We have been watching the closing ceremonies for the Olympics, and a fellow was playing a fiddle…I think. Thing was, he had the head near his neck and the body of the instrument projecting out away from him. Seems an awfully uncomfortable way to hold a fiddle, but it sure didn’t look like a bowed psaltery or anything like that. Did anybody else see it? Any idea what it was?
Redwolf
I think I saw it too, kind of rounded, flat, and stubby?
You don’t have a photo do you? I have some reference books on Greek folk instruments and might be able to identify it.
I heard the ceremony from my office at home and some of the music sounded interesting but I didn’'t get up to take a closer look.
I didn’t see it but heard it in the distance , it sounded like a gadoulka
(edited to add pics)
It is a lira. Played with a bow. The strings are dampened by the use of the fingernails on the left (or right, if you’re a leftie) hand, thereby producing the metallic sound very rich in harmonics. There are two kinds in Greece: Cretan and Pontic. Since I didn’t see the show, I don’t know which one he played though.
That tickles my memory in the right way. I think Peter got it.
The Mayors of Heraklio and Alikarnassou, Giannis Kourakis and Evangelos Sisamakis, welcomed the ATHENS 2004 President. Twenty traditional Cretan lira players from the Pankritio Cretan Music Association and twenty dancers together with 120 children dressed in traditional costume greeted the Flame in Cretan fashion. Mrs Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, surrounded by men and women in local costume, handed the Olympic flame to the first Torchbearer, Panagiotis Giannakis, the Olympic basketball team coach. Immediately afterwards Panagiotis Giannakis said: “It was a magical moment, even though I had taken part in the Barcelona Torch Relay, this Torch Relay is in indeed unique as it has united the world. We exchanged ideas, our differences, it is like a life chain”.
So, it was Cretan.
Being in the same time zone as redwolf, I realize that he posted this before I saw it (whatever I saw) on the NBC coverage.
It is possible that we are all referring to different things, after all, there was a lot of great music there.
Gadoulka is the Bulgarian name I am familiar with, I don’t actually think the Cretan Lyra (pic above) is very different, nice sound off them though, whatever name you stick on them.
You might be surprised to hear that one of the finest modern players of the Cretan lyra is an Irishman called Ross Daly.
Well it’s not all that surprising. Ross grew up in a family of lyra players in County Mayo and was exposed to the music from an early age. Like his brothers and sisters, he started off on tin whistle but soon moved on to lyra which he has always played by ear.
I was on a concert with Ross in Stockholm two years ago. He was there with a couple of fellow musicians playing lira, saz, oud, and percussion. Man, could they play. Extremely nice.
I got a closer look at it after the torch extinguishing ceremony. The fellow was playing it up on the stage with a singer, and they focused right in on him. It may be the same instrument, but it was shaped differently than the one pictured here. Really looked like a stylized violin…had something of the same basic shape and was about the same size. He played it with his chin resting where the scroll would be on a regular violin, with the rest of the instrument jutting out in front of him at nearly a right angle. He was fretting with his left hand and bowing with his right.
Saw a lot of bouzoukies too! Does anyone know how such a quintessentially Greek instrument became associated with Irish music?
Redwolf
Johnny Moynihan brought one back and got Andy Irvine and subsequently Donal Lunny interested. After that they all wanted one.
I think the standard story is that Johnny Moynihan of Sweeney’s Men brought one back from Greece and worked out counterpoints with Andy Irvine on mandolin. Irvine, I think, introduced Donal Lunny to the instrument and it developed from there.
Actually, Irish bouzoukis aren’t very much like Greek bouzoukis at all. The former are tuned in fifths (almost), like octave mandolins and are really members of the mandolin family. The latter have been tuned in fourths like guitars since at least the 1950s giving the lie to the idea that Alec Finn of De Dannan plays a standard Greek three-course bouzouki tuned DAD. Bouzoukis like this can still be found in Greece but they are rather unusual. The gentle lilting sound of the Irish bouzouki is miles away from the strident biting sound of moden electric bouzouki. As well as my standard Irish bouzouki, I have an electric bouzouki built and tuned to Irish specifications but capable of being made to sound a bit like a Greek bouzouki if I want it to. My luthier friends cannot agree about why the two styles of instrument sound so different—one says it lies in the choice of woods, the other in the tuning in fifths.
There are a few left playing the Greek ones still. Alec Finn ofcourse, Sean O Loinsig and a few others too.
No luthier, here, but my first guess would side with construction: the Greek beast is bowl-backed by way of stave construction, and the Irish gizmo is basically flat-backed like its adoptive cousin the cittern. I’d think that would make a difference.
I’d really like to know what the story is behind Alec’s bouzouki. Three course instruments like his and tuned his way haven’t been used by rembetes since probably the 1930s. Either he’s using a very old instrument or he’s playing a village bouzouki, built to local specifications, and not intended for rembetika. Quite possibly there are village bouzoukis around that do sound like Irish bouzoukis because Alec’s certainly does.
I don’t normally have converstions with myself but, to keep the record straight, I have to do so now. The first paragraph above is true but the second is pure blarney. Have a closer look at it. I wanted to see how long it would take for someone to call me on it but the leg-pulling has gone on long enough.
So I guess the big question is if they ever do the Olympics in Ireland, will they use a tin whistle in the closing ceremony?