Rotte (lyre)
Rotte or rotta is a historical name for the Germanic lyre, used in northwestern Europe in the early medieval period into the 13th century. Differing from the lyres of the Mediterranean antiquity, Germanic lyres are characterised by a long, shallow and broadly rectangular shape, with a hollow soundbox curving at the base, and two hollow arms connected across the top by an integrated crossbar or ‘yoke’. From northwestern Europe—particularly from England and Germany—an ever-growing number of wooden lyres have been excavated from warrior graves of the first millennium A.D. The plucked variants declined in the medieval era, while bowed variants have survived into modern times.
Non-Greek or Roman lyres were used in pre-Christian Europe as early as the 6th century B.C. by the Hallstatt culture, by Celtic peoples as early as the 1st century B.C., and separately by Germanic peoples. They were played in Anglo-Saxon England, and more widely, in Germanic regions of northwestern Europe. Their existence was recorded in the Scandinavian and Old-English story Beowulf, set in pre-Christian times and written or retold by a Christian scribe about 975 A.D. The Germanic lyre has been thought to be a descendant of the ancient lyre which originated in western Asia. That same instrument was adopted in Ancient Egypt and also by the Ancient Greeks as the cithara. The rotte is shaped differently than these, however, and discoveries from further east has led to the possibility that it arrived with invading tribes.
The oldest rotte found in England dates possibly before 450 AD and the most recent dates to the 10th century. The Germanic lyre was depicted in manuscript illuminations and mentioned in Anglo-Saxon literature and poetry. Despite this, knowledge of the instrument was largely forgotten, and it was confused with the later medieval harp. Then in the 19th century, two lyres were found in cemetery excavations in southwest Germany, giving concrete examples of the Germanic lyre's existence. These discoveries, followed in 1939 by the archaeological excavation at Sutton Hoo and the correct reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo instrument in 1970, brought about the realization that the lyre was "the typical early Germanic stringed instrument."
"Evidence of manuscript illustrations and the writings of early theorists suggest that, in Anglo-Saxon and early medieval times...the words hearpe, rotte and cithara were all used to describe the same instrument, or type of instrument." The direction of the spread of the instrument is uncertain. The instrument may have developed in several locations. Other possibilities include an Irish instrument that spread eastwards to Germany, or an instrument of central Europe that spread northwest. Across Europe, lyres were named with etymologically related variations: crwth, cruit, crot ; rote and crowd ; rota, rotta, rote, rotte.
The instrument disappeared in most of Europe, surviving in Scandinavia, and elsewhere remembered in medieval images and in literature. In 1774 it was featured in a work of religious musical scholarship by Martin Gerbert, who found an illustration in a 12th century A.D. manuscript and labeled the instrument the Cythara Teutonica. After archeological finds, the instrument has been recreated and studied anew, labeled Germanic round-lyre, Anglo-Saxon lyre, Germanic lyre and Viking lyre today. Historical names include rotta and hearpe. Medieval clerics sometimes used lyra, recalling classical Greece and Rome.
Anglo-Saxon lyre
In England, the lyre was called hearpe in Old English. They likely did not use rotta for the lyre. Hearpe lyres were played by the Germanic tribes who arrived in England from the continent. Lyres can be seen in English artwork into the 11th century, eventually displaced by the medieval harp. On the continent, lyres continued to be illustrated in manuscripts into the 13th century.The remains of surviving instruments have been discovered in graves. Two instruments have given more information about the instrument's characteristic shape. The Grave at Sutton Hoo contained enough of an instrument to create speculation about just what these instruments were; at first it was thought to be a harp. The grave at Prittlewell was thoroughly decayed, but archaeologists were able to use scans of undisturbed soil to reveal the instrument.
Apart from archaeological finds, another source of information about hearpes comes from historic images.
The Vespasian Psalter, an early 8th-century Anglo-Saxon illustrated book originating from Southumbria, shows King David playing the lyre with his court musicians. The theme was commonly repeated across the Christian world, usually with David playing a harp. The image from the Vespasian Psalter gives some insight into how the lyre was played, notably the left hand being used to block strings showing he was using a type of play known as strum and block. This same method of lyre playing appears on many Ancient Greek illustrations of lyre playing.
