The Ancient instruments and their myths: string instruments

and ApolloVesa Matteo Piludu, 2010

Origins

• First string instrument in neolitic period (8000-6000 BC)

• Lyres were know in Egypt and Near east

• Greek and Roman perfectioned the original instruments

Ancient musical theories

• The civilization that used string instruments were aware of the octave divided into 12 semitones and of the perfect intervals (unisons, octave, fifth and fourth)

• A primitive form of musical notation existed• Even so, Ancients didn’t use musical notation

because music was considered an oral art

Apollonian side of Greek music

• Accompainment

• Poetry, epos, mythical memory, poetic inspiration

• moderation, harmonius control and mental equilibrium, health

• Harmony of the kosmos, mysticism

• mathematics, philosophical speculation, astronomy

Apollonian side of Greek music

• education, maturation of the young

• unprofessional, domestic music, aristocracy, conservativism

• virtuosi of the kithara, competitions

• songs, string instruments (lyra)

Lyra

• The most widely used and popular string instrument in Ancient Greece was the lyra

• it was played not only by professional musicians

• It was a symbol of Apollo

• used as part of young people’s education

• could be characterized as the national instrument of the ancient Greek

Bow and Lyre

• Apollon have as attribute a bow and a lyre (considered a musical bow)

Strings

• 3 strings, 4 strings, 5 strings,

• 7 strings, 9 strings, 12 strings

• 4 strings: seasons, four part of the world, herma, equinoxes and solstices

• 7 strings: 7 planets, celestial spheres

Chelys Lyra (χέλυς λύρα)

• tortoise shell covered by leather

• The tortoise is a symbol of union between sky and earth

• played by women: hetairai or courtesans who entertained at the symposia

• respectable women played at weddings or for their own entertainment

Historical origins

• Probably of neolithic origins

Herma: squared, 4 directions, 2 equinoces and 2 solsticesas the 4 notes of Chelys lyra

The Lyre, with 3 strings, according to mythology was invented by Hermes and was given to Apollo (who some say added another 4 strings).

Lyre symbolism

Earth-Sky

• Carapace: intermediary between sky and earth

• Skin: sacrifice• Two horns: celestial bull

• The lyre unified sky and earth

Apollon and lyre

Hermes

• this instrument was discovered by the god Hermes (messenger, boundaries, rites of passage)

• At the age of one day, he climbed out of his cradle and he found the shield of a turtle. He stretched the skin of a cow around it, fixed two horns through the holes were once the paws of the animal stood

Synaulia

• Volume 2: string instruments

• Track 1: Invocation to Mercury, 4 string lyre

• Every musical work started with the invocation to Mercury (Hermes)

Ovid, V, 663 Fasti

• Come, oh famous nephew of Atlantis, • Who one time at Jove produced one of the Pleiades on

the mountains of Arcadia• Arbitrator of Peace and war for the celestial and infernal

gods• Who runs trough the air with winged feet, thrilled with

the sound of the lyre• Thrilled by the lucent gymnasium • You who with your teaching began to speak the tongue

so elegantly

Synaulia

• Volume 2: string instruments

• Track 3: Ode to the lyre

• Five stringed lyres

• First string: D3 or paranetè

• Second: G2 or lichanós

• Third: A2 mèsè

• Fourth: paramèsè

• Fifth: nètè

• Arpeggio with all five fingers, with both hands

Horatius – poem XXXII To the lyre

• If I ever I would write with you, frivolous, in the shadow• Something that in a year and ever more might last up

here, give me a Latin song, I pray

• O lyre, that was first held by Alceste of Lesbo, • so daring in war• Among the battles or tied to the banks • Of the shore-ridden ship

Horatius – poem XXXII To the lyre

• Even Bacchus sang, the Muses and Venus• And her son who accompanies her always• With black eyes and dark hair, shining Lycos

• O glory of Phoebe (Apollo), • welcome to the table of the mighty Jove• Oh Cithara, oh from anxiety’s sweet relief• Be ready, when I call you

Synaulia

• Volume 2: string instruments

• Track 1: Villa of Mysteries

• Lyre, played with plectra, and Syrinx

• Two instruments that most perfectly dictates musical intervals

Lyre and Syrinx at Villa dei Misteri (Pompei)

Playing the lyra

• Classic Lyra

• customary tuning: Pentatonic without half tones (E-G-A-B-D)

• Additional strings: duplicate the same notes in the higher and lower octave,

• they don’t fill the missing notes F-C

• Curt Sachs ”History of the instruments”

Playing the lyra

• ”Nubian Style”

• The right hand scratched all strings at once with a big plectron

• The fingers of the of the left hand deaden those string which must not sound

• small ostinato motif

Other styles

• ”japanese koto style”

• a melody is tinkled out with the left fingers

• the plectrum scractched rapidly all the strings to mark ”pauses” in the melody and in the rythm

• Play with two hands

Phorminx (φόρμιγξ)

• One of the earliest form of the ancient lyres and was mainly associated with the presentation of Homeric epics

• It was considered to be a sacred instrument and perhaps one of most ancient string instrument

Playing a lyre, painted by the Achilles Painter, around 450-440 BC

Phorminx

• played by women and used as a domestic instrument

• the wooden soundbox of the phorminx has a softer, rounder curve

(13C fresco in throne room of "palace of Nestor" at Pylos)

Kithara (κιθάρα)

• Made by wood, it was usually designed with a square base

• Developed from the Phorminx, probably louder due to the larger sound box

• considered a demanding instrument as it required skilful playing

• it was an instrument for professional musicians called “kitharodoi” and was used in music competitions.

