Musical instrument: Lyre
Love ... An amazing magical feeling, giving people incredible pleasure, hope for happiness and bliss. Mankind knows a lot of beautiful legends about love, tremulously treats them and keeps in its memory. Beautiful legends about the selfless feeling of Tristan and Isolde, Jothi and Akbar, Romeo and Juliet are carefully passed down from generation to generation. There are many stories about love, but there is one more that deserves special attention. It has come down to us since ancient times, from ancient Greece. This legend is about the famous singer of Hellas Orpheus and his beloved wife, the nymph Eurydice. Legend has it that Orpheus, who lost his beloved, who died of being bitten by a snake, decided on a desperate act: he descended into the underworld to ask the god of the dead Aida to return him to Eurydice. The faithful companion and helper of Orpheus on this difficult journey was his lyre, the magic sounds of which could stop the rivers, fascinate nature, animals and birds. What is this instrument with such magical properties? According to the ancient Greek myth, the lira in infancy from the turtle shell, ox horns and three gut strings was created by the god Hermes, possessing many talents. Then he exchanged it for a flock of divine cows belonging to the god of higher spirituality and arts, Appolon, fascinated by the sound of the instrument, which in turn presented it to the seven-stringed instrument, the legendary Orpheus, who brought the lyre to the human world.
Sound
What is the sound of the lyre - an instrument of divine origin, which our ancestors loved so much? Her voice is very gentle, iridescent and charmingly soaring. It was believed that the wondrous sounds of the lyre purified and healed the soul, filling it with heavenly harmony. On the lyre, they played music sitting or standing, holding the instrument in relation to the body at a slight angle. During the performance, various methods of sound extraction were used, such as stinging of the strings and brute force: the right hand was conducted along the strings, and the left one was muffled by unnecessary sounds.
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Interesting Facts
- Lyra was often depicted on ancient coins.
- Lyra is currently used as a folk instrument in some localities of north - eastern Africa.
- The oldest lira, preserved on the European continent, has about 2.5 millennia. She was found in Scotland in 2010.
- Lyra is mentioned in the old English poem "Boevulf", written at the turn of the first millennium of our era. This ancient poem, consisting of 3182 lines, reached us in full.
- Ancient lyres can be seen today at the Eshmolovsky Museum of Art and Archeology in Oxford (England), the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion (Greece), the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem (Israel), and also in the historical museums of London (England), Pennsylvania (USA) and Baghdad ( Iraq).
- At the present time, the lyre is a word with very many meanings: it is a symbol and an attribute of poets; emblem of military orchestras; monetary unit of Italy, the Vatican and Turkey; a constellation located in the northern hemisphere in which the brightest is a star called "Vega"; an Australian bird with a tail shaped like a lyre.
- There are so many musical instruments that have the word lyre in their name. However, it is worth noting that they have nothing in common with the ancient lira, for example: the wheeled lira, the Pontic lyre, the Cretan lira, the Byzantine lira, the lira da braccio, the lira da gamba.
Design
Lyra, which has a very original configuration, consists of a resonator body, which was originally made of turtle shell and tightened with a bull skin membrane. Later it began to be made in the form of a quadrangle of wood. On the case were fastened two elegantly curved racks in the form of a yoke, for the manufacture of which wood or antelope horns were used. At the upper end of the stand, they are connected by a crossbar, from which the strings are pulled to the resonator. The number of strings on instruments varies greatly: four, seven, ten, and in experimental instruments - twelve, eighteen or more.
Types of Lira
The lyre family includes instruments of various types and sizes, but the most popular are Helis, Forming and Kithar.
- Helis - this is the name of the most primitive lira with a turtle-shell casing, which was covered with ox skin. The instrument was light, small in size and was popular for playing music with women.
- Forminga is an instrument of ancient Greek storytellers - aedov, which did not differ in special sonority. It has a peculiar design that allows it to be held with the aid of a ligation over the shoulder.
- Kifara - a tool with a flat heavy body, which could play only men. The number of strings ranged from seven to twelve.
Story
Lyra - a tool primarily associated with the culture of ancient Greece and Rome, so long appeared in the lives of people that today no historian can accurately name the time and place of its origin. According to some assumptions, the homeland of the lyre is Thrace, and according to others the Middle East. It was in Mesopotamia, one of the most ancient civilizations, on the territory of Sumerian Ur, during archaeological excavations such stringed musical instruments were found, the manufacture of which dates from the middle of the third millennium BC. Art critics subsequently gave them the name of the Urish liras. The instruments found were quite large, with eight to twelve strings and a resonator in the shape of an ox head. In Assyria, the bull was a symbol of fertility and was especially honored by the inhabitants of the country. In biblical tales, we find repeated mention that at about the same time the lira was in great demand in ancient Egypt, as well as a favorite instrument among the Jewish people. It was with pleasure that King David played music, who was a bright personality not only in Old Testament, but also in world history.
The earliest extant image of the lyre dates back to the Minoan civilization (1400 BC) and is located in the famous sarcophagus of Agia Triada, which was originally located in the southern part of Crete. There is a hypothesis that it was from Crete that the lyre began to spread throughout Greece and the Roman Empire, where it received the original configuration in the form of a horseshoe, and also in the hierarchy of musical instruments used at that time took a very high place. Lyra, which played an important role in the culture of these countries, was considered an appolonical, noble instrument, the training of which was indispensable in the education of a "free" citizen. She was a sought-after instrument not only among famous musicians at the time, but also among "ancient bards," which included narrators, charismatics and poets. And since the sound of the lyre was accompanied not only by singing, but also by recitation, hence a certain type of ancient poetry was later called "lyric". In addition, the instrument was actively used in home music making: it was considered decent for decent women. Since the lira was very popular, the masters constantly modified it, made different types and sizes. The number of strings on the instrument varied and reached eighteen, but the seven-stringed lira was considered the most demanded.
In the era of late antiquity, during the decline of the Greco-Roman civilization, the lira gradually began to spread throughout Europe to the north, among the Celtic and Finnish peoples. There she has undergone some design changes, since it was made from a single piece of wood. After the first millennium from the birth of Christ, the lyre changed significantly, somewhere from a pinch, it turned into a string instrument, somewhere it added a neck to itself, and in its primary form it gradually disappeared from active use, but retained its aristocratic status.
Unfortunately, the lira, which is the progenitor of many musical instruments, is not receiving proper attention at the present time, but people remember it and the emblem of musical art in the form of this elegant old instrument confirms this.
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