Ads
related to: lap harp vs lyre
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Kora, a west-African folk-instrument, intermediate between a harp and a lute; Lyre, kithara, zither-like instruments used in Greek classical antiquity and later; Pedal harp, the modern, chromatic concert harp; Psaltery, a small, flat, lap instrument in the zither family; Triple harp, a chromatic multi-course harp traditional in Wales
An artistic rendering of a medieval harp (Cythara anglica) from Martin Gerbert's De Cantu et musica sacra a prima ecclesiae aetate usque ad praesens tempus (Typis San-Balsianis, 1774). [1] Below it are a rebec or vielle and a lyre. The Germanic lyre was present in Western Europe before the harp, a version shown here as Cythara Teutonica.
Zither (/ ˈ z ɪ ð ər, ˈ z ɪ θ-/; [1] German:, from the Greek cithara) is a class of stringed instruments.The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body.
The earliest reference to the word "lyre" is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists" and written in the Linear B script. [5] In classical Greek, the word "lyre" could either refer specifically to an amateur instrument, which is a smaller version of the professional cithara and eastern-Aegean barbiton, or "lyre" can refer generally to all three instruments as a family. [6]
The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. [1] In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked instrument, then it likely was referring to a lyre.
The Celtic harp also had a reinforced curved pillar and a substantial neck, flanked with thick brass cheek bands. The strings are plucked with long fingernails. [40] This type of harp is also unique amongst single row triangular harps in that the first two strings tuned in the middle of the gamut were set to the same pitch. [41]