What is kifara: the history of appearance

Judging by the information from historical sources, music was of great importance in the life of the ancient Greeks. What is kifar, knew the men of aristocratic and warlike Sparta. Free citizens were obliged to learn how to play the musical instruments. Policies (Greek cities) hosted artistic and gymnastic competitions that went to music. There were competitions of singers - soloists, choirs, instrumentalists, poets.

Heroic singing and cipher

The musical instrument, resembling a lyre, consisted of a trapezoidal wooden body, two longitudinal handles and a crossbar connected at the top. Seven different in thickness strings stretched along the instrument and strengthened between the bottom of the box and the upper crossbar.

The first professional musicians were wandering folk tales and singers. Accompanying themselves on old plucked instruments, they sang heroic events, glorifying the exploits of their compatriots.

Without songs and dances it is impossible to imagine folk festivals and ceremonies dedicated to the gods-patrons of farmers, shepherds and artisans. Texts and music were transmitted by narrators orally. The development of musical art contributed to the emergence of different genres. Among them:

• Ancient epic poems;
• Commos - songs of revelers;
• Gimeneos - wedding;
• Pianos - praise-dancing hymns;
• Noma - genre-melodic folk melodies.

What is cithara

The researchers learn about the musical art of the ancient Greeks from images on amphoras and frescoes. Samples of musical notations were not preserved. According to historians, among singers and musicians there was a tradition of oral transmission of their poems and legends.

One of the most popular instruments was the cithara. The importance for the song school can not be overestimated. On this "relative" lyre played mostly men. Professional musicians performed, collecting a large number of listeners. Kifara had a weighty body made of solid wood, which withstood more string tension.

How to play the strings

Striking the strings with a bone or stone plectrum, the narrator extracted loud and strong sounds, accompanying them with his narrative. Usually on this heavy instrument they played standing, keeping it at an angle to the body. Kifared was called a musician who accompanied his singing. He was not just a performer, but a writer (composer) and a poet. The ideal example of such a creator was considered to be Apollo himself - patron of the arts. The cetharist only performed melodies. It was believed that every person can learn this.

What is kifar? This is a plucked musical instrument, which has a fully wooded case and seven identical strings. Because of its heavy weight, only men could play it. The height of the strings varied with their tension or weakening. In the basic part of the formation of ancient Greece was compulsory learning to play the lyre or cithara. Professionally to master the game on these instruments could not everyone. For this high art, it required inborn talents, excellent memory, strength and dexterity of fingers. Laureates of musical competitions were honored on a par with champions of the Olympiads.

How did the famous instrument

What is kifar? Legend has it that Hermes made it for the first time. His older brother, Appolon, liked the sound of the cithara so much that he did not part with it.

Later, similar musical instruments spread to other countries. Preserved and consonant in the names:

• His name is called Chartar in Persia;
• Sitar or chaturom - in India;
• Cithara - in Rome;
• Chiyare - in Europe;
• Tsitrami and giternom - in England;
• Chitarra - in Italy;
• Guitar - in France;
• A guitar in Spain;
• Guitars - in Sweden.

Despite the greatly changed forms, the cithara can be considered a prototype of the modern guitar. And the number of strings remained the same, according to the laws of euphony and harmony.