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LYRE (Gr. Xupa)
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See also:LYRE (Gr. Xupa) , an See also:ancient stringed musical See also:instrument. The recitations of the Greeks were accompanied by it. Yet the lyre was not of See also:Greek origin; no See also:root in the See also:language has been discovered for Xupa, although the See also:special names bestowed upon varieties of the instrument are Hellenic. We have to seek in See also:Asia the birthplace of the genus, and to infer its introduction into See also:Greece through See also:Thrace or See also:Lydia. The historic heroes and improvers of the lyre were of the Aeolian or Ionian colonies, or the adjacent See also:coast bordering on the Lydian See also:empire, while the mythic masters, See also:Orpheus, See also:Musaeus and Thamyris, were Thracians. Notwithstanding the See also:Hermes tradition of the invention of the lyre in See also:Egypt, the Egyptians seem to have adopted it from See also:Assyria or Babylonia. To define the lyre, it is necessary clearly to See also:separate it from the allied See also:harp and See also:guitar. In its primal See also:form the lyre differs from the harp, of which the earliest, simplest notion is found in the See also:bow and bowstring. While the guitar (and See also:lute) can be traced back to the typical " nefer " of the See also:fourth See also:Egyptian See also:dynasty, the fretted See also:finger-See also:board of which, permitting the See also:production of different notes by the shortening of the See also:string, is as different in conception from the lyre and harp as the See also:flute with holes to shorten the See also:column of See also:air is from the See also:syrinx or Pandean pipes. The See also:frame of a lyre consists of a hollow See also:body or See also:sound-See also:chest (i,xeiov). From this sound-chest are raised two arms (lri7Xecs), which are sometimes hollow, and are See also:bent both outward and forward. They are connected near the See also:top by a crossbar or yoke Q'vyov, irywpa, or, from its having once been a See also:reed, KaXapos). Another crossbar (paXas, varoXvpwv), fixed on the sound-chest, forms the See also:bridge which transmits the vibrations of the strings. The deepest See also:note was the farthest from the player; but, as the strings did not differ much in length, more See also:weight may have been gained for the deeper notes by thicker strings, as in the See also:violin and similar See also:modern See also:instruments, or they were turned with slacker tension. The strings were of gut (Xopbi7,
whence chord). They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge. There were two ways of tuning: one was to fasten the strings to pegs which might be turned (KOXXa/3oi, KOXAoires); the other was to See also:change the See also:place of the string upon the crossbar; probably both expedients were simultaneously employed. It is doubtful whether i) xopSor6-vos meant the tuning See also: It was held in the right See also:hand to set the upper strings in vibration (KpiKeLV, Kpoveiv TL;w irXiiKTpy); at other times it hung from the lyre by a ribbon. The fingers of the See also:left hand touched the See also:lower strings (i/si&).Xeav). With Greek authors the lyre has several distinct names; but we are unable to connect these with anything like certainty to the varieties of the instrument. See also:Chelys (x Xvs, " See also:tortoise ") may mean the smallest lyre, which, See also:borne by one See also:arm or supported by the knees, offered in the sound-chest a decided resemblance to that See also:familiar See also:animal. That there was a difference between lyre and See also:cithara (KLBapa) is certain, See also:Plato and other writers separating them. Hermes and See also:Apollo had an See also:altar at See also:Olympia in See also:common because the former had invented the lyre and the latter the cithara. The lyre and chelys on the one hand, and the cithara and phorminx on the other, were similar or Lyre from a carried a See also:golden phorminx. (A. J. H.) See also:vase in the See also:British Museum, where also There are three lines of See also:evidence that are fragments of establish the difference between the lyre such an instrument, and cithara: (I) There are certain vase the back of which is paintings in which the name AGpa accomof See also:shell. panies the See also:drawing of the instrument, as, for instance, in fig. 2 where the tortoise-shell lyre is obviously represented.' (2) In all legends accounting for the invention of the lyre, the shell or body of the tortoise is in-variably mentioned as forming the back of the instrument, whereas the tortoise has never been connected with the cithara. (3) The lyre is emphatically distinguished as the most suitable instrument for the musical training of See also:young men and maidens and as the instrument of the See also:amateur, whereas the cithara was the instrument of citharoedus or citharista, professional performers at the Pythian See also:Games, at ceremonies and festivals, the former using his instrument to accompany epic recitations and odes, the latter for purely instrumental See also:music. The See also:costume worn by citharoedus and citharista was exceedingly See also:rich and quite distinct from any other .2 See also:Gerhard, A u s e r I. We find the lyre represented among scenes griech. Vasnb`td`r. of domestic See also:life, in lessons, receptions, at Greek vase in found in the hands of See also:women no less than See also:Munich. men, and the costume of the performer is invariably that of an See also:ordinary See also:citizen. Lyres were of many sizes and varied in outline according to See also:period and See also:nationality. We therefore possess irrefutable evidence of See also:identification in both cases, all of which tallies exactly. Examination of the i See Ed. Gerhard, Auserlesene griech. Vasenbilder, part iii. (See also:Berlin, 1847), pl. 236 and p. 157. ' See See also:Aristotle, Polit. v. 6. 5.construction of the instruments thus indentified reveals the fact that both possessed characteristics which have persisted through-out the See also:middle ages to the See also:present See also:day in various instruments evolved from these two archetypes. The See also:principal feature of both lyre and cithara was the See also:peculiar method of construction adopted in the sound-chest, which may be said to have been almost See also:independent of the outline. In the lyre the sound-chest consisted of a vaulted back, in See also:imitation of the tortoise, over which was directly glued a flat sound-board of See also:wood or See also:parchment. In the cithara (q.v.) the sound-chest was shallower, and the back and front were invariably connected by sides or ribs. These two methods of constructing the sound-chests of stringed instruments were typical, and to one or the other may be referred every stringed instrument with a See also:neck which can be traced during the middle ages in miniatures, See also:early printed books, on monuments and other See also:works of See also:art. (K. S.) Passing by the See also:story of the See also:discovery of the lyre from a vibrating tortoise-shell by Hermes, we will glance at the real lyres of Egypt and Semitic Asia. The Egyptian lyre is unmistakably Semitic. The See also:oldest representation that has been discovered is in one of the tombs of Beni See also:Hassan, the date of the See also:painting being in the Xllth Dynasty, that is, shortly before the invasion of " the shepherd See also:kings" (the See also:Hyksos). In this painting, which both See also:Rosellini and See also:Lepsius have reproduced, an undoubted Semite carries a seven or eight-stringed lyre, or rather cithara in transition, similar to the See also:rotta of the middle ages. The instrument has a four-cornered body and an irregular four-cornered frame above it, and the player carries it horizontally from his See also:breast, just as a modern Nubian would his See also:kissar. He plays as he walks, using both hands, a plectrum being in the right. See also:Practical knowledge of these ancient instruments may be gained through two remarkable specimens preserved in the museums of Berlin (fig. 3) and See also:Leiden (see CITHARA). During the See also:rule of the Hyksos the lyre became naturalized in Egypt, and in the 18th dynasty it is frequently depicted, and with finer See also:grace of form. In the 19th and 2oth dynasties the lyre is sometimes still more slender, or is quite unsymmetrical and very strong, the horns surmounted by heads of animals as in the Berlin one, which has horses' heads at those extremities. Prokesch copied one in the ruins of See also:Wadi See also:Haifa, splendid in See also:blue and See also:gold, with a See also:serpent See also:wound See also:round it. The Egyptians always strung FIG. 3.—Egyptian Cithara now at Berlin. their lyres See also:fan-shaped, like the modern Nubian kissar. Their paintings show three to eight or nine strings, but the painters' accuracy may not be unimpeachable; the Berlin instrument had fifteen. The three-stringed lyre typified the three seasons of the Egyptian See also:year—the See also:water, the See also:green and the See also:harvest ; the seven, the planetary See also:system from the See also:moon to See also:Saturn. The Greeks had the same notion of the See also:harmony of the See also:spheres. There is no evidence as to what the stringing of the Greek lyre was in the heroic See also:age. See also:Plutarch says that See also:Olympus and See also:Terpander used but three strings to accompany their recitation. As the four strings led to seven and eight by doubling the tetrachord, so the trichord is connected with the hexachord or six-stringed lyre depicted on so many archaic Greek vases. We cannot insist on the accuracy of this representation, the vase painters being little mindful of the See also:complete expression of details; yet we may suppose their tendency would be rather to imitate than to invent a number. It was their constant practice to represent the strings as being damped by the fingers of the left hand of the player, after having been struck by the plectrum which he held in the right hand. Before the Greek See