Taking us back to some of the earliest ever music, in ancient Greek φόρμιγξ, the phorminx, a developed form of lyre, is one of the oldest instruments and the a forerunner to the kithara. Most likely with origins in Mesopotamia, it was the first with a basic string mechanism to allow giver a richer sound and vibrato. The decorated soundbox was crescent-shaped, and had between two and seven strings, though modern remakes, such as those by Lutherios, can have severn or nine, with a wooden soundbox, maple on the other parts and an animal bone plectrum.
Let’s have a look and listen, here with foremost specialist Michael Levy.
And further examples with that model made by Lutherios:
The oldest complete piece of written music and lyrics is by an anonymous from the 1st Century CE. Engraved on an ancient Burial Stele at Tralles, Asia Minor, this poem with concise musical notations was discovered and published by Ramsay, 1883. Musical signs deciphered by Wessley, 1891. The stone itself is now in the Copenhagen Museum.
This song, written in the ancient Greek hypophrygian mode, us unique because it has survived in its entirety. The ancient Greek burial stele on which it was found bore the following epitaph:
"I am a stone icon. Seikilos placed me here, a mark of immortal remembrance throughout time.” It’s here played by Bettina Joy de Guzman and Michael Levy:
Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζην
τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.“
"While you live, shine
Have not much grief
Life is for a short while
Time requires an end.”
But the oldest known musical melody dates back to 1400 BC and was discovered in the 1950s in Ugarit, Syria.
While these older pieces are on the lyre, let’s also enjoy a modern tune that harks back to the past - the theme tune from the TV series Game of Thrones:
Lyrically, there’s very little or nothing in terms of references to the phorminx, but there are many songs that mention the lyre. An unsurprising example perhaps, with the terms of reference they enjoyed, that there’s a mention on an early Genesis song, Fly On A Windshield from 1974’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway:
Rise up, take your lyre and sing
Listen, to the news I bring
Frosty breath on the window
See a friend in the snow that gently falls
Feel the truth
And from the next year, The Band enjoy an ancient reference in Jupiter Hollow from album Northern Lights – Southern Cross:
So far, so near
Like a time machine take you out to a different year
Phoebus Apollo played on his lyre
While we danced to the music of the sphere
Lesser known perhaps is the postpunk number by The Monochrome Set – Cloud 10:
I've curled my hair and cleaned my shroud
And I've practised on the lyre
So put my name down for a cloud
Near that old heavenly choir
Crossing to another genre, total mayhem and perhaps a rather unlikely mention of the lute with Kentucky’s rockabilly/blues band Legendary Shack Shakers, with Agony Wagon:
What unholy saint rakes the devil's lyre
And dumbs the din of joy bells in my soul
Who in silent gloom arrives snapping thicket underfoot
In moonless mist to light my carriage coals?
And then, turning up the volume even more, there’s the Swiss metal rockers Eluveitie, with their full-throated elemental folky The Call Of The Mountains:
What's that stir, so blatant in our sallying hearts?
What's that urge, that lifted up our longing eyes?
What's that ring, echoing from the leaden skies?
What's that augur, resounding from the lyre's strings?
But let’s finish on a subtler, more gentle, but ultimately powerful example, with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, with a title track from his 2004 double album, Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus.
Orpheus looked at his instrument
And he gave the wire a pluck
He heard a sound so beautiful
He gasped and said O my God
O Mamma O Mamma
He rushed inside to tell his wife
He went racing down the halls
Eurydice was still asleep in bed
Like a sack of cannonballs
O Mamma O Mamma
Look what I've made, cried Orpheus
And he plucked a gentle note
Eurydice's eyes popped from their sockets
And her tongue burst through her throat
O Mamma O Mamma
So then, care to pluck out any more relating to the phorminx, or its forerunner, the lyre? Please feel free to share any further examples in songs, instrumentals, on albums, film, art or other contexts in comments below.
You can also get in touch the contact page, and also visit us on social media: Song Bar Twitter, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube. and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share. New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Please make any donation to help keep Song Bar running: