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The medieval plucked lyre had six strings which passed over a bridge resting on the front of a hollow resonant body. These strings were secured at the base of the instrument and were fixed to a yoke which was shaped like a crossbar between two arms projecting upwards from the sides of the body. In order to play the instrument, ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

The lyre has a distinguished history. It was the instrument used by the Greeks to accompany plays and recitations. Greek mythology tells us that the lyre was created by Hermes, the son of Zeus, from a tortoise shell. Singing to the accompaniment of the lyre was thought to promote a sense of justice. Construction The lyre is formed of ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

parts of Europe. It is related to the Nordic bowed lyres, but it also has features of a fiddle. Although it has two arms springing from the soundbox in lyre fashion it also has a neck with a violin-type fingerboard running up the middle of the space between the arms, against which four of the six gut strings are ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

guitar is a plucked stringed instrument played resting on the lap. Although it has a long history – thought by many to reach as far back as the ancient Greek lyre known as the kithara – it is best-known today in the design of the Spanish guitar-maker Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817–92). The modern or classical guitar developed from the short-necked ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

part of a group of instruments which are linked by the fact that sets of strings run parallel to their main body, and that – unlike the lute, lyre or harp – they can still be played even without a resonating device. In the concept’s least advanced state, native instruments exist which are little more than a stick ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

that stands out as the paradigm. Barely changed since the seventeenth century, it remains the pre-eminent instrument, second only in expressive power to the human voice. Instruments | Lyre | Stringed ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

, the boatman of the dead, who ferries souls across the River Styx. Charon is unwilling to let him pass, but Orfeo sings to him and plays his lyre until the boatman is lulled to sleep. Orfeo then crosses the river and enters the underworld. Act IV Proserpina, the wife of Plutone, ruler of the underworld, ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

has not obeyed, and Euridice disappears. Venere entices Bacco to avenge Aristeo’s death; he orders the deaths of Orfeo and Euridice. Giove (Jupiter) transforms the two lovers and Orfeo’s lyre into constellations. Personalities | Luigi Rossi | Early & Middle Baroque | Opera ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(An-ton’-yo Ve-val’-de) 1678–1741 Italian composer and violinist Vivaldi was born in Venice. After learning the violin with his father, and possibly other teachers too, he joined the orchestra of St Mark’s. He was ordained in 1703, later acquiring the nickname Il prete rosso (‘the Red Priest’), because of his red hair. Partly because of fragile health and partly perhaps ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1649–1708 English composer Blow held various court appointments and served as the first Composer of the Chapel Royal (1700). His greatest gifts lay in the composition of vocal music, notably anthems and services for the church. Among the finest of his verse anthems is ‘God spake sometime in visions’, for the coronation of James II (1685). In this piece, ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Singer-songwriter b. 1957) Nick Cave (vocals) began his fascinating career in Boys Next Door, who became The Birthday Party: Mick Harvey (guitar), Tracy Pew (bass), Phil Calvert (drums). A gothic, blues punk band of fearsome intensity, showcasing Cave’s brutal, Captain Beefheart-style lyrics, they released three albums, 1981’s Prayers On Fire being the pick. 1982’s Junkyard ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

(Oz’-valt fun Vol’-ken-shtin) c. 1376–1445 South Tyrolean poet Oswald von Wolkenstein has been called the most important poet writing in German between Walther von der Vogelweide and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). He is known to have been a singer and was also very active in the political sphere. Well over 100 poems can be attributed to him, but it ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

Since classical antiquity, the varied cultures of Africa have fascinated Europeans, but it was only in the twentieth century that musicologists overcame the traditional concepts of ‘primitivism’ to discover the richness of the continent’s music. African performing arts are intimately bound to life – the music is woven into the fabric of society and culture. It is inseparable from ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

styles. Mesopotamian instruments included arched harps, flutes, drums, frame drums and lyres. Certain instruments were often endowed with cult symbolism: for example, the soundbox of a lyre found at the Royal Cemetery at Ur was built in the shape of a bull, symbolizing power and fertility. The Bible Lands The Bible offers a vivid picture of ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

systems of musical notation were developed, both using alphabetical or quasi alphabetical signs. One was for vocal, the other for instrumental music. Notable among Greek instruments were the lyre, associated with the god Apollo, the aulos, a reed-blown pipe with a shrill, licentious, oboe-like sound, and the kithara, a large lyre. Tambourines ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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