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lyre

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lyre

1. an ancient Greek stringed instrument consisting of a resonating tortoise shell to which a crossbar was attached by two projecting arms. It was plucked with a plectrum and used for accompanying songs
2. any ancient instrument of similar design
3. a medieval bowed instrument of the violin family
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Lyre

 

an ancient Greek plucked string instrument with a flat body and curved sides and seven to 11 strings. It was tuned to a five-tone scale. The lyre was played as an accompaniment to the recitation of epic and lyric poetry (hence the term “lyric”). Metaphorically, the lyre is the emblem or symbol of the arts.

G. I. BLAGODATOV

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
There are four Dilmun Lyres in museums around the world which were uncovered in Iraq, along with an ox head that was part of the instrument found in the Dilmun Temple in Barbar in 1955 by Danish archaeologists.
Thus didRizal heed his people's cry to "strike the lyre.
Leading exponents of lyres, harps and pipes set out to recreate the ancient musical culture of the Scottish Highlands.
Music, Celebration & Healing: the Sudanese Lyre is also the title of the main display of Celebrating Africa, of a magnificent 19th century lyre, known as a kissar, from Nubia in northern Sudan.
Claire meets Orpheus, awa nderer who grabs everyone's attention, even animals, by playing music on his lyre. This instrument, made out of string and wood, makes the most beautiful sounds when he plays it, but if Claire rings Ella, so she can listen to Orpheus' music, but this proves to be a very bad decision as she becomes completely obsessed with Orpheus, even though she's never met him.
He bobbed his large head in time to Ganymede's lyre strings.
Lyre wrote the poem in 1847 and set it to music while he lay dying from tuberculosis; he survived only three weeks after its completion.
Her poems are in Boston Review, Threepenny Review, POOL, Pank, Lyre Lyre, Ping Pong Journal (of the Henry Miller Memorial Library).
The story ends happily ever after when the King sets her free with a magic lyre and is granted immortality.
Names signed up for the event include Harp & Lyre with their loose-leaf teas and teabags, Northumberland Cheese Company, LOCALicious, French Oven, Vallum Farm, Doddington Dairy Ice Cream and Kenspeckle Confectionery.
According to archaeologists, it is part of the bridge of a lyre, a stringed instrument used in Greek classical era.
In this slightly quirky but interesting book Ann Wroe follows the history and influence of the man (or god) with a lyre who has 'wandered through history' and at one stage even played a role in Christianity's early years.
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