Greek musical instruments
Encyclopedia
Greek musical instruments, were grouped under the general term of Lyre
, all developments from the original construction of a tortoise shell with two branching horns, having also a cross piece to which the strings were attached.The strings varied in number from an original three to ten or even more in the later period, like the Byzantine era
. Greek musical instruments can be classified into the following categories:
Drum Instruments
Lyre
The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
, all developments from the original construction of a tortoise shell with two branching horns, having also a cross piece to which the strings were attached.The strings varied in number from an original three to ten or even more in the later period, like the Byzantine era
Byzantine music
Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music. Greek and foreign historians agree that the ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine music is closely related to the ancient Greek system...
. Greek musical instruments can be classified into the following categories:
Ancient
- AulosAulosAn aulos or tibia was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.An aulete was the musician who performed on an aulos...
- BarbitonBarbitonThe barbiton, or barbitos , is an ancient stringed instrument known from Greek and Roman classics related to the lyre...
- CrotalumCrotalumIn classical antiquity, a crotalum was a kind of clapper or castanet used in religious dances by groups in ancient Greece and elsewhere, including the Korybantes....
- EpigonionEpigonionAn epigonion was an ancient stringed instrument mentioned in Athenaeus , probably a psaltery. The epigonion was invented, or at least introduced into Greece, by Epigonus of Ambracia, a Greek musician of Ambracia in Epirus, who was admitted to citizenship at Sicyon as a recognition of his great...
- KitharaKitharaThe kithara or cithara was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the lyre or lyra family. In modern Greek the word kithara has come to mean "guitar" ....
- LyreLyreThe lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
- OrganonOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
- Pan flutePan fluteThe pan flute or pan pipe is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting usually of five or more pipes of gradually increasing length...
- PanduraPanduraThe pandura is an ancient Greek string instrument from the Mediterranean basin.It is derived from pandur, a Sumerian term for long-necked lutes...
- PhorminxPhorminxThe phorminx was one of the oldest of the Ancient Greek stringed musical instruments, intermediate between the lyre and the kithara. It consisted of two to seven strings, richly decorated arms and a crescent-shaped sound box. It mostly probably originated from Mesopotamia...
- SalpinxSalpinxA salpinx was a trumpet-like instrument of the ancient Greeks. -Construction:The salpinx consisted of a straight, narrow bronze tube with a mouthpiece of bone and a bell of variable shape and size; extant descriptions describe conical, bulb-like, and spherical structures...
- TambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
- Water organWater organThe water organ or hydraulic organ is a type of pipe organ blown by air, where the power source pushing the air is derived by water from a natural source or by a manual pump...
String Instruments (Chordophones)
- AccordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
- Byzantine lyraByzantine lyraThe Byzantine lyra or lira , was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine Empire and is an ancestor of most European bowed instruments, including the violin. In its popular form the lyra was a pear-shaped instrument with three to five strings, held upright and played by stopping...
(Politiki lyra or Constantinople lyra)
- Baglamas
- BouzoukiBouzoukiThe bouzouki , is a musical instrument with Greek origin in the lute family. A mainstay of modern Greek music, the front of the body is flat and is usually heavily inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The instrument is played with a plectrum and has a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but...
- ContrabassContrabassContrabass refers to a musical instrument of very low pitch; generally those pitched one octave below instruments of the bass register...
- Cretan lyra
- KanonakiKanun (Instrument)The Qanun is a string instrument found in the 10th century in Farab in Turkestan...
- KarantouzeniKarantouzeniThe karantouzeni , is a "lute players" string instrument, close to the Greek musical instrument tambouras. Its bigger than the tampouras and has 4 strings. It is used in the Greek traditional folk rhythms for the particularly cover of the rebetiko music. Ntouzeni , is also called one way of the...
- Kithara (modern)GuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- MandolaMandolaThe mandola or tenor mandola is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola , a fifth lower than a mandolin...
- MandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
- PianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
- PsalteryPsalteryA psaltery is a stringed musical instrument of the harp or the zither family. The psaltery of Ancient Greece dates from at least 2800 BC, when it was a harp-like instrument...
- Santouri
- LaoutoLaoutoThe laouto is a long-neck fretted instrument of the lute family, found in Greece, and similar in appearance to the oud. It is played in most respects like the oud .- Construction :...
(Big and small)
- LavtaLavtaThe lavta is a plucked string instrument from Istanbul. It has a small body made of many ribs using carvel bending technique, looking like a small ud, gut strings like an ud but only 7 strings in 4 courses and tunable: A dd gg c'c' , or sometimes A dd aa d'd'...
- Pontian lyra
- TambourasTambourasThe tambouras , is a traditional Greek string instrument. It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in Assyria and Egypt. At that time, it might have between two and six strings, but Arabs adopted it, and called it a toubour...
- ThabouraThabouraThe thaboura , is a type of a string instrument, evolved from the Greek musical instrument tambouras. It is bigger than tambouras and it has 3 strings or 3 pairs of strings. The thaboura's history stretches back to the Byzantine culture and originated in the medieval Greece times...
