JAVS Summer 2025

These two artworks (Figure 5 and 6) show Orpheus wielding the lira da braccio , emphasizing the instrument’s archetypal power to tame wild creatures and transform them. As Horace wrote in Ars Poetica (ca. 19 BCE, lines 391–396): “Orpheus, priest and interpreter of the gods, deterred the savage race of man from slaughter and its dreadful way of life; on account of this he was said to tame tigers and raging lions [...] This was the wisdom of the past.” 5 The continued association of Orpheus with the lira da braccio resonates in twentieth-century literature, as seen in this frontispiece linking Rainer Maria Rilke’s verse “Sonnets to Orpheus” with Renaissance visual and musical culture.

amazing invention of modulations so elegantly that surely nothing is more excellent,” and adding, “among whom Pietrobono, the lyra player of the renowned Duke Ercole of Ferrara, is (in my decided opinion) to be preferred to all others.” 6 In his own time, Pietrobono achieved a kind of “rock star” status. This is vividly captured by Ludovico Carboni, who wrote in 1456: “A few days ago, when we were taking part in a solemn procession of priests around the city, we saw our admirable musician Pietrobono playing his lyra, ‘afire like one inspired by a divine power,’ for a great crowd was following him, not only of youngsters and the ignorant, but also of venerable and learned men.” 7 Pietrobono’s fame reflects not only his personal virtuosity but also the rising stature of the lira da braccio itself during the Renaissance. The tradition of playing in polyphonic style on a solo bowed string instrument emerged with the lira da braccio . This tradition finds its ultimate expression in the solo violin Sonatas and Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach. The lira thrived during a period when improvisatory performance was highly developed. No printed music specifically for the lira da braccio survives, with the exception of a single manuscript housed in Pesaro’s Biblioteca Oliveriana, on Italy’s Adriatic coast.

Turning from the mythic to the actual, the fifteenth century musician Pietrobono of Ferrara was celebrated as a virtuoso of the lira , as well as a master lutenist. His artistry drew praise from the contemporary music theorist Johannes Tinctoris, who extolled his exceptional skill in striking terms, noting that “some associates play the high part of any composed piece whatsoever with Figure 6. Frontispiece to The Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke, featuring an image of Orpheus enchanting wild beasts with the lira da braccio. “Orpheus playing the lira da braccio” drawing by sixteenth-century artist Cima de Conegliano, published by Shambahla Publishing House in 1993.

Figure 7. Pesaro Sixteenth-century manuscript: the only known existing piece of music written in tablature for the lira da braccio. Found in Pesaro's Biblioteca Oliveriana (1144, olim1193).

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