also:civilization had assumed its historic form, there was likely to be See also:great freedom and See also:independence of different localities in the See also:matter of lyre stringing, which is corroborated by the See also:antique use of the See also:chromatic (See also:half-See also:tone) and enharmonic (See also:quarter-tone) tunings, pointing to an early exuberance, and perhaps also to an See also:Asiatic See also:bias towards refinements of intonation, from which came the xpbai, the hues of tuning, old Greek modifications of tetrachords entirely disused in the classic period. The common See also:scale of Olympus remained, a See also:double trichord which had served as the scaffolding for the enharmonic varieties. We may regard the Olympus scale, however, as consisting of two tetrachords, eliding one See also:interval in each, for the tetrachord, or See also:series of four notes, was very early adopted as the fundamental principle of Greek music, and its origin in the lyre itself appears sure. The basis of the tetrachord is the employment of the thumb and first three fingers of the left hand to twang as many strings, the little finger not being used on See also:account of natural weakness. As a See also:succession of three whole tones would form the disagreeable and untunable interval of a tritonus, two whole tones and a half-tone were tuned, fixing the tetrachord in the consonant interval of the perfect fourth. This succession of four notes being in the grasp of the hand was galled evXaa9$, just as in language a See also:group of letters incapable of further reduction is called syllable. In the See also:combination of two syllables or tetrachords the modern diatonic scales resemble the See also:creek so-called disjunct scale, but the Greeks knew nothing of our categorical distinctions of See also:major and See also:minor. We might See also:call the See also:octave Greek scale minor, according to our descending minor form, were not the keynote in the middle the thumb note of the deeper tetrachord. The upper tetrachord, whether starting from the key-note (conjunct) or from the note above (disjunct), was of exactly the same form as the lower, the position of the semitones being identical. The semitone was a limma (ip,See also:ea), rather less than the semitone of our modern equal temperament, the Greeks tuning both the whole tones in the tetrachord by the same ratio of 8:9, which made the major third a dissonance, or rather would have done so had they combined them in what we call harmony. In melodious sequence the Greek tetrachord is decidedly more agreeable to the See also:ear than the corresponding series of our equal temperament. And although our scales are derived from combined tetrachords, in any system of tuning that we employ, be it just, mean-tone, or equal, they'are less logical than the conjunct or disjunct systems accepted by the Greeks. But modern harmony is not compatible with them, and could not have arisen on the Greek melodic lines. The conjunct scale of seven notes g.i attributed to Terpander, was See also:long the norm for stringing and tuning the lyre. When the disjunct scale the octave scale attributed to See also:Pythagoras, was admitted, to preserve the See also:time-honoured seven strings one note had to be omitted; it was thetefore customary to omit the C, which in Greek practice was a dissonance. The Greek names for the strings of seven and eight stringed lyres, the first note being highest in See also:pitch and nearest the player, were as follows: Nete, Paranete, Paramese; Mese, Lichanos, Parhypate, Hypate; or Nete, Paranete, Trite, Paramese; Mese, Lichanos, Parhypate, Hypate—the last four from Mese to Hypate being the finger tetrachord, the others touched with the plectrum. The highest string in pitch was called the last, vearq; the lowest in pitch was called the highest, $,rar,, because it was, in theory at least, the longest string. The keynote and thumb string was p;an, middle; the next lower was ?agaves, the first 'finger or lick-finger string; rp%re, the third, being in the plectrum See also:division, was also known as ofeia, See also:sharp, perhaps from the dissonant quality to which we have referred as the cause of its omission. The plectrum and finger tetrachords together were b&a,rauav, through all: in the disjunct scale, an octave. In transcribing the Greek notes into our notation, the See also:absolute pitch cannot be represented; the relative positions of the semitones are alone determined. We have already quoted the scale of Pythagoras, the Dorian or true Greek succession : °J Shifting the semitone one degree upwards in each tetrachord, we have the Phrygian Another degree gives the Lydian which would be our major scale of E were not the keynote A. The names imply an Asiatic origin. We need not here pursue further the much-debated question of Greek scales and their derivation; it will suffice to remark that the outside notes of the tetrachords were fixed in their tuning as perfect fourths—the inner strings being, as stated, in diatonic sequence, or when chromatic two half-tones were tuned, when enharmonic two quarter-tones, leaving respectively the wide intervals of a minor and major third, and both impure, to cpmplete the tetrachord. (A. J. H.) See the See also:article by See also:Theodore See also:Reinach in Daremberg and Saglio; Antiguites grecques et romaines; Wilhelm Johnsen, See also:Die See also:Lyra, ein Beitrag zur griechischen Kunstgeschichte (Berlin, 1876); Hortense Panum, " Harfe and Lyra. in See also:Nord See also:Europa," Intern. See also:Mus. Ges., Sbd. vii. I, pp. 1-40 (See also:Leipzig, 1905) ; A. J. Hipkins, " Dorian and Phrygian, reconsidered 'from a non-See also:harmonic point of view," in Intern. Mus Ges. (Leipzig. 