- TzourasTzourasThe Tzouras , is a stringed musical instrument from Greece. It is related to the Bouzouki.It has 6 strings in 3 courses and is tuned D3 D4, A3 A3, D4 D4 or D4 D3, A3 A3, D4 D4. The strings are made of steel.-See also:*Greek musical instruments...
- ViolinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
Woodwind instruments (Aerophones)
- AskomandouraAskomandouraThe askomandoura is a type of bagpipe played as a traditional instrument on the Greek island of Crete, similar to the tsampouna.Its use in Crete is attested in illustrations from the mid-15th Century.-External links:**...
- AulosAulosAn aulos or tibia was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.An aulete was the musician who performed on an aulos...
- DankiyoDankiyoDankiyo , is an ancient word from the text of Evliya Çelebi Dankiyo (from ancient Greek: angion (Τὸ ἀγγεῖον)), is an ancient word from the text of Evliya Çelebi Dankiyo (from ancient Greek: angion (Τὸ ἀγγεῖον)), is an ancient word from the text of Evliya Çelebi (17th century, Ottoman Era "The Laz's...
- FlogheraFlogheraThe floghera is a type of flute used in Greek folk music. It is a simple end-blown bamboo flute without a fipple, which is played by directing a narrow air stream against its sharp, open upper end. It typically has seven finger holes....
- FluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
- GaidaGaidaThe gaida is a musical instrument, aerophone, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag.The gaida, and its variations, is a traditional musical instrument for entire Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East....
- KaramuzaKaramuzaThe karamuza , is a type of Greek reed instrument, evolved from the ancient Greek musical instrument, Aulos. It is made from wood, with a length of about 60 cm. Karamuza was already existed in Greek music, before klarino seeded in Greece. It is very widespread and beloved in many regions of Greece,...
- Klarino
- LalitsaLalitsaThe lalitsa , is a Greek wind musical instrument in a spherical shape. It is very widespread in Greece in the traditional Greek folk music. It is blown sideways like the Greek musical instrument floghera. Lalitses have no holes for the figger-use and they looks like whistles.-References:**...
- ManturaManturaThe mantura , is a Greek wind musical instrument with Cretan origin. It has 4 to 6 holes for the fingers and produces sound with the help of the tongue. Mantura is very widespread in Crete and Greek islands.-References:**...
- SouravliSouravliThe souravli is a type of duct-flute made of peg or wood. It has a 2 octave ambitus and its opening is slanted to the edge.A double flute is called a disavli , one with no holes and the other one having holes to play the melody....
Drum InstrumentsMembranophoneA membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification....
(Auxiliary Percussion)
- CochiliaCochiliaThe Chochilia, are a kind of a Greek traditional auxiliary percussion instrument. They are shells from the sea, which become auxiliary musical intruments with the appropriate processing. Each chochilia, has its own musical tone. Those small shells called also, ostraka and they are plenty in Greek...
- CrotalaCrotalumIn classical antiquity, a crotalum was a kind of clapper or castanet used in religious dances by groups in ancient Greece and elsewhere, including the Korybantes....
- DrumDrumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
- Drums
- KoudouniaKoudouniaThe Koudounia , are percussion musical instruments, like bells. They are made from copper. When someone play with them, they could give a ringing sound. Originally the koudounia, used by people like an amulet which were protected the animals from the evil spirits. The koudounia later, became an...
- Spoon Spoon (musical instrument)Spoons can be played as a makeshift percussion instrument, or more specifically, an idiophone related to the castanets. "Playing the spoons" originated in Ireland as "playing the bones," in which the convex sides of a pair of sheep rib bones were rattled in the same way.- Techniques :# A pair of...
- TambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
(Defi)
- ToubelekiToubelekiThe toubeleki , is a kind of a Greek traditional drum musical instrument. It is made from metal, open at it's down side and covered with a skin stretched over it. It is played with the hands and used often in the Greek traditional folk rhythms, for the particularly cover of the Greek laiko and...
- Trigono
- TympanoTympanum (hand drum)In ancient Greece and Rome, the tympanum, Greek tympanon, was a type of frame drum or tambourine. It was circular, shallow, and beaten with the hand. Some representations show decorations or zill-like objects around the rim...
- Zilia
See also
- Music of GreeceMusic of GreeceThe music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music, with more eastern sounds...
- Greek dancesGreek dancesGreek dance is a very old tradition, being referred to by authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and Lucian. There are different styles and interpretations from all of the islands and surrounding mainland areas. Each region formed its own choreography and style to fit in with their own ways...
- Greek folk musicGreek folk musicGreek folk music includes a variety of Greek styles played by ethnic Greeks in Greece, Cyprus, Australia, the United States and elsewhere. Apart from the common music found all-around Greece, there are distinct types of folk music, sometimes related to the history or simply the taste of the...