The Durham Cassiodorus contains an image of King David playing the Anglo-Saxon lyre. The book originates from Northumbria some time in the 8th century.
Another manuscript image of the hearpe being plucked can be found in the Utrecht Psalter, a 9th Century book of illustrations from the Netherlands.
A 9th century Anglo-Saxon sculptured image appeared in relief on a column at Masham, North Yorkshire. The image shows David holding what is "clearly a round-lyre of contemporaneous Germanic type."
According to musician Andrew Glover-Whitley, "music was seen as coming from the Gods and was a gift from Woden who was, amongst many things, the God of knowledge, wisdom and poetry and as such bestowed the ‘magic’ of music on the people.... It was also seen as a power to do good or evil, to help cure people of maladies of the mind, soul or body as well as able to inflict harm on enemies and to conjure up spirits that would be of help or to do your bidding against enemies."
There are 21 mentions of the lyre in Anglo-Saxon poetry, five of these in Beowulf. Mentions of the lyre in literature commonly associate it as accompanying storytelling, being used during celebrations or in context of war.
Bede, relating the story of Cædmon, describes how the lyre was passed around during feasts, so that as part of the merriment people could pick it up and sing songs. This is similar to other instruments such as the bagpipes which are also described as being passed around at feasts. The songs played on the lyre include Anglo-Saxon epic poetry and it is likely that performances of Beowulf, the Wanderer, Deor, the Seafarer etc., were enacted with the lyre providing the backing track.
Lyre in continental Europe
Norse lyre
In Old Norse, harpa could be used for multiple instruments, including the lyre and the later harp, as can be seen in carved artwork.The oldest image of the Norse lyre comes from Gotland in Sweden, where a rock carving dating from the 6th century has been interpreted as an image of a lyre.
In the Poetic Edda, the harpa is mentioned in several different poems.
File:Hylestad I, left.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Late 12th-early 13th century, Hylestad stave church, Norway. Gunther, imprisoned in a snakepit uses his toes to play an upside down lyre.
A Norse story about Gunnar that was widely known was source material for Icelandic poetry. In the story, Gunnar lay dying, thrown into a pit of snakes. He had given his sister in marriage to Atli, and wanted Atli's sister Oddrun for his own wife. Atli refused, but Oddrun and Gunnar slept together anyway. Atli had Gunnar killed in the snakepit, and Gunnar played his harpa with his toes. The harpa is used this way in the Dráp Niflunga, Oddrúnargrátr, and Atlakviða.
It is also mentioned in the Völuspá.
Celtic lyre
In Ireland, patriotism has claimed the Celtic harp as an Irish symbol, in spite of scholarship which acknowledges the cruit to originally have been a form of lyre. This disconnect was commented on as early as 1910. Looking broadly at both Ireland and Scotland early images of stringed instruments may be seen in carved reliefs on stone crosses and in a manuscript illustration. The earliest images of European harps are found in Scotland, in Pictish relief carvings.Irish relief artwork shows lyres with soundboards and bridges. Telling the difference between a harp and a lyre in these images may be problematic because they are badly eroded. Should they show a bridge, they may be clearly labeled lyre.Three styles of lyre are seen on the stone crosses: round topped instruments, instruments with one straight and one curved arm, and asymmetrical instruments.
In Irish, the instruments were called cruit or crot and timpán. The cruit initially seems to have referred to a lyre. Later in the 8th-10th century A.D., when triangular harps appeared, the word cruit would apply to them as well. Once the name for a lyre, cruit would come to apply to smaller harps, while larger harps would be called cláirseach.
The timpán was "probably" a lyre with a willow body and three metal strings, played using "a long fingernail or plectrum" by musicians of lesser status than the professional cruitire. It became a bowed instrument, the crwth, "after the early 11th century" or by the 12th century. Used to accompany "Fenian epics and praise poetry."
Over time, researchers have interpreted artwork differently; an example is the instrument on the Monasterboice South Cross, which has been called both harp and lyre. Both types of instruments would be illustrated in the religious reliefs on the Irish and Scottish High Crosses.
An Iron Age era bridge found in the Isle of Skye is currently the earliest known piece of a European stringed-instrument, dating to about 500-450 B.C.