How To Play The Ancient Biblical Lyre...

An "Online Lyre Lesson! In this talk, I will demontrate how to play a replica of the 3000 year old Biblical "Nevel" Lyres (In ancient Hebrew: נבל ). The piece I will show you how to play, is an ancient melody, traditionally sang to Psalm 114, "When Israel Went Forth From Egypt". This can be heard soon, on y new album, "The Ancient Biblical Lyre" - out now on iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-ancient-biblical-lyre/id362736603

This unique album is dedicated to restoring once more, the mystical sound of one of the ancient Biblical Lyres, once played over 2000 years ago by my very own, very ancient Levite ancestors, to accompany the singing of the Levitical Choir. This particular Biblical Lyre referred to throughout the Biblical Text is the Nevel (in ancient Hebrew: נבל). It is mistranslated in the Old Testament as harp however, there is absoutely no archeaological evidence that harp was used in ancient Israel after the end of the Copper Age, around 3200BCE. The harp as totally replaced by the more portable lyre during the Biblical Era (from about 1900BCE). This transition from the bulky harp to the portable lyre was no doubt brought about by the fact that the anciestors of the ancient Hebrews were nomadic...

My Albums of Ancient Lyre Music are available, anywhere in the world, from iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-levy/id4324920

They are also available from Amazon MP3 Store:

http://amzn.to/eyI34H

Also, my 3 CD albums, "King David's Lyre; Echoes of Ancient Israel", "An Ancient Lyre" & "Lyre of the Levites" are available anywhere in the world from CD Baby:

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/MichaelLevy

For full details, and all the historical research behind my myriad of "Musical Adventures in Time Travel", please visit my official website:

http://www.ancientlyre.com

Many thanks for watching!

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[Shanniquitie]

this is so wonderful!! where would somebody be able to purchase a biblical lyre/book about it? i'm assuming there aren't many teachers out there ;/

[Klezfiddle1]

@Shanniquitie You can find all about how to get hold of a replica lyre, by having a look at the blog I posted on my website, "How To Acquire a Lyre" (The URL to my website is given on my Youtube Channel Page). The lyres I play, are made by Mid East Ethnic Instruments, and are incredibly affordable...

[leftysergeant]

I am curious as to why there seems to be no sounding bowl on this instrument. That is a bit of a departure from other lyre-type instruments.

[Klezfiddle1]

There almost certainly was a resonator on the original "Nevel", and this can be inferred by the illustration of what MAY be the Nevel, as seen on the Simon Bar Kochba coin mentioned in the video (which seems to depict the REVERSE of the lyre). This is a design flaw in this "replica" lyre by Mid East Ethnic Instruments, as the tone is far too soft. Their Nevel also has 15 strings, instead of the original 12 strings, as described by Josephus Flavius, writing in the 1st century CE...

[FrostbiteWoW]

This type of music , moves me. Thank you for sharing this :)

[rakkav]

It is also possible that the Church borrowed from the Synagogue in early Christian times (this often happened, I understand) or that both borrowed from the same source (this seems to me unlikely in this case). In any case, this tune is folk liturgy at its root. SHV's restitution from the Masoretic accents exists only in score form, but it's quite different from this tune (and much more formal yet cheerful, I might add - this folk tune seems to have the sorrow of the Diaspora attached).

[rakkav]

If one looks closely at the coins, one sees that an animal stomach is used as the resonating chamber and animal horns as the two arms of the yoke. Some have reconstructed the top small chamber as a resonating chamber atop the main chamber, to which the strings were attached. Others have had other and perhaps more mechanically sound ideas, but I'm forgetting what they are! Stupid ENFP memory...the "I read it in a book somewhere" syndrome! :)