The Byzantine lyra or lira (Greek: λύρα) was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. 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 the fingertips and fingernails. The oldest known depiction of the instrument is on a Byzantine ivory casket, dated to circa 900–1100 AD, preserved in the Bargello in Florence (Museo Nazionale, Florence, Coll. Carrand, No.26).[1] Modern variants of the lyra are still played throughout the Balkans and in areas surrounding the Black Sea (and most of the historical territories of the Byzantine Empire), including Greece, Crete (Cretan lyra), Karpathos (Karpathian lyra), Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria (the gadulka), North Macedonia, Croatia (Dalmatian lijerica), Italy (the Calabrian lira), Turkey (the politiki lyra and the Pontic lyra or kemençe) and Armenia.[citation needed]
The Byzantinelyra or lira (Greek: λύρα) was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. In its popular form, the...
Cretan lyra is considered to be the most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantinelyra, an ancestor of most European bowed instruments. The lyra is...
Byzantinelyra, as a typical bowed instrument of the Byzantines (Margaret J. Kartomi, 1990). Similar bowed instruments descendants of the Byzantine lyra...
the end of the story. Byzantinelyra: the pear-shaped bowed stringed instrument of the Byzantine Empire. Calabrian lira Cretan lyra: The pear-shaped bowed...
flourished there. The bowed "lyra" is still played in former Byzantine regions, where it is known as the Politiki lyra (lit. 'lyra of the City', i.e. Constantinople)...
the region. The lijerica's name comes from the lyra (Greek: λύρα), the bowed instrument of the Byzantine Empire which it probably evolved from. While the...
rebab which is the historical ancestor of the kamancheh and the bowed Byzantinelyra. The strings are played with a variable-tension bow. In 2017, the art...
singer and performer of lyra, the bowed string instrument of Crete and most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantinelyra. Psarantonis comes from...
Kemençe of Laz or the Pontic Lyra, which originated in the Byzantine period and is similar to the Byzantinelyra and Cretan lyra. Other bowed musical instrument...
the Byzantine system Byzantinelyra Echos – Concept of modes in Byzantine music theory Octoechos – Byzantine musical system with eight modes Byzantine Musical...
heraldry ByzantinelyraByzantine text-type Cathedral of St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church Chios Byzantine Museum Constantine III (Byzantine emperor)...
Metsatöll, Wardruna, Per Runberg, Janne Mängli Crwth Jouhikko Gue Byzantinelyra (bowed lyre) Hiiu kannel (in Estonian) Bowed string instrument Cronshaw...
stopping the strings from the side with fingernails (similarly to the Byzantinelyra), rather than pressing strings onto the instrument's neck. Later in...
strings, as well as six sympathetics. It has been evolved from the Byzantinelyra. The Kemane has six main strings tuned in fifths or fourths, as well...
the Byzantinelyra, the Pontic lyra, the Constantinopolitan lyra, the Cretan lyra, the lira da braccio, the Calabrian lira, the lijerica, the lyra viol...
origins in Byzantine period and it is related closely with the Byzantinelyra and Cretan lyra. Other instruments include drums, lute, askomandoura (a type...
noted for playing the lyra, the bowed string instrument of Crete and most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantinelyra. Skordalos was born in...
"lyra" or "lira" which, from an organological point of view, do not belong to this family; they are instead handle lutes. For example: The Byzantine lyra...
bowed instruments is the Arabic rebab (ربابة), which developed into the Byzantinelyra developed by the 9th century and later the European rebec. Several sources...
and its patrons, and the new religion of Orthodox Christianity in the Byzantine era and absorbed Italian and European ideas during the period of Romanticism...
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