Lijerica: Croatia musical instrument
The lijerica is a musical instrument fabricated in the Croatian region of Dalmatia and Croatian parts of eastern Herzegovina. The lijerica...
http://worldhitz4u.blogspot.com/2013/12/lijerica-croatia-musical-instrument.html
The lijerica is a musical instrument
fabricated in the Croatian region of Dalmatia and Croatian parts of eastern Herzegovina.
The lijerica is a pear-shaped, three stringed musical instrument that is
performed with the use of a bow. The lijerica is performed to accompany the
traditional lindo dance from the region. The name of the musical instrument,
‘lijerica’ comes from the ‘lyra’, the bowed musical instrument from the
Byzantine Empire which it is assumed to have come from.
source: lights.bloger.index.hr
While the musical instrument is
usually linked with the traditional folk music, the musical instrument is also
found in the modern music from the region.
The lijerica is almost related to the
bowed musical instrument, lyra of the Byzantine Empire, an ancestor of most of
the European bowed musical instrument and equivalent to the rebab that was used
in the Islamic empires of that time. Ibn Khurradadhbih of Persia, of the 9th
century, in his lexicographical discussion of musical instruments, cited the
lyra to be a typical musical instrument of the Byzantine together with the
urghun, shilyani and the salandj. The Byzantine musical instrument spread
through Europe westward in the 11th and 12th centuries.
European writers used the lyra and fiddle off and on when referring to bowed
musical instruments. Over the centuries that came after, Europe had continued
to have two different types of bowed musical instruments. One is of square
shape, held in the arms by the player and it is known as the ‘lira da braccio
family’. The other has sloping shoulders and it is held between the knees of
the player, and it is known as the ‘lira de gamba family’. During the
renaissance, the gambas were essential and elegant musical instruments; the
suddenly got discarded by the louder lira da braccio family.