For more on the Ur lyres, and to hear the sound of its close relative the begena, the Ethiopian 10 string lyre, click here. A reconstruction of one of those lyres in the British Museum is shown below.

They were excavated in 1929 by British archaeologist, Leonard Woolley, from royal tombs dated 2600–2400 BCE. The earliest instruments of this type to have survived are the three magnificent lyres of Ur, southern Iraq.

The harp is part of a family of musical instruments with unfretted strings of different pitches stretched across a frame. To medieval musical principles described in the third article. The fourth Royal Estampie is played on medieval harp by Ian Pittaway 1250, with instrumental pieces such as this estampieĪdded c. La quarte Estampie Royal from Manuscrit du Roi, a manuscript of troubadourĪnd trouvère songs written c. This article begins with La quarte Estampie Royal – The fourth Royal Estampie. 1300, arranged to historically attested performance principles. This is followed by a second article about medieval harp symbolism and a third about medieval harp performance practice.Įach article begins with a performance on medieval harp of a different French estampie from c. We see surviving instruments and manuscript illustrations from ancient Egypt to the middle ages – arched harps and angle harps, open harps and pillar harps – leading to the development of the bray harp and the Irish/Scottish cláirseach/clarsach of the early renaissance. This article, the first of three about the medieval harp, sets out what we know about its earliest known development, looking at harp forms, decoration, stringing, and the problem of language in original sources.

Medieval stringed instruments