Category:Lira da braccio

**Lira da braccio**
	musical instrument
	Upload media
	Wikipedia
Instance of	type of musical instrument;
Subclass of	necked box lutes played with a bow;
Authority file
	Q584967; GND ID: 4398068-5; Library of Congress authority ID: sh94002440; NL CR AUT ID: ph122363; National Library of Israel J9U ID: 987007532349805171
	Reasonator; Scholia; Wikidocumentaries; PetScan; statistics; WikiMap; Locator tool; KML file; Search depicted;

Lira da braccio (or lyra de bracio^[1]) was a European bowed string instrument of the Renaissance. It is most closely related to the medieval fiddle, or vielle (vihuela or viola de arco), and like the vielle had a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal pegs.^[2] Fiddles with drone strings are seen beginning in the 9th century (Byzantine lyra), and the instrument continued to develop through the 16th century.^[2] The instrument was shaped essentially like a violin, but with a wider fingerboard and flatter bridge. Generally, it had seven strings, five of them tuned like a violin with a low d added to the bottom (that is, d-g-d'-a'-e'') with two strings off the fingerboard which served as drones and were usually tuned in octaves.^[2]

It was used by Italian poet-musicians in court in the 15th and 16th centuries to accompany their improvised recitations of lyric and narrative poetry.^[2] In many depictions of the instrument, it is being played by mythological characters, frequently members of angel consorts, and most often by Orpheus and Apollo. The lira da braccio was occasionally used in ensembles, particularly in the intermedi, and may have acted as a proto-continuo instrument.

References[edit]

Praetorius, Michael (1620) Syntagma Musicum - Theatrum Instrumentorum seu Sciagraphia, Wolfenbüttel (1620)
ed. L. Macy, editor ((Please provide a date))“Lira da braccio”, in Grove Music Online^[1] (subscription access)