1903), iv. 3. LYRE-See also:BIRD, the name by which one of the most remarkable birds of See also:Australia is commonly known, the Menura superba or M. novae-hollandsae of ornithologists. It was first observed in 1798 in New See also:South See also:Wales, and though called by its finders a " See also:pheasant "- -from its long tail—the more learned of the See also:colony seem to have regarded it as a bird-of-See also:Paradise' A specimen having reached See also:England in 1799, it was described by See also:General See also:Davies as forming a new genus of birds, in the Linnean Society's Transactions (vi. p. 207, p1. xxii.), no See also:attempt, however, being made to See also:fix its systematic place. In 1802 L. P. Vieillot figured and described it in a supplement to his Oiseaux Dores as a birdof-Paradise (ii. pp. 30 seq., pls.14-16), from drawings by See also:Sydenham See also:Edwards, sent him by See also:Parkinson, the manager of the Leverian Museum. The first to describe any portion of its See also:anatomy was T. C. Eyton, who in 1841 (See also:Ann. Nat. See also:History, vii. pp. 49-53) perceived that it was a Passerine bird and that it presented some points of See also:affinity to the South See also:American genus Pteroptochus. In 1867 See also:Huxley stated that he was disposed to See also:divide his very natural assemblage the Coracomorphae (essentially identical with Eyton's Insessores) into two See also:groups, " one containing Menura, and the other all the other genera which have yet been examined " (Prot. Zool. See also:Soc., 1867, p. 472)—a still further step in advance? In 1875 A. See also:Newton put forth the See also:opinion in his article on birds, in the 9th edition of this See also:Encyclopaedia, that Menura had an ally in another Australian form, Atrichia (see SCRUB-BIRD), which he had found to present peculiarities hitherto unsuspected, and he regarded them as See also:standing by themselves, though each constituting a distinct See also:family. This opinion was partially adopted in the following year by A. H. Garrod, who (Prot. Zool. Society, 1876, p. 518) formally placed these two genera together in his group of Abnormal Acromyodia;n Oscines under ' the name of Menurinae; ornithologists now generally recognize at once the See also:alliance and distinctness of the families Menuridae and Atrichiidae, and place them together to form the group Suboscines of the Diacromyodian Passeres. Since the See also:appearance in 1865 of J. See also:Gould's Handbook to the Birds of Australia, little important See also:information has been published concerning the habits of this form, and the account therein given must be See also:drawn upon for what here follows. Of all birds, says that author, the Menura is the most shy and hard to procure. He has been among the rocky and thick " brushes "—its usual haunts—See also:hearing its loud and liquid call-notes for days together without getting sight of one. Those who wish to see' it must advance only while it is singing or scratching up the See also:earth and leaves; and to See also:watch its actions they must keep perfectly still. The best way of procuring an example seems to be by See also:hunting it with See also:dogs, when it will See also:spring upon a See also:branch to the height of to ft. and afford an easy shot ere it has time to ascend farther or See also:escape as it does by leaps. Natives are said to See also:hunt it by fixing on their heads the erected tail of a See also:cock-bird, which alone is allowed to be seen above the brushwood. The greater part of its time is said to be passed upon the ground, and seldom are more than a pair to be found in See also:company. One of the habits of the cock is to form small round hillocks, which he constantly visits during the day, mounting upon them and displaying his tail by erecting it over his See also:head, drooping his wings, scratching and pecking at the See also:soil, and uttering various cries—some his own natural notes, others an imitation of those of other animals. The tail, his most characteristic feature, only attains perfection in the bird's third or fourth year, and then not until the See also:month of See also:June, remaining until See also:October, when the feathers are See also:shed to be renewed the following. See also:season. The See also:food consists of See also:insects; especially beetles and myriapods, as well as snails. The See also:nest is
'See also:Collins, Account of New South Wales, ii. 87-92 (See also:London, 1802).
