That was the limitation of using my little African harp - much easier to use a knuckle of the left hand on my lyre, but unlike my African harp, all my lyres have higher tension nylon strings - and using just 7 strings, this piece requires 2 string stops on the same string. Interesting possibility that the nail of the left hand could be used to fret the lyre strings - much as they are used by fretless banjo players today!
An interesting possibility...I just wish there were a few surviving ancient Greeks to ask! The purpose of this little practical experiment, is to demonstrate that even with as few as 7 strings, it is still possible to play an actual surviving ancient Greek melody using a standard 7-string ancient Greek lyra/kithara as a solo instrument, with enough strings to spare, to provide a pleasant accompanying drone, given the tuning I used here (reached by a process of elimination!)
Interesting! If the ancient Greeks did not use some form of string-stopping though, how else would it be possible to play clearly indicated accidentals on a diatonically strung lyre? There are also illustrations of ancient Egyptian harpists I have seen, which to me, seem to also be using some form of string-stopping. On a 7-string lyre, it is literally impossible to play almost any actual ancient Greek melody, without some form of string stropping, as this video attempts ot demonstrate
The first half of the 1st Delphic Hymn to Apollo is in the ancient Greek Hypolydian Mode (equivalent intervals as F-F on the white notes of the piano). I love this mode - to me, it creates a wonderful dreamy, feminine, almost sensual quality - I recently used it in my new release "The Ancient Roman Lyre" for track 2,"Amatores (Lovers)": itunes.apple.com/us/album/amatores-lovers/id784145351?i=784145362 In this album, I also use the wonderfully pure just intonation of antiquity, which is the "secret sauce" to all the ancient Greek modes - the particular character of each of the ancient musical modes seems to be more enhanced when heard in just intonation. The effect of just intonation, is simultaneously more calming, yet at the same time, more inspiring to the listener...
There are some uncanny similarities between the instruments of antiquity & the banjo! This African harp (the Ugandan "Adungu") like a banjo, has a skin soundboard - just as the almost identical ancient Egyptian arched harp also had, over 4000 years ago. The ancient Greek "Lyra" (the lyre with a skin soundboard stretched over a tortoise shell resonator was even more banjo-like. Indeed, I have even experimented playing ancient Greek music, on a banjo -please see the "Blogs" section of my website!
Block and strum seems to be quite a widespread technique for ancient and surviving lyres with not so many strings, Are 7 string lyres really used for melody or for accompanyment to voice or another instrument like the Aulo or flute?
I am familiar with the string muting "block & strum" lyre-playing technique (still used today in Africa) - however, in block & strum, groups of notes are dampened with the left hand & the open strings strummed with a plectrum in the right hand - in the illustration I saw in this book excerpt I mentioned, the ancient Egyptian harpist is pressing down just one string with the left hand & finger plucking the same string with his right hand - ie string stopping, not string strumming...
There is a fascinating PDF article about the ancient Egyptian harp from a book excerpt "Ancient Egyptian Musical Instruments" by Moustafa Gadalla, which I recently discovered, featuring an illustration of a relief from tomb 11 in the Ta-Apet (Thebes) area (New Kingdom 1520 BCE): a harper shortens the string with one hand,and plucks with the other - this is surely the first unambiguous pictorial evidence of the technique of string-stopping from the ancient world! The bent string is clearly shown.
I am guessing some sort of wound Hessian fibre? The strings literally look like finely wound string. I found this awesome instrument hiding away in a dusty corner of a second hand music store, so there is no known manufacturer to clarify...one of my best finds in the last 2 decades!
I agree. I think creative musicians of all ages experiment with different ways of playing their instruments, though the techniques they develop may not become common, and so are forgotten over time. I can imagine an ancient Greek playing his lyre with a slide like a lap steel guitar :D
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Wow, seeing the strings vibrate in the video is so cool. I'm playing with a lyre right now, doing some research.
the 7 pleiades. Hermes the son of the Pleiade Maia invented the Lyre
That was the limitation of using my little African harp - much easier to use a knuckle of the left hand on my lyre, but unlike my African harp, all my lyres have higher tension nylon strings - and using just 7 strings, this piece requires 2 string stops on the same string. Interesting possibility that the nail of the left hand could be used to fret the lyre strings - much as they are used by fretless banjo players today!
