Byzantine Lyra - in Use Today

In Use Today

The lyra of the Byzantine empire survives in many post-Byzantine regions until the present day even closely to its archetype form. Examples are the Politiki lyra (Greek: πολίτικη λύρα), the lyra of Crete (Greek: κρητική λύρα') and the Dodecanese in Greece, the gadulka (Bulgarian: Гъдулка) in Bulgaria, the Gusle in Serbia and Montenegro, the Calabrian Lira, (Italian: Lira Calabrese) in Italy and the Classical Kemenche (Turkish: Armudî kemençe'), in Turkey. Gudok, a historical Russian instrument that survived until the 19th century, is also a variant of the Byzantine lyra.

Similarly to the lyras found at Novgorod, the Cretan lyra, the Gadulka, the Calabrian Lira and the Greek lyras of Karpathos, Macedonia, Thrace and Mount Olympus are manufactured from a single wood block (monoblock), sculpted into a pear-shaped body. The slightly rounded body of lyra is prolonged by a neck ending on the top in a block which is also pear-shaped or spherical. In that, are set the pegs facing and extending forward. The soundboard is also carved with a shallower arch and has two small semi-circular (D-shaped) soundholes. The Cretan lyra is probably the most widely used surviving form of the Byzantine lyra, except that in Crete instrument-making has been influenced by that of the violin. Currently, numerous models tend to integrate the shape of the scroll, the finger board and other morphology of some secondary characteristics of the violin.

The modern variants of the lyra are tuned in various ways: LA-RE-SO (by fifths) on the Cretan lyra; LA-RE-SO (SO is a perfect fourth higher than RE rather than a fifth lower) in Thrace and on Karpathos and the Dodecanese; LA-LA(an octave lower)–MI, in Drama; MI-SO-MI (a minor third and a major sixth) on Gadulka; LA-RE-LA (a fifth and a fourth) on the Classical Kemenche.