Short-necked fiddle of Greece. In contemporary usage, the name ‘lira’ is applied to two structurally distinct instruments: a pyriform instrument, found principally on the Greek islands and in the northern mainland areas of Thraki and Makedonia; and a rectangular, bottle-shaped, three-string instrument of Turkish origin called the Podiaki lira (kemedzes), found primarily near the mainland Greek-Turkish border.
The pear-shaped lira is bipartite, with a back (kafki: ‘skull’), neck (lemos) and pegdisc (kefali: ‘head’) carved out of a single block of hardwood and a belly, made of a separate piece of coniferous wood, which is typically flat and in which are carved two D-shaped soundholes (matia: ‘eyes’). Usually made by the player in whatever size desired, lires in Crete have been produced in four sizes and styles, including the small liraki, the large vrodolira, the common, medium-size lira and the viololira, a waisted instrument similar in shape to the violin.
The three gut or wire strings are fastened at the upper end to sagittal posterior pegs (striftalia: ‘turners’) and at the lower to a projection of the soundbox (oura: ‘tail’), to a tailpiece or to a string-holder (kteni: ‘comb’). Traditionally, liras have no nut, but many have a small wooden string support (pano kavallaris: ‘rider’) which functions as a nut for the longer middle string. Tuning is in perfect 5ths (at relative, not absolute pitches); alla turca tuning, in perfect 4ths and 5ths, is sometimes used. A unique feature of the pear-shaped lira is the use of a soundpost (stilos: ‘pillar’, or psihi: ‘soul’) placed through the soundhole directly beneath the treble side of the bridge and wedged between the bridge and the back, which supports and lifts the treble side of the bridge slightly off the belly. The Greek and Dalmatian pyriform liras and the Bulgarian gadulka appear to be the only bowed string instruments that use this specific bridge/soundpost arrangement.
Until about World War II, the bow of the lira had a convex camber, a rudimentary tightening mechanism and several small pellet-bells (yerakokoudouna) attached for rhythmic accompaniment. The bow is held palm-up and the strings are stopped from the side with the fingernails. Contemporary players commonly use violin bows. When seated, lira players may hold the instrument vertically upon the left thigh (see illustration) or between the legs; if standing, they support it against the chest or belt.
Used primarily as a melody instrument to perform dance-tunes, the lira is played with rapid, separate bow strokes, near the tip of the bow. Customarily played by men only, the lira may be played alone, in combination with Western European instruments, or with the daouli (drum), the laouto (lute) or the dahares (tambourine). In many areas of Greece, the lira tradition has been in decline and has been replaced by the violin. See Greece, §IV.
M. Downie: ‘The Modern Greek Lyra’, JAMIS, v–vi (1979–80), 144–65
L. Liavas: ‘Ē kataskeuē tēs achladoschemēs lyras sten Kriti kai sta Dodekanisa/The Construction of the Pear-Shaped Lyre in Crete and the Dodecanese’, Ethnografia, iv–v (1983–5), 117–42
R.M. Brandl and D. Reinsch: Die Volksmusik der Insel Karpathos: die Lyramusik von Karpathos … 1930–1981 (Göttingen, 1992)
Y. Bouhalakis: Pairēs methodos Kritikēs lyras/Complete Cretan Lyra Method (Athens, 1995)
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