Anglo-Saxon lyre

The first Germanic lyre was found in 1846 in Oberflacht, not far from Konstanz on the Upper Rhine.[3][4] It was found in a wooden burial chamber dated to the early 7th century.[4] Less than half of the lyre survived, fragmented into four parts.[3][4] It has a soundbox and arms hollowed out from oak, with a soundboard of maple.[3] Initially the artefact was interpreted as the body and neck of a lute.[4]

The second lyre was found in 1892 within the same cemetery in Oberflacht.[4] This lyre (Oberflacht 84) was remarkably complete.[4] Oak was used for the soundbox, whereas the soundboard was made from maple.[5] The arms bent slightly outwards towards the top end, where the yoke was fastened to the arms with wooden pegs.[5] It had no sound-holes.[6] This lyre was moved to Berlin where it was preserved in a tank of alcohol.[7][6] The lyre was destroyed during World War II when Russian soldiers drank the alcohol.[6]

The Köln (or Cologne) lyre was discovered during excavations in the Basilica of St. Severin, Cologne in 1939.[8][9] It was found in a grave dated to the late 7th century/early 8th century.[8] Only the left half of the lyre had survived.[8] The soundbox was hollowed out from oak and covered with a maple board, which had been fastened with copper alloy nails.[8] The yoke had six tuning pegs which decomposed when retrieved.[8] There was evidence of a tail-piece of iron.[9] This lyre was destroyed in bombing in June 1943.[8][6]

Sutton Hoo lyre, British Museum

Excavated in 1939, the Sutton Hoo ship burial dates from the early 7th century.[10] The lyre had hung on the western wall of the chamber in a bag made out of beaver-skin.[10] When it fell down, it hit a Coptic bowl and broke into pieces, and fragments from the upper part landed inside the bowl.[10] What survives are the yoke, six tuning pegs, two metal escutcheons fashioned into interlace bird heads that joined the yoke to the hollowed-outside arms, and portions of the side arms.[11]

The lyre was constructed from maple wood.[10] The arms were hollowed out almost up to the joint and were then covered with a maple soundboard fastened with bronze pins.[12] There were five willow pegs and a sixth of alderwood.[12] The maple fragments of the lyre reveal beaver hair pressed onto it indicating a fur-lined carrying bag.[11]

When the lyre was discovered at Sutton Hoo it was not identified as a lyre. Although three lyres had previously been unearthed in Germany, archaeologists mistakenly turned to another known stringed instrument, the harp, an instrument thought to exist in the early medieval era.[13] In 1948 an awkward and unconvincing reconstruction of the lyre in the shape of a rectangular harp was revealed, based on harps depicted on some 9th century Irish stone crosses and in two English manuscripts from the 11th and 12th centuries.[13][14] This harp was put on display in the British Museum in 1949.[15] This interpretation lasted until 1970 when Rupert Bruce-Mitford and his daughter Myrtle, reassessed the instrument correctly.[16]

The new reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo lyre was aided by comparison with the other lyre remains.[13] The first lyre from Oberflacht was preserved in a museum in Stuttgart; and a very fragmentary English lyre, unrecognized as such since its excavation in 1883 from a barrow in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, was finally recognised as a lyre.[17] The remains of the two other German lyres had been destroyed in World War II but these also had been studied and published.[17] With the reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo lyre came the realisation that the musical instrument referred to as a "harp" in Beowulf and similar writings, was in fact a lyre.[18] The accuracy of the Sutton Hoo lyre reconstruction was confirmed when further lyres were excavated from Trossingen in 2001 and Prittlewell in 2003.[19]

Trossingen lyre

The Trossingen lyre was discovered in the winter of 2001/2002 during excavations of a cemetery at Trossingen, in Baden-Württemberg, not far from Oberflacht.[20] The lyre was found in a narrow burial chamber, with weapons and items of wooden furniture.[20] Discovered in water-logged conditions, the lyre is exceptionally well-preserved.[21]

The body is made in one piece from maple, and the soundboard is made from the same wood.[21] There is a bridge made from willow and six tuning pegs, four of which are ash and two are hazel.[21] The lyre has an exceptional set of decorations.[21] On one side there are two groups of warriors, while the remaining space is decorated with an animal style pattern.[22]

The Prittlewell royal Anglo-Saxon burial was discovered in 2003, and was one of the richest Anglo-Saxon graves ever found.[23] The wooden lyre had almost entirely decayed except for a dark soil stain revealing its outline. Fragments of wood and metal fittings of iron, silver and gilded copper-alloy were preserved in their original positions.[2][23] The entire block of soil was lifted and moved to a conservation lab where it was examined with X-rays, CT scans, and a laser scan.[23] Micro-excavation revealed that the instrument was made of maple with tuning pegs made of ash.[2] The lyre had been broken in two at some time during its life and put back together using iron, gilded copper-alloy and silver repair fittings.[2]

How the lyre was tuned is unknown. The only contemporary account of lyres comes from the Frankish monk and music theorist Hucbald in his book De Harmonica Institutione, written around 880 AD. In it he describes how he believes the Roman philosopher, Boethius (480–524 AD), would have tuned his six-string lyre. Whether how the Romans tuned their lyres is transferable to Anglo-Saxon lyre is debated among aficionados. Hucbald's conclusion was that Boethius used the first six notes of the major scale.[33]

The block and strum technique seems to have been a widely used and very common technique for lyre playing, images of it being used can be found on Ancient Egyptian wall art, on Ancient Greek Urns and specifically for the Anglo-Saxon Lyre on the Vespasian Psalter. To use the technique the lyre is strummed while the other hand mutes several strings, so only strings which combine to make chords are heard. The number of chords a lyre can make is limited compared to a fretted instrument and is also dependent on the number of strings it has. An alternative strum and block technique to chord playing is to tune one or more strings as drone strings and use the remaining strings to play melody, similar to a hurdy-gurdy.

The Utrecht Psalter contains an image of the Anglo-Saxon lyre being plucked, the musician is shown plucking two strings simultaneously creating a chord. Plectrums were also used to play the lyre, the Anglo-Saxons having several words for plectrum, the main one being hearpenaegel.[34] Several copper objects have been found the exact size and shape of modern-day plastic plectrums and may have been plectrums, however no proven plectrums survive so their make up can only be surmised. Other possibilities include quills made from bird feathers which were known to have been used to play medieval lutes, medieval Ouds used plectrums made animal horn and wood.

In 1973, excavations found a series of wooden objects from a medieval settlement belonging to the Dzhetyasar culture in southwest Kazahkstan. One of the artefacts was identified as a musical instrument. Dating to the 4th century AD, recent re-examination of the artefact showed that it matches the type of lyre seen at Sutton Hoo.[19]

In 2010 in High Pasture Cave on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, a piece of wood dating from the 4th century BC was found, which was thought to be a bridge for a lyre.[38] Although burnt and broken, the notches where strings would have been placed could be distinguished.[39]

Buste à la lyre

In 1988, a stone bust from the 2nd or 1st century BC was discovered in Brittany, France which depicted a figure wearing a torc playing a lyre which appeared to be structurally similar to the lyres constructed later in Germanic speaking regions, but with a wider, rounder body like the turtle-shell lyres of ancient Mediterranean cultures.[40] Reconstructions and replicas have been made of this lyre, lyre de Paule, wherein both the body and yoke are made of wood, like the early medieval Anglo-Saxon lyres.[41]