![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Guitarra-lira.jpg/220px-Guitarra-lira.jpg)
![Girl with a lyre-guitar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/GirlWithLyreGuitar.jpg/220px-GirlWithLyreGuitar.jpg)
A musical instrument of the chordophone family, the lyre-guitar was a type of guitar shaped to look like a lyre, popular as a fad-instrument in the late 1800s. It had six single courses, with a fretboard located between two curved arms recalling the shape of the ancient Greek kithara. It was tuned and played like the conventional guitar.
The lyre-guitar nearly always had a built-in pedestal allowing it to stand upright when not in use.
History
[edit]![Painting depicting a woman with a lyre-guitar.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Retrato_de_la_Marquesa_de_Santa_Cruz.jpg/220px-Retrato_de_la_Marquesa_de_Santa_Cruz.jpg)
Pierre Charles Mareschal claimed to have invented it in 1780, what he called the Lira Anacreòntica. Mareschal was a prominent French luthier, and accused the French musician Phillis Pleyel of stealing his design.[1]
The lyre-guitar enjoyed great popularity as a salon instrument, especially in Paris between 1780 and 1820. It became very much in vogue and pervaded the highest levels of society; Marie Antoinette played one[2] and the great guitarists of the day such as Ferdinando Carulli, Fernando Sor, Matteo Carcassi, Mauro Giuliani, and Pierre Jean Porro wrote music and method books for it.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Beethoven18045JosephM%C3%A4hler.jpg/170px-Beethoven18045JosephM%C3%A4hler.jpg)
Its decline coincided with the waning of the popularity of the guitar as a salon instrument, increasingly supplanted by the piano which benefited from ongoing improvements to its keyboard action.
The lyre-guitar persisted, but not so much as a musical instrument, instead it persisted as a common symbol of classicist ideals, and appeared in numerous allegorical paintings (e.g. Mähler's portrait of Beethoven). Later on it was used in photographs as a prop for evoking ancient Greek and Roman themes.
The idea was to create an instrument which looked pretty and provided a visual accessory to help ladies of fashion to assume the gracious pose of Greek kithara players. This visual likeness became a potent ingredient of the culture of the upper classes.[3]
Although the lyre-guitar is rarely heard or recorded it is not extinct. A body of nearly forgotten repertoire exists often by highly notable guitarists of the golden age of the guitar. Today lyre-guitars can be made to order by luthiers and authentic examples exist in museums and private collections.
Lyre-guitar luthiers
[edit]- Robert Wornum (1780–1852)
- César Pons (1748–1831)
- Francois Roudhloff (Mauchand, France)[4]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Plagiat dénoncé aux musiciens et aux amateurs des lyres nouvelles, inventées par Mareschal, Luthier à Paris", 1780, by P. C. Mareschal.
- ^ " La lyre-guitare" in "Les Cahiers de la Guitare", 1988, by D. Ribouillault.
- ^ Matanya Ophee, "The Story of the Lyre-Guitar", in Soundboard XIV/4, 1987-1988 Winter
- ^ The Steve Howe Guitar Collection (Balfon Books UK) - (ISBN 1-871547-64-4) - (First British Edition 1994) - p51. Image of Roudhloff Lyre Guitar c.1815. The lyre guitar is marked with "Roudhloff the elder son" who is known to have opened a workshop in Fitzroy Square, London in the early 1900s.
Bibliography
[edit]- Vulpiani, Eleonora. Lyre-guitar. Étoile charmante, between the 18th and 19th century. Archived from the original on 2010-04-04.
- Matanya, Ophee (Winter 1987–1988). "The story of the lyre-guitar". Soundboard. Vol. XIV, no. 4.
- The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 1980. ISBN 0-333-23111-2.
- Bonner, Stephen (1972). The classic image: European history and manufacture of the lyre guitar, 850–1840. Bois de Boulogne: Harlow. ISBN 0-900998-09-1.
External links
[edit]Historical sources
[edit]- Einige Worte über die neue französische Lyra (Lyre-Guitarre.) AMZ, August 1801 (includes an image on page 789)
- General music teacher: adapted to self-instruction...embracing also an extensive dictionary of musical terms by Gottfried Weber; Publisher: J.H. Wilkins, & R.B. Carter, 1842
- Adams' new musical dictionary by John Stowell Adams; Publisher: S.T. Gordon & Son, 1865
Sheet music
[edit]Websites
[edit]- https://web.archive.org/web/20100504121502/http://www.eleonoravulpiani.com/history.htm
- http://www.harpguitars.net/history/org/org-lyres.htm#lg
Recordings
[edit]Museums
[edit]- Cité de la musique, Paris (search-phrase: Mot-clé(s) : lyre guitare)
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- National Music Museum, The University of South Dakota
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
- Museum für Musikinstrumente der Universität Leipzig (click on Lyragitarren)
- Ringve Museum, Trondheim (in Norwegian)
- Museo Civico d'Arte di Modena (shows a lyre guitar by Gennaro Fabricatore)