JAVS Summer 2025

The image of the Greek rhapsodist with his lyre—shown in Figure 2—evokes the earlier inspiration behind the lira da braccio : the ancient performer who accompanied poetic recitation with his lyre. This association between classical antiquity and Renaissance creativity is crucial to understanding the instrument’s symbolic and cultural significance. Highly fashionable among court circles, poet-musicians improvised polyphonic accompaniments on the lira as they sang verse. This revival of the ancient rhapsodic art gained popularity particularly in the courts of Florence, Mantua, Urbino, Naples, Rome, and Venice. Insights into historical performance practice can be gathered from period artworks. Some depictions suggest that root position chords might be facilitated by a metal ring worn on a left-hand finger or thumb, used to stop a lower bourdon string. In several older engravings, lira players are seen either standing or sitting with one leg raised, their foot resting on a square or rectangular chest, possibly to support the instrument or enhance posture.

Praetorius’s visual comparison (Figure 3) helps distinguish the lira from its bowed contemporaries, illustrating how the lira ’s distinctive shape, tuning, and function set it apart in the evolving lineage of string instruments. In the broader context of the evolution of bowed string instruments, the lira da braccio played a crucial role in the early development of the viola we now know. The modern viola traces its lineage directly to the lira , which itself evolved from the medieval vielle . As musical fashions and functions changed, many lira s were converted into violas.

Seventeenth-century painter Pier Francesco Mola presents the enduring poetic symbolism of the lira , linking the instrument with the classical bardic tradition. Homer, blind rhapsodist, holds the lira da braccio in Figure 4, emphasizing its continuity with both the historic and the mythic. Figure 4. Homer Holding a Lira da braccio by Pier Francesco Mola, linking the instrument with the classical bardic tradition. Seventeenth-century. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Figure 3. Comparative Images of Instruments: Lira da braccio, Viola da Gamba, and Viol Bastard, by Michael Praetorius’s Syntagma Musicum, 1614.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 41, Summer 2025 Online Issue