LYRA
LYRA (Lat.
fides), a lyre, the chief stringed
instrument used in Greek music. Two main varieties are known to us from
ancient art and literature, viz. the
lyre
(
λύρα) properly so called, and the
cithara (
κιθάρα).<
The distinctness of the lyre and the cithara may be shown from
|
Lyra. (Blanchini.)
|
Plato (
Rep. iii. p. 399 D,
λύρα δή
σοι, ἧν δ᾽ἐγώ, καὶ κιθάρα λείπεται κατὰ πόλιν
χρήσιμα), and from Aristotle, who excludes the cithara from
education (
Pol. 8.6 = p. 1341, 18,
οὔτε γὰρ αὐλοὺς εἰς παιδείαν ἀκτέον οὔτ᾽ ἄαλλο
τεχνικὸν ὄργανον, οἷον κιθάραν κἂν εἴ τι τοιοῦτον ἕτερόν
ἐστιν) Mythologists generally taught that the cithara was
invented by Apollo, the lyre by Hermes (
Paus.
5.14,
8). The difference between the two
instruments seems to be sufficiently ascertained from the representations of
them
[p. 2.105]found on ancient monuments, especially
painted vases, on which two well-marked types can
|
Cithara (Guhl and Koner.)
|
be traced. One of these answers closely to the description which
the author of the Homeric hymn to Hermes gives of the lyre invented by the
youthful god (
H. Merc. 41 ff.). The lower part or body of the
instrument consists of a tortoise-shell, or of a wooden case in which the
original tortoiseshell is more or less faithfully reflected. In this shell
are fixed two curved arms (
πήχεις) or
horns, joined at the upper end by a crossbar (
ζυγόν). The strings pass from the shell, over a bridge or fret
of reeds (
δόνακες), to the
ζυγόν. The instruments of the other type are
larger, and show a decided advance in point of construction. The shell is
replaced by a wooden case, usually square or angular, and instead of
“horns” we find the sides of the case prolonged upwards, so
that the whole framework acts as a resonance box of considerable power. Now,
it is clear from the evidence of the monuments that the first of these was
the instrument of education and of every-day life; while the second was the
“technical instrument,” seen in the hands of professional
players (
κιθαρῳδοί), who wear the long
robe proper to musical contests and other festivals. The first, therefore,
must be the lyre, and the second the cithara.
The early history of the lyre and cithara is obscure. In Homer we find a
stringed instrument called the
φόρμιγξ,
used especially to accompany singing or epic recitation (
ἀοιδή). We also hear, somewhat less frequently,
of the
κίθαρις: but there is no trace of a
difference between them. The verb (
φορμίζω
is used of the
κίθαρις (
Od. 1.153-
155); and conversely we find the phrase
φόρμιγγι κιθαρίζειν (Il. 18.569). The word
λύρα is post-Homeric: it occurs once in the Hymn
to Hermes (50.423), but does not seem to have been in common use before the
time of Pindar. It is worth noticing, as a consequence of the comparatively
late date of the word, that the derivatives
λυρίζω,
λυριστής, are unknown in good Greek,
κιθαρίζω and
κιθαριστὴς
being always used of the lyre and cithara alike; just as
χαλκεύς,
“bronze-smith,” was applied to workers in iron as well as in
the older metal. It would be rash, however, to infer that the Homeric
instrument resembled the cithara rather than the lyre. We may suppose that
the later form of the cithara was developed gradually, retaining the
original name, which therefore included all varieties, until the new word
λύρα came into vogue for the commoner
and more primitive kind. The author of the Hymn to Hermes recognises only
one form, that of the lyre, to which he applies the terms
κίθαρις and
φόρμιγξ as well. The identity of the
κίθαρις and the lyre is also maintained by Aristoxenus, the
pupil of Aristotle (Ammon.
de diff. Voc. p. 82,
κίθαρις καὶ κιθάρα διαφέρει, φησὶν Ἀριστόξενος ἐν
τῷ περὶ ὀργάνου: κίθαρις γάρ ἐστιν ἡ λύρα κ. τ. λ.).
