Jon,
I've made two Greek lyres. The second one was better than the
first. You can get turtle shells here: http://
www.skullsunlimited.com/. I recommend a snapping turtle shell;
they're big enough to give you a large tympanum. The first lyre had
rough branches for the arms; I ended up laminating 1/8 inch cherry
over a form to make the arms on the second one, and that looked
better. On the crosspiece, I used strips of leather over the wood
to provide friction to tighten the strings, and little pieces of wood
under the leathers to give you something to grasp to tighten the
strings. If you look at details of lyres on Greek vases, they have
something like that.
And use goat hide for the tympanum; it's thinner and more supple than
cow hide. Tandy Leather sells goat rawhide.
I've been away from listservs for a while. When did you move to Hawaii?
Tim
On Dec 28, 2008, at 5:16 AM, Jon Murphy wrote:
What an enjoyable thread, I will read the rest of it tomorrow to
avoid being up until midnight Hawaiian time zone. But I must insert
a comment on historical construction. I think I'll make a Greek
lyre tomorrow, in my spare time. The tetrachord (and the name of
the instrument escapes me) was truely that - a tonic and a perfect
fourth (or fifth, depending on whether you start at the top or the
bottom), and a couple of undefined intervals in between (actually
there are definitions, but they are regional and ethnic).
Mankind did evolve his skills, and depending on whether you are
biblical or Darwinian it took either many millenia or a few. Music
is one of them. Our western music is relatively unique in its
evolution, our scales are basically modifications of the Greek, and
our tuning temperaments are to a great extent caused by the desire
for multi-voices in the Church. The oriental scales are quite
different (and I use orient in the old sense that it include
everything "east of Eden").
We can make a good guess that the virtuosos of olden days might
have sounded a bit amateurish today, the materials and construction
have improved - but that is not to knock them, simplicity has a
beauty of its own. The lute is a development on the Arabic "oud",
as brought into Europe by either travelers or Moorish invaders (and
probably both). The oud, and the early lute, was played with a pick
(ok, plectrum is the proper term) and therefore a melody instrument
as the tuning isn't amenable to a broad strum - and certainly not
in the Arabic scale.
So far as I'm concerned the music should advance, while also
keeping the traditions of sound alive (as best we can judge them).
I have a collection of medieval dance tunes I play on harp and
psaltery, I know I'm not in their tuning as I tune to equal
temperament. We should certainly explore the sounds of old, as best
we can approximate them - but we should not worship at the temple
of historic sound. When I first heard the Swingle Singers doing
Bach's Brandenburgs in scat my reaction was that Bach would have
loved it. He had a touch of the jazz musician in him in his use of
variations around a fixed theme. As one whose primary instrument is
voice I have tried to transcribe early notation of the monastic
chants, but am also aware that the "Gregorian chants" were notated
nearly a thousand years after the Pope's death.
It is all interpretation with a bit of "by guess and by golly".
Notation was a late comer into the passing on of music (although
there actually is some Greek notation from around 500 BC, but even
that is as interpreted).
Best, Jon
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