotional state that may range from minor irritation to intense rage. The physical effects of anger include increased heart rate, blood pressure,and levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline....
) and songs suitable for dancing (tarantellas
Tarantella

The Tarantella is a South Italy dance, its name coming from the town of Taranto, where it originated. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music....
). The repertory
Repertory

Repertory or rep, called stock in the US, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation....
 of this traditional instrument is known only through records of older players, or people who have known them. On the other hand, in recent years an increased interest around this instrument has led to its use by music groups of traditional music and to the appearance of new manufacturers in different parts of Calabria.

Origin

The Calabrian Lira is closely related to the bowed lira
Byzantine lyra

The Byzantine lyra , or Byzantine lira, or lyra, or lira was a Medieval music Bow string musical instrument in the Byzantine Empire and is considered as the ancestor of most European bowed instruments....
 (Greek: ???a - lura) of the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
, similar to the Arab Rabab. The Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih
Ibn Khordadbeh

Abu'l Qasim Ubaid'Allah ibn Khordadbeh , author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative geography, was a Persian geographer and bureaucrat of the 9th century....
 (d. 911) of the 9th century cited the lira
Byzantine lyra

The Byzantine lyra , or Byzantine lira, or lyra, or lira was a Medieval music Bow string musical instrument in the Byzantine Empire and is considered as the ancestor of most European bowed instruments....
 as a typical instrument of the Byzantines, along with the urghun (organ), shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre) and the salandj (Margaret J. Kartomi, 1990). Similar bowed instruments descendants of this lira
Byzantine lyra

The Byzantine lyra , or Byzantine lira, or lyra, or lira was a Medieval music Bow string musical instrument in the Byzantine Empire and is considered as the ancestor of most European bowed instruments....
 have continued to be played in many post-Byzantine regions until the present day, for example the Gadulka
Gadulka

The Gadulka is a traditional Bulgaria bowed string instrument. Alternate spellings are "gudulka" and "g'dulka". It is a descendant of the Hudok or Gudok....
 in Bulgaria
Bulgaria

The state of Bulgaria , Scientific transliteration Balgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria has played a significant role in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe for over fourteen centuries....
, the lyra of Crete
Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
 and the Dodecanese
Dodecanese

The Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greece list of islands of Greece in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey, southward of the island of Samos and northeastward of the island of Crete....
 in Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
, and the Armudī kemenēe
Kemenche

A kemenche is a bottle-shaped, 3-string bowed lute that resembles the Byzantine lyra and the Persian Kamanche. Found in the Black Sea region of Asia Minor, it is also known as the "kementche of Laz people"....
 in Istanbul
Istanbul

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population, and List of cities proper by population in the world with a population of 12.6 million....
, Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
. The Byzantine lira spread westward to Europe, with uncertain evolution; authors in the 11th and 12th centuries use the words fiddle and lira interchangeably (Encyclopędia Britannica. 2009).

External links


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Bibliography

  • Margaret J. Kartomi: On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology, University of Chicago Press, 1990
  • La lira calabrese, supplemento a Calabria, Catanzaro, maggio 1987, quaderno n. 2, anno XV, n. 25.
  • libricino del cd La lira in Calabria - RLS 002 - Coop. "R.L.S.", Catanzaro
    Catanzaro

    Catanzaro is a city in Calabria, Italy, the capital of both the province of Catanzaro and the whole region of Calabria.This ancient town rises on a rock and is split into two parts by the steep Fiumarella valley, the two sections being connected by a huge concrete steel bridge , among the highest in Europe, built in 1960 on a design by ar...
    , 1994.
  • La lira, di Goffredo Plastino, Edizioni Monteleone (VV).
  • "lira." Encyclopędia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopędia Britannica Online. 28 Feb. 2009