The Ancient History of the Biblical Lyres (1 of 2)

In this brief talk I'm going to discuss the two types of lyre that were once played across Two thousand years ago in the Temple of Jerusalem to accompany the singing of the Levitical Choir These were the Biblical Kinor a wooden lyre with ten strings and the Biblical Nevel which is a bit more confusing We're not entirely sure what the Biblical Neville looked like but all we know for sure is that it had 12 strings Starting with the Neville here's one interpretation of what the Neville might have looked like and this interpretation is designed by Mideast Ethnic Instruments This particular lyre features a skin membrane serving as the soundboard stretched over the wooden body The reason for this lies in the Hebrew root of the word Neville Nev means carcass carcass skin However there is an alternative interpretatio of Neville in Hebrew which could mean skin bottle and this might suggest a wooden lyre shaped like a skin bottle I prefer the wooden lyre version but this one is still amazing strument as we shall discover I'll play you a melody or two on it shortly So we'll discuss that further later For now let's just show you what this sounds like You'll notice this skin membrane lyre here—it's almost identical to a type of lyre played Ancient Greece the ancient Greek lyre which had a skin membrane stretched over its ortoise shell resonator To remind us of Ancient Greece I'm going to play ancient Greek tune the Song of Cicholos from 200 BC Song of Cicholos Yeah a touch of ancient Greek music As I mentioned it's not necessarily the case at the Ancient Greek never looked like this I'm more in favor of the version the interpretation that it was a wooden lyre shaped like a skin bottle One of the reasons I believe this is that in the writings of the first-century Jewish historian Josephus Flavius who actually witnessed the services in the Temple of Jerusalem He describes the biblical nevel as being played with the fingers producing a harp-like sound whereas the biblical kinor was played with a plectrum resulting in a more guitar-like tone And to further emphasize this point another type of coin is also depicted o what we refer to as the Simon Bar Kochba coins Oh a little about Simon Bar Kochba We know that the Biblical—let's pause for a moment so I don't get confused about which lyre I'm referring to Simon Bar Kochba sought to overthrow the Roman occupation of Judea in the second century He aimed to rebuild the Jewish temple so he collected大量 Roman coins and over-stamped them w mages of temple instruments and temple vessels Here is an illustration of the biblical kinor surrounded by text about the freedom of Jerusalem And here is an example of e biblical kinor the wooden lyre Josephus Flavius tells us that this instrument had en strings presumably to remind us of the Ten Commandments There's also something significant about the number of strings on biblical instruments that I must mention—ten strings on the kinor and twelve strings on the biblical nebel In my opinion the twelve strings on the biblical nebel were clearly a reminder of the twelve tribes of Israel The ten strings of the kinor serve as a reminder of the Ten Commandments When you add the twelve e strings of the nebel and the ten strings of the kinor together make twenty-two—this is the number of e Hebrew alphabet Hey presto Amazing Yeah so Josephus Flavius tells us that e nebel was played with the fingers like a harp making it more of a harp-like instrument whereas the kinor was played with a plectrum I try to blend both styles playing the instrument with a combination of techniques arp-like tones with my left hand and plectrum tones with my right hand in an attempt to emulate The sound of a lyrical ensemble and so on—well you can hear that at least on my three albums King David's Lyre Echoes of Ancient Israel by Blue Peter Here's what I had prepared earlier My second album Lyre of the Levites and the one I'm currently working on titled Ancient Lyre Echoes of the Ancient World now available for release on cdbaby com along with my other albums and Apple iTunes Check them out Please also visit my official website www ancientlyre com and there you'll find a whole section devoted to all these fascinating Historical treasures I've uncovered over the past three years of playing these games Right then on that note I’ll escort you back to the Temple in Jerusalem Goodbye for now