Regarding the original number and tuning of the strings, contradictory
accounts were current. According to one statement in Diodorus (
1.16), Hermes was the author of harmony of sound,
and in that character invented a lyre with three strings, answering to the
three seasons. The same author elsewhere (5.75) says that Hermes invented
his lyre in place of the cithara, which Apollo had laid aside in remorse for
his cruelty to Marsyas. According to the Hymn to Hermes (50.51) the
primitive lyre was one of seven strings:
ἑπτὰ δὲ
συμφώνους ὀἱ̈ων ἐτανύσσατο χορδάς.
On the other hand, the increase of the number of strings from four to seven
appears to be claimed by Terpander, in two lines attributed to him: “
σοὶ δ᾽ἡμεῖς τετράγηρυν ἀποστέρξαντες ἀοιδὰν
ἑπτατόνῳ φόρμιγγι νέους κελαδήσομεν ὕμνους.
”
A different account, however, is given by Aristotle (
Probl.
19.32), where he touches on the question why the interval of an Octave is
not called
δι᾽ὀκτώ (as a Fourth is
διὰ τεσσάρων, a Fifth
διὰ πέντε). He suggests by way of answer that
the scale was formerly one of seven notes only, saying that Terpander left
out the note called
τριτη, and added the
νήτη at the upper end of the scale (the
octave of the
ὑπάτη, or lowest note). If
this account is the true one, what Terpander did was to raise the scale to
the compass of an Octave, but without increasing the traditional number of
strings. However this may be, the comparative antiquity of a scale of at
least seven notes is proved by their names. The following are the notes of
the central octave in the later system, with the modern notes which show the
intervals on the diatonic scale:--
e
ὑπάτη,, lit. “uppermost,” our
“lowest” note.
f
παρυπάτη,
“” next to
ὑπάτη.
g
λιχανός,
“forefinger” note.
a
μέση,
“middle” note.
b
παραμέση.
c
τρίτη, third, viz. from the
νήτη.
d
παρανήτη.
e
νήτη, for
νεάτη,
“lowest,” our “highest.”
Of these names there is only one that is admittedly later than the rest, viz.
παραμέση, which probably dates from the
time when the heptachord of Terpander acquired an eighth string, and
consequently a complete diatonic scale of the compass of an Octave. If we
may trust a passage quoted from Philolaus (
Nicom. p. 17), the
gap then filled up was not that between
μέση and
τρίτη. Philolaus gives
the name
τρίτα (he writes in Doric) to the
later
παραμέση, the note which was a tone
above the
μέση. The change, therefore,
consisted in inserting a note half a tone above the
τρίτη of Philolaus, which new note then became the
“third,” and made it necessary to find a new name--
παραμέση--for the old
τρίτη. But the language of Aristotle himself
(
Probl. 19.7, 32, 47) shows that the exact steps of this
progress were no longer known. According to Nicomachus, the eighth string of
the scale was added by Pythagoras. Probably, however, this is a mere
inference from the Pythagorean discovery of the numerical ratios on which
the musical intervals--the Octave, Fifth, Fourth, and Tone--are based.
Another notice (Boeth.
de Mus. 1.20) attributes
the improvement to a certain Lycaon of Samos.
The lyre was originally played without the
[p. 2.106]aid of a
plectrum; and each string seems to have been sounded by a particular finger.
Thus the
lixano\s or “forefinger” was
so called, according to Nicomachus (p. 22), because it was sounded by the
forefinger of the left hand. It follows, as has been pointed out by Gevaert
(ii. p. 254), that the left hand was used for the lower tetrachord, and that
the little finger was not used to touch the strings. When the plectrum came
into use, it was held in the right hand, and perhaps was specially employed
for the air, while the softer tones produced by the fingers. of the left
hand served for the accompaniment. This is suggested (though by no means
proved) by the epigram of Agathias (
Anth. Pat. 11.352) quoted
by Gevaert: “
τὸν σοφὸν ἐν κιθάρῃ, τὸν μουσικὸν Ἀνδροτίωνα,
εἴρετό τις τοίην κρουματκὴν σοφίην:
δεξιτερὴν ὑπάτην ὁπότε πλήκτροισι δόνησας,
”
ἡ λαιὴ νήτη πάλλεται αὐτομάτως.
