Early Irish Lyre

This is an Irish quadrangular lyre, (similar to a harp) from the Early Medieval Period [AD400-1200]. It is known in Irish as a Cruit. It is a reconstruction based on archaeological remains, and pictoral representations on Irish High Crosses.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Cruit
• Lyre
• Celtic
• Music
• Early
• Medieval

[blackstonewielder19]

where was the lyre at 0:20 found, and do you know what kind of strings were used on it?

[billymagfhloinn]

@blackstonewielder19 Sutton Hoo, and probably gut strings.

[Ptarmi]

Hi Billy,

I must admit, I am a little uncomfortable with the use of the word "predecessor" here.

Fine, if you are simply saying that the Lyre came before the Harp, but certainly not, if you are implying that the Lyre was an ancestor of the Harp, which of course it is not, as they are from completely different families of instruments.

Thanks for posting this though. Anything that raises profile & stimulates debate, is all to the good.

Cheers

Dick

[billymagfhloinn]

@Ptarmi

Well, I did say predecessor, not ancestor. Is it fair to say that triangular harps replaced lyres in function and social context upon their introduction in the later medieval period ?

Was the clársach not used to accompany poetry and chanting in Gaelic society in the same way the lyre would have been?

That's what I mean by predecessor.

[billymagfhloinn]

Not as such, but the quadrangular harps depicted in Irish sources seem typologically similar, so I used the Sutton Hoo as a basis, but modifird it to fit the Irish type. I could well be wrong, but I don't know of much extant physical evidence for lyres from this period, so it's a best guess scenario.

[billymagfhloinn]

Yes, Phil, of course.

The vibrations are passed through a bridge into the soundbox on this instrument, as opposed to passing through the soundboard on harps.

I merely used harp as a shorthand, to guide interested people to this video. Sorry if you feel greatly misled.

The word in Early Irish referring to this instrument is cruit, which is now translated into English as harp, but it is of course, a lyre.

It is likely the predecessor of the usually triangular Gaelic harp.

[Patchh09]

That picture is of the Sutton Hoo lyre, are you supposing that it was also played in Ireland?

[brayharper]

Hi there, I believe cruit translates as hump.. and the word hearpe is a teutonic word that just means pulled or plucked, but modern work useage and all.... and its nice to see the soundboard on this instrument a reasonable proportion ofthe instrument lenght rather than the somewhat oversize Dolmetsch reconstruction in the BM.

[brayharper]

Harps and lyres are very different things.. there is a structural difference in the way the strings make the board move, and thats a lyre, not a harp!