Listen to the Cretan lyra
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
How the Cretan lyra makes its sound
In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the Cretan lyra belongs to the lutes: strings run parallel to a soundboard and along a neck – the family of the guitar, violin, sitar and oud.
More broadly it is one of the chordophones (string instruments), where sound comes from vibrating strings, amplified by a resonating body.
Its timbre – the colour that lets you tell it apart from other instruments playing the same note – comes from the mix of overtones its body and resonator emphasise.
From Wikipedia
The Cretan lyra (Greek: Κρητική λύρα) is a pear-shaped three-stringed Greek lyra, a traditional musical instrument, central to the traditional music of Crete and other islands in the Dodecanese and the Aegean Archipelago, in Greece. The Cretan lyra is considered to be the most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantine lyra, an ancestor of most European bowed instruments.
Other lutes
Frequently asked questions
What does the Cretan lyra sound like?
Listen to 1 recording on this page. As one of the lutes, its sound comes from the way strings run parallel to a soundboard and along a neck.
What type of instrument is the Cretan lyra?
It is classified as lutes (Hornbostel–Sachs 321.321-71).
Sources & credits
- Cretan Lyra - Sample by Αεράκης Κρητικό Μουσικό Εργαστήρι - Σείστρον; unknown virtuoso – CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q369556 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Cretan lyra – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Image by Lemur12 – CC BY 3.0