I'm curious, do you have any better recommendations? Also, keep in mind that oral performance and such is pretty new. You wouldn't think so, but I minored in...
2220
LM
lavransrm
Oct 13, 2010 1:28 pm
A wild guess would be that very early on, our distant ancestors discovered that plucking a bow-string made a note. Somebody else figured that stretching a...
2219
sca_bard@...
sca_bard
Oct 13, 2010 1:11 pm
I have "How to Read an Oral Poem."Â It's very much geared to an introductory undergraduate course, and sometimes I wondered if the author had ever attended...
2218
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 13, 2010 12:20 pm
... Hi John, I don't disagree with any of that. It's a bit like the question "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" The design of a lyre and the...
2217
John
johnedwardda...
Oct 13, 2010 9:59 am
... Tim, With respect, I think that this is putting the cart before the horse. As I see it, lyre strings are damped from behind because the arms and...
2216
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 13, 2010 8:05 am
... Hi Simon, ... Yes I think that's true. The Beowulf poem often makes brief allusions to other stories in a way that implies that the audience was already...
2215
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 13, 2010 7:45 am
... Hi, ... The reason that lyres have the two arms is so that you can pluck the strings from the back with your left hand, or else damp some of the strings...
2214
R&G Day
harpandrest
Oct 13, 2010 1:19 am
Anglo Saxon LyresHello, when I first read about lyres, I tried building a simple model of one. Then one has some fairly basic questions. Why the two arms...
2213
simon@...
simonchadwick
Oct 12, 2010 6:36 pm
Yes the presentation of a story is the hey to this old music, I think it is what the lyre was meant for in early medieval Europe. I would also suggest that as...
2212
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 12, 2010 5:31 pm
... Hi John, Thanks very much for that, fantastic! That website is really well designed. Yes, as I implied earlier, understanding what the poet is actually...
2211
John Schucker
alashkhem
Oct 12, 2010 4:44 pm
Heyo Tim: I can help with this one! If you want books, the traditional thing dealing with this is "The Singer of Tales". There's also a new book "how to Read...
2210
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 12, 2010 2:10 pm
Hi, ... Just a quick correction to my previous post: the gusle CAN have two strings but usually has only one. I realised I was getting confused with a very...
2209
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 12, 2010 8:19 am
Hi all, As much as I love the African music in the videos I've been posting links to, the main reason I'm posting them here is that they offer some insight...
2208
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 12, 2010 7:41 am
... Hi John, The different kinds of lyres each have their own names because we can use their native names (although we actually still don't have an agreed term...
2207
LM
lavransrm
Oct 11, 2010 5:57 pm
John IMEO- both the zither and the lyre are likely subsets of an earlier form that could be thought of as a psaltery- a box with strings. That would would ...
2206
John Schucker
alashkhem
Oct 11, 2010 5:05 pm
Not really. The begena is the begena, the krar is the krar, the hearpe is the hearpe, just as the banjo is the banjo, the guitar is the guitar, Etc. We just...
2205
John Schucker
alashkhem
Oct 11, 2010 5:02 pm
I still think zither and lyre work as I've specified. Zithers seem to be the broader class, for one thing, e.g. the ennanga from Uganda, the inanga from...
2204
LM
lavransrm
Oct 11, 2010 2:41 pm
Up on the wall, I have eleven stringed instruments- two fiddles, two citoles, a kantele, a jouhikko, two lyres, an 18-stringed "psalter" harp, a soprano oud...
2203
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 11, 2010 2:28 pm
Hi John and John, I suppose the need to categorise is one of mankind's defining characteristics and it's the only way we can make any sense out of an...
2202
John
johnedwardda...
Oct 11, 2010 2:03 pm
... Hmm! If you take this line to its logical conclusion, the lute is also a zither, but with a neck and a peghead. So all stringed instruments would be either...
2201
John Schucker
alashkhem
Oct 11, 2010 7:57 am
OK, quick, who found those boring? Especially the second one? I sure didn't. If Tim keeps this up he'll steal all my examples and I can write the shortest...
2200
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 11, 2010 5:55 am
Hi again, Here's Uganda's answer to the kantele. Gotta love the funky dancing too! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zokDkjI8mc Cheers, Tim...
2199
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 11, 2010 5:41 am
Hi, Another slightly off-topic post. I suppose zithers are a pretty close cousin of lyres, and I quite like these ones from Uganda. I think it's also...
2198
simon@...
simonchadwick
Oct 6, 2010 2:31 pm
A couple of the archive recording Jouhikko tunes on the CD accompanying Rauno Nieminen's book use "non-diatonic" tunings, interestingly they are the ones...
2197
Jennifer Sturdy
jcs64uk
Oct 6, 2010 1:58 pm
Hi, There seems to be a sudden spate of interest in African lyres: so you may be interested to read Andy Lowings' report of his visit to Africa, courtesy of a...
2196
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 6, 2010 1:47 pm
... Hi John, ... I suppose the possibilities are endless. Some musical traditions like the Arabic one even have quarter tones/quarter steps, which to our...
2195
John
johnedwardda...
Oct 6, 2010 1:30 pm
John, Tuning is such a wide concept that it's always relevant. Whatever intervals your strings are supposed to have between them, they will only work when...
2194
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 6, 2010 7:05 am
Hi John, I glad there are people enjoying the videos as much as I am! I absolutely agree with you that the Germanic lyre was probably used much more constantly...
2193
John Schucker
alashkhem
Oct 5, 2010 5:41 pm
I love it, if nobody else does. I play stuff like this on my show all the time. I think one really important thing we can learn from the African lyres, along...
2192
Tim
vikingtimbo
Oct 5, 2010 2:50 pm
Hi, I'm not sure how interested anyone is in these African lyres. But for me, seeing living lyre traditions kind of brings them to life. Anyway, here are some...