2 Owing to the imperfection of the specimen at his disposal, Huxley's brief description of the bones of the head in Menura is not absolutely correct. A full description of them, with elaborate figures, is given by See also:Parker in the same Society's Transactions (ix, 306-309, pl. lvi. See also:figs. r-g).
placed near to or on the ground, at the See also:base of a See also:rock or See also:foot of a See also:tree, and is closely See also:woven of See also:fine but strong roots or other See also:fibres, and lined with feathers, around all which is heaped a See also:mass, in shape of an See also:oven, of sticks, grass, See also:moss and leaves, so as to project over and shelter the interior structure, while an opening in the See also:side affords entrance and exit. Only one See also:egg is laid, and this of rather large See also:size in proportion to the bird, of a purplish-See also:grey See also:colour, suffused and blotched with dark purplish-See also: It is greatly to be hoped that so remarkable a form as the lyre-bird, the nearly See also:sole survivor apparently of a very ancient See also:race of beings, will not be allowed to become See also:extinct—its almost certain See also:fate so far as can be judged—without many more observations of its See also:manners being made. Several examples of Menura have been brought alive to See also:Europe, and some have long survived in captivity. Three See also:species of Menura have been indicated—the old M. superba, the lyre-bird proper, which inhabits New South Wales, the See also:southern part of See also:Queensland, and perhaps some parts of See also:Victoria; M. victoriae, separated from the former by Gould (Prot. Zool. Soc., 1862, p. 23), and said to take its place near Mel-See also:bourne; and M. See also:alberti, first described by C. L. See also:Bonaparte (Consp. Avium, i. 215) on Gould's authority, and, though discovered on the See also:Richmond See also:river in New South Wales, having apparently a more See also:northern range than the other two. All 6 those have the apparent bulk of a See also:hen pheasant, but are really much smaller, and their general plumage is of a sooty brown, relieved by rufous on the See also:chin, See also:throat, some of the wing-feathers and the tail-coverts. The wings, consisting of twenty-one remiges, are rather See also:short and rounded; the legs' and feet very strong, the immature and See also:female the tail is somewhat long, though affording no very remarkable See also:char- acter, except the See also:possession of sixteen rectrices; but in the fully-plumaged male of M. superba and M. victoriae it is See also:developed in the extraordinary See also:fashion that gives the bird its common See also:English name. The two exterior feathers (fig. 1, a, b) have the See also:outer See also:web very narrow, the inner very broad, and they See also:curve at first outwards, then somewhat inwards, and near the tip outwards again, bending round forwards so as to present a lyre-like form. But this is not all; their broad inner web, which is of a lively See also:chestnut colour, is apparently notched at See also:regular intervals by spaces that, according to the See also:angle at which they are viewed, seem either See also:black or transparent; and this effect is, on examination, found to be due to the barbs at those 1 The metatarsals are very remarkable in form, as already noticed by Eyton (loc. cit.), and their tendons strongly ossified.spaces being destitute of barbules. The middle pair of feathers (fig. 2, a, b) is nearly as abnormal. These have no outer web, and the inner web very narrow; near their base they See also:cross each other, and then diverge, bending round forwards near their tip. The remaining twelve feathers (fig. 3) except near the base are very thinly furnished with barbs, about 4 in. apart, and those they possess, on their greater part, though long and flowing, See also:bear no barbules, and hence have a See also:hair-like appearance. The shafts of all are exceedingly strong. In the male of M. alberti the tail is not only not lyriform, but the exterior rectrices are shorter than the See also:rest. (A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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