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O.S. Enzeldt (Yaroslavl) – Problems of Organology in the Study of Ancient Greek String Musical Instruments from the Lyre Family

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Abstract

The article attempts to analyze and classify ancient Greek stringed musical instruments: cithara (ἡ κῐθάρᾱ) and lyre (ἡ λύρα), phorminx (ἡ φόρμιγξ), chelisos (ἡ χέλυς) and barbitos (ὁ or ἡ βάρβῖτος). Despite the fact that there is much more historical information about the lyre family than about the harp family (trigonon, magadis, pectis, sambuca), there is no consensus regarding the classification, appearance, structure of the instruments and terminology. The author explores the following questions: how many strings could the instruments have, was the phorminx a type of cithara and what was its body called, how is the concept of “lyre” interpreted today, do the chelysos and barbiton belong to the lyre? Vase painting, works of authors of tragedies, lyric and epic poetry, archaeological finds were used as sources. It is concluded that the cithara, lyre and phorminx in some cases could be interchangeable in the works of ancient authors. The author combines the classifications of stringed instruments by Hornbostel–Sachs (1914) and K. Sachs (1940) and off ers the following combined version regarding the ancient Greek musical instruments of the lyre family: class – compound chordophones, family – lyres, including two genera: the genus – box-lyre-shaped (phorminx and cithara) and the genus – cup-shaped lyres (lyre, chelysos and barbitos).

Keywords

Ancient Greece, chordophones, lyre, cithara, phorminx, chelysos, barbitos.

Olga S. Enzeldt

P.G. Demidov Yaroslavl State University, Yaroslavl, Russia

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