The lyre is one of the oldest musical instruments. Discovered in the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, it tells a fascinating story, as it made its journey from Mesopotamia to the distant lands. During ancient times, the stringed instrument was highly popular among musicians and music lovers for its ability to produce a melodious sound (LINK 1). According to Greek myth, Hermes invented the first lyre. He was the messenger of God. One day, he stole the cattle of his brother Apollo and hid them at a safe place. Then, he creates the instrument with the help of a tortoise shell and cow gut. When Apollo discovered the theft, Hermes play a tune on his newly invented musical instrument in such a beautiful manner that Apollo gets impressed, and make a deal with Hermes to get lyre. Later on, Apollo achieves excellence in playing the instrument, and till date, it remains associated with his …show more content…
The letters were written and arranged by Pliny for publication in the first century (LINK 15).
Bird who mimics
Parrot has an excellent ability to mimic sounds, but the Superb Lyrebird native to Australia is found to surpasses all other avian creatures in this regard. The scientific name of the bird is Menura novaehollandiae. It's spectacular tail resemble a lyre that he uses to attract the females (LINK 16). The best thing about their mimicry is that the pheasant-sized birds are so well in this art that they can even fool other birds like Kookaburra, Eastern Whipbird, and more.
The lyrebird imitates artificial sounds like that of a toy gun, electric drill, saw chain, tapping, hammers, camera shutter, and even whistle of a human being with pitch -perfect accuracy.
In fact, the bird can break into a song in which he can mimic the sounds of more than two dozen birds (LINK 17). Such a songbird definitely deserves to be called the
As a musician one of the most frequent questions that I receive is, “What instrument do you play?” When I answer, the look on the persons face is a face of confusion. “What’s a euphonium?” they ask. This occurs not only to me, but to every euphoniumist who is ever asked this very question. Although the word euphonium is foreign to most people, the instrument is not. The euphonium, with its beautiful rich tone is the chief tenor soloist in the military and concert band. The euphonium is a conical-bore, baritone voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Greek word euphonos. When separated, eu means well or good, and phonos means of good sound. Therefore euphonos means well sounding. In this paper I will discuss the history of the euphonium and its use in the world of music today.
Lee's novel bluejays, finches, and mockingbirds. All these birds sing different songs and so do
It’s original use was to be put on top of a lyre, which was a popular instrument, similar to a harp, in ancient Mesopotamia. The piece in
Even in ancient times, music was favored. Just as there is now, there were hundreds of instruments including the lyre. “A lyre, one of the most ancient musical instruments of the stringed kind. There can scarcely be any doubt that this and similar instruments were used by the Eastern nations and by the Egyptians, long before the Greeks became acquainted with them, and that they were introduced among the Greeks from Asia Minor” Leohard Schmitz stated. Greece and was a unique instrument in the musical world. According to Ellie from Crystalinks.com, ”The lyre references music and harmonics. The lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in Classical Antiquity. The recitations of the Ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. The lyre is a member of the zither family, and was ordinarily played by strumming with a plectrum, like a guitar, rather than being plucked, like a harp. According to ancient Greek
In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, much like modern human, had a passion for music. The Mesopotamians and Egyptians incorporated music into most festivities, celebrations, and even funerals. That being said, there was a vast number of different instruments that were used such as; idiophones, membranophones, aerophones, and chordophones. This showed that even in one of the world’s earliest civilization, music played an important role in people’s everyday lives. One of the most known instrument from this time is the Lyre (Figure 1).
Origins of drums, harps, lutes, lyres, guitars and all string instruments originate from the simple aerophones, membranophones and chordophones developed in Africa. The continent of Africa is very large and contains such a large population. To every single tribe and individual in this land mass, music plays such an important role of the African life and history. Even though Africa is a place where life is so intertwined with music, the origins of music are not often said to be from there.