The kithara

• The kithara was a large performance lyre• held in the left hand, and strummed with the

right. • The left hand was used to pull away strings

which were not to sound when strumming. • Though famously of seven strings (the "seven-

tone lyre") in the archaic and classical periods, the performance kithara could have 11 or 12 strings by the Roman era, a practice which probably began as early as the fourth century B.C.

Historical origins

• Sumerian civilization (3000 BC)• Kinnor in ancient Israel• Ethiopians today use a similar instrument: Keràr

• In Rome there was a variety of Kitharas:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cubi/hob_03.14.5.htm

Contest of Apollo and Marsyas, 350-320 BC from Mantineia. Part of the Base of a Sculpture, National Museum of Athens, Greece.

Synaulia

• Volume 2: string instruments• Track 15: Phoebus

• Arpeggios• Tuning E/G/A/C/D/E/G• Sweet, harmonious

Emperors and Kithara

• Emperor Nero was a skilled kithara player• Fair and well balanced man, patron of the arts and

reformer • He called to his court the most esteemed kitharists of the

time: the Greek Terpnos and Menecrates• He founded the neronia, a musical, gymnastic and

equitation festival: the kitharist Pollione was the idol of the women in Rome

• Hadrian was himself a musician and encouraged musical studies

Synaulia

• Volume 2: string instruments• Track 6: Orpheus

• Kithara• Tuning E/G/A/C/D/E/G transformed• In E/G/A/C/D/D#/G

• E lowered by a semitone (blue note)

Ovidio Ars Amatoria III, 321

• The cantor of Rodope with his lyre• Moved wild beast and boulders• The three-headed dog, the infernal lakes.• By virtue of his song, both pebbles and rocks,• Just avenger of your mother,• New barriers were ready to be layered;• And story so famed,• Although speechless, even a fish had been moved by

the sound of the zither of Arion

Erato

• Erato, the muse of love poetry and geometry, played the kithara

Synaulia

• Volume 2: string instruments• Track 8: Erato

• Tuning: E/G/A/C/D/E/G considered the most harmoniuos• Ovidius (Art of Loving II, 16):

• If ever I once was in your favor,• Come to me propitious, oh Cytherea,• And you, Love, who, from love• Oh Erato, have received your name.

Sambuca - Sambyke

• Sabka in Babylonian• Boat-like instrument• Arched orizontal harp• Symilar instruments are now

plyed in Africa and in Burma (saung)

Sambuca-type instrument

Synaulia

• Volume 2: string instruments• Track 9: Sambuca• Burman sambuca with eight silk-strings

• Track 11: Syrian Dance• Sambikae: Syrian dancers• Sambuca tuned in C/D#/F/G/G#/A#/B/C• Tympans and fistulae, cymbalum

• Track 13: Cithara and Sambuca• Painting from Stabia: demonstrate that the 2 instruments could be

played toghether

Cordae Obliuquae

• Other harp of Egyptian origin

• Magadis in Greek: it could have 20 strings

Synaulia

• Volume 2: string instruments• Track 16: Cordae Obliquae

• Angular harp• Sixteen intestinal strings• Tuning: G/A/Bb/C/D/E/F/G/Bb

Pandura

• Sumeric• Little bow• 3 strings• Trichordon in Greek

• Mandoline-like or lute-like instrument

Synaulia

• Volume 2: string instruments• Track 12: Pandura

• Tuning: C F Bb• Fingered scale: F/Gb/A/Bb/C/Db/Eb

Barbitos

• The poetess Sappho is shown often playing the Barbitos in Lesbos where it was called barmos "lyre for drinking parties"

πανδοûρα pandoura

Eros and pandura• minor instrument in the

musical culture of Greece

• "vulgar" and "common"

Barbitos (βάρβιτος )

• It has longer arms than the lyra therefore it has longer strings.

• This instrument has a lower extent and produces a sweeter and deeper sound than that of the lyra.

• Aristotle says that it is used for pleasure and not for educational purposes

A Trigonon is a small triangular harp occasionally used by the ancient Greeks and probably derived from Assyria or Egypt.

Harp

• Considered an alien instrument in Greece and Rome, coming from the Orient

• great number of strings

• played by women (heterae and ladies)

• Hedone, sensory pleasure

• played with the bare fingers, without plectron

• 20 strings, ten double tuned in octaves

Harp Player around 2800-2300 BC (From Keros, Early Cycladic).

A woman (Terpsikhore) playing a Harp.

Magadis (μάγαδις )

• a harp with 20 strings, probably Lydian origin.

• It comprised two full octaves, the left hand playing lower notes, the right the upper.

Hydraulos or Hydraulikon organon

• The first keyboard musical instrument in the history and ancestor of the later church organ, invented by Ctesibius (Ktesibios) in Alexandria.

• In 1992 Greek archaeologists recovered a fragmentary hydraulis with 19 bronze tubes dating from the 1st Century BC.

Archaeological Museum of Dion