The phenomenon here referred to is the “sympathy” by which a
sounding body excites the vibration of another whose note is in unison with
it, or with one of its harmonics.
|
Anacreon playing the Lyre. (Vase-painting in the British Museum.)
|
The seven-stringed lyre was still in use in the time of Pindar, unless we
suppose that the epithets
ἑπτάκτυπος
(
Pyth. 2, 70) and
ἐπτάγλωσσος (
Nem. 5, 24) are due
to mere poetical tradition. On the other hand, we are told that Lasus of
Hermione, who was an older contemporary of Pindar, introduced new notes, by
which he broke up (
διέρριψεν) the existing
scale (Plut.
Mus. cc. 29, 30) A passage quoted
by Plutarch (
l.c.) from the comic poet Pherecrates
denounces a series of similar innovators--Melanippides, Phrynis, Cinesias,
and
|
Citharista with Lyre. (Dennis's Etruria.)
|
finally Timotheus of Miletus, who “outraged music with his
twelve strings.” The object of the additional strings seems to
have been not so much to obtain greater compass as to make it possible to
combine different modes or keys, perhaps also different genera (see the art.
MUSICA), on the same
instrument, and to pass easily from one to another. It is the
“multiplicity of keys or scales” (
πολυαρμονία) which is always ways associated with
“multiplicity of strings” (
πολυχορδία) in the minds of those who, like Plato, regarded
such changes as dangerous and corrupting.
It is characteristic of the lyre and the cithara that the strings are all of
the same length, so that the difference of pitch is entirely due to
different thickness. In this respect they differed from instruments such as
the harp, which have strings of different length, and again from those in
which the length of the string is varied by the player, as in the case of
the violin. The woodcuts above show the method of holding the lyre, in
playing with the right hand only or with both. It was also played sitting,
and supported on the knees. The cithara was held in the same manner. The
harp type was represented in Greek music by the
τρίγωνον or triangular harp, a Phrygian instrument, with
which we find associated the Lydian
πηκτίς.
Both are condemned by Plato (
Rep. iii. p. 399) for the
excessive number of their strings. They are also mentioned together in a
fragment of Sophocles,
fr. 361: “
πολὺς δὲ Φρὺξ τρίγωνος ἀντίσπαστά τε
Λυδῆς ἐφυμνεῖ πηκτίδος συγχορδία.
”
The
μάγαδις, which was closely akin to the
πηκτίς, was so called from the bridge
or fret (
μαγάς), by which a string could be
divided by the player, so as to yield a higher note. It had twenty strings,
and admitted of playing the same tones simultaneously in different octaves
(hence called
μαγαδίζειν). This is also
attributed by Aristotle (
Probl. 19.14) to an instrument
called the
φοινίκιον or Phoenician lyre.
The most perfect of all these instruments seems to have been the
ἐπιγονεῖον, called after its inventor, Epigonus
of Ambracia, which had forty strings. Besides these, we hear of the
βάρβιτος, which is thought to have been nearly
related to the lyre, also the
νάβλα and the
σαμβύκη (
Strab. x. p.471). Several of these names are confessedly
barbarous, and all the instruments now in question lay under the imputation
of being more or less alien to genuine Greek art. They evidently enjoyed
much popularity, but were never regarded as of equal dignity with the lyre
and cithara.
(Compare Carl von Jan,
De fidibus Graecorum,
Berolini, 1859; Westphal,
Geschichte der alten und mittelalterlichen
Musik, Breslau, 1864; Gevaert,
Histoire et
Théorie de la Musique de l'Antiquité,
Gand, 1875-81.)
[
D.B.M]