An interesting possibility...I just wish there were a few surviving ancient Greeks to ask! The purpose of this little practical experiment, is to demonstrate that even with as few as 7 strings, it is still possible to play an actual surviving ancient Greek melody using a standard 7-string ancient Greek lyra/kithara as a solo instrument, with enough strings to spare, to provide a pleasant accompanying drone, given the tuning I used here (reached by a process of elimination!)
Its a bit dull
Call me mad, but THAT is a banjo. :-)
Interesting! If the ancient Greeks did not use some form of string-stopping though, how else would it be possible to play clearly indicated accidentals on a diatonically strung lyre? There are also illustrations of ancient Egyptian harpists I have seen, which to me, seem to also be using some form of string-stopping. On a 7-string lyre, it is literally impossible to play almost any actual ancient Greek melody, without some form of string stropping, as this video attempts ot demonstrate
Congratulations! I just tuned my lyre in this way. What is the name of this mode? Mixolydian? G B C E F# G A
The first half of the 1st Delphic Hymn to Apollo is in the ancient Greek Hypolydian Mode (equivalent intervals as F-F on the white notes of the piano). I love this mode - to me, it creates a wonderful dreamy, feminine, almost sensual quality - I recently used it in my new release "The Ancient Roman Lyre" for track 2,"Amatores (Lovers)":
itunes.apple.com/us/album/amatores-lovers/id784145351?i=784145362
In this album, I also use the wonderfully pure just intonation of antiquity, which is the "secret sauce" to all the ancient Greek modes - the particular character of each of the ancient musical modes seems to be more enhanced when heard in just intonation. The effect of just intonation, is simultaneously more calming, yet at the same time, more inspiring to the listener...
There are some uncanny similarities between the instruments of antiquity & the banjo! This African harp (the Ugandan "Adungu") like a banjo, has a skin soundboard - just as the almost identical ancient Egyptian arched harp also had, over 4000 years ago. The ancient Greek "Lyra" (the lyre with a skin soundboard stretched over a tortoise shell resonator was even more banjo-like. Indeed, I have even experimented playing ancient Greek music, on a banjo -please see the "Blogs" section of my website!
Block and strum seems to be quite a widespread technique for ancient and surviving lyres with not so many strings, Are 7 string lyres really used for melody or for accompanyment to voice or another instrument like the Aulo or flute?
I am familiar with the string muting "block & strum" lyre-playing technique (still used today in Africa) - however, in block & strum, groups of notes are dampened with the left hand & the open strings strummed with a plectrum in the right hand - in the illustration I saw in this book excerpt I mentioned, the ancient Egyptian harpist is pressing down just one string with the left hand & finger plucking the same string with his right hand - ie string stopping, not string strumming...
There is a fascinating PDF article about the ancient Egyptian harp from a book excerpt "Ancient Egyptian Musical Instruments" by Moustafa Gadalla, which I recently discovered, featuring an illustration of a relief from tomb 11 in the Ta-Apet (Thebes) area (New Kingdom 1520 BCE): a harper shortens the string with one hand,and plucks with the other - this is surely the first unambiguous pictorial evidence of the technique of string-stopping from the ancient world! The bent string is clearly shown.
I am guessing some sort of wound Hessian fibre? The strings literally look like finely wound string. I found this awesome instrument hiding away in a dusty corner of a second hand music store, so there is no known manufacturer to clarify...one of my best finds in the last 2 decades!
I agree. I think creative musicians of all ages experiment with different ways of playing their instruments, though the techniques they develop may not become common, and so are forgotten over time. I can imagine an ancient Greek playing his lyre with a slide like a lap steel guitar :D
Michael, do you imagine the lyre played by Pythagoras might have been tuned in this way?
Wow, look at what the cameras frame rate does to the strings when they vibrate!
Thank you for this video
I love how the strings bend. Oh my goddess that's beautiful!
Excellent and fascinating video. :)
What does *natural fiber" mean? Gut?
White Male Yep