Lur: Denmark musical instrument

A lur is a long natural blowing horn that has no finger holes. The musical instrument is played by embouchure. Lurs can be straight or curved in many shapes. The aim of the curves o0n the instrument was to make long musical instruments easier to handle and to avoid directing the loud noise of the instrument at nearby people.

source: abel.hive.no

The lur is specifically given to two different types of ancient wind musical instruments. The more recent version is produced of wood and was used in Scandinavia in the middle ages the older version of the musical instrument that is named after the more recent version is produced of bronze; it dates back to the Bronze ages and was usually found in pairs, deposited in pogs, particularly in Denmark and Germany. The musical instrument is made up of a mouthpiece and many pieces and pipes. The length of the musical instrument is between 1.5 meters and 2 meters. The lur has also been seen being used in Denmark, Norway, South Sweden and Northern Germany.

The earliest good word to this musical instrument known as lur come from Icelandicsagas, where the instruments are explained to be a war musical instrument that is used to marshal troops and put fear into the minds of the enemies. These lurs that many examples of have been found in longboats are straight, end-blown wooden tubes, and about 1 meter long. They do not possess any finger holes and performed much like the contemporary brass musical instrument.

A kind of lur that is very analogous to these war instruments has been played by farmers as well as milk maids in the Nordic countries at least, since the middle ages. These musical instruments that are called a ‘birch instruments’ in English language were used for the calling of cattle and signaling. There are analogous constructions and playing pattern to the war musical instrument, though are covered in birch while the war musical instrument are covered in willow.

Lurs that are produced of bronze were used as a musical instrument in the ancient Greece and in the northern Europe, where a total o 56 lurs was found, 35 lurs were found in Denmark and 4 lurs discovered in Norway, 11 of this musical instrument were discovered in Sweden, 5 in the northern Germany and a single instrument in Latvia.

The word ‘lur’ is still very much in used in the Swedish language, signifying any funnel-shaped implement that is used for the production of sound or receiving of sound.