Ancestors Guitar: Harp Or Lira?
Lute
Lute
As mentioned above, the history of the guitar can be traced back to about 4.000 years ago. Many developing theories about the ancestral musical instrument guitar. The most popular theory is that musical instruments have evolved from the harp guitar (bahasa: lute, Arabic: oud). Harp is a musical instrument that comes from a civilized country Moorish Arabs. Lute was first introduced in Europe through Spain, the original harp is a short-necked stringed instruments without frets and has a great body with lots of strings. Later on the Europeans added frets and gave him a name derived from the vocabulary of Arabic lute al'ud which means the wood.
Lira
Lira
The second theory is developed about the ancestral guitar is a theory which says that the guitar came from a musical instrument lira (English: lyre, Greek: khitara). Lira is a very popular musical instrument in ancient Greek civilization, a stringed musical instrument shaped like a horn to stretch the string and a round body made of tortoise shell. Harp musical instrument belonging to the family of this instrument. This theory will be based similarity between khitara with guitarra name is a Spanish vocabulary words from which the guitar (guitar) came from.
But a study conducted by Dr.. Michael Kasha in the 1960's to confront all these theories. Uniquely Dr. Michael Kasha is a physicist and chemist who founded the Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University (FSU), but has a very great interest to the musical instrument guitar.
Dr. Michael Kasha states is very strange if the instrument (which initially had four strings) comes from a musical instrument that tends lira boxy and has a 7 string. He even suggested that the guitar may be descended from a common ancestor with a lira, lira instead of itself. The word comes from the vocabulary of Persian khitara chartar Hellenistic culture which has influenced during the conquest of Alexander the Great.
The Archaeological Review
The first stringed instrument known by archaeologists is tanbur harp and bowl. It is known that since prehistoric times humans have been making noises by using a simple harp made of tortoise shell and a pumpkin as a form of resonator and neck curved to associate one or more strings.
Lira Queen Shub-Ad of Ur
Lira Queen Shub-Ad of Ur
Instrument of this kind have been found and some of the oldest civilizations originated from the Sumerian, Babylonian and ancient Egyptian. Around the year from 2.500 to 2.000 BC began popping musical instruments of this type of lire more sophisticated, such as the 11 string lyre decorated with gold ornaments. One is the Lira Queen Shub-Ad was found in Ur, derived from the ancient Sumerian civilization.
While tanbur is defined as a long-necked stringed instruments and has a small round bodies which are usually made of wood. It is estimated that this instrument evolved from the harp bowl created by modifying a longer neck to reach a wider musical notation. A wall painting found in Thebes, Egypt from about 1.420 BC shows a group of musicians who play the harp and tanbur along with other instruments like flute and percussion.
Wall Paintings A group of musicians from Thebes
Wall Paintings A group of musicians from Thebes
Besides the archaeological also found several similar paintings derived from the Persian culture of Mesopotamia. Some instruments are painted even still be found today in the form of traditional musical instruments of Turkish society, Iran, Afghanistan and Greece.
Similar Instruments Guitar Oldest That Still Intact
Instruments like guitars oldest still intact and are found in modern times is an about 3.500-year-old tanbur belonged to an Egyptian musician named Har-Mose. Around the year 1.503 BC, Har-Mose worked for a state architect for the Queen of Egypt at that time (Queen Hatshepsut), called Sen-Mut. Har-Mose Tanbur buried with their owners that participate in a complex of burial of the queen on the river Nile.
Tanbur Har-Mose is a stringed musical instrument which has 3 strings and has a body made of cedar wood. Currently stored in the Archaeological Museum, Cairo, Egypt.
Tanbur Har-Mose
Tanbur Har-Mose
Definition of Guitar
After reviewing several possibilities regarding the ancestral guitar, then it helps us understand in advance what the actual definition of the guitar. According to Dr. Kasha, the guitar is defined as "stringed instrument stringed, long-necked with frets, and has a flat body guitar in the back (usually made of wood) which has a curved shape around the edges".
Picture of the oldest musical instrument that has all of these requirements appear in an image carved in stone in the form of 3.300 years old and comes from the Hittite culture in Alaca Huyuk, Turkey.
Hittite Guitar
Hittite Guitar
Modern Guitar
According to Dr. Michael Kasha, modern guitar we know today were originally composed of four strings. 4 strings this guitar arrived in Spain from Persia in around the 12th century, called chartar which literally means four strings (char: four; tar: strings). If traced further than a review of language, the word comes from the Sanskrit tar used in India, especially in the northern area. One of these is the cousin of chartar instrument we know as sitar, a stringed instrument 3 strings are also popular in regional cultures of Indonesia.
Chartar Persia
Chartar Persia
Over the years, this chartar instrument has undergone many modifications by modern humans. Guitar undergone many changes during the Renaissance in Europe in the 14th century to 17.
In the middle of the Renaissance period which is about the 16th century, there is a modified form of chartar which has 5 strings. Five-stringed guitar was first made in Italy and became the dominant use in recital music events. Just like the harp at the time, the guitar only has 8 pieces fret.
Antonio Stradivarius guitar strings 5 (1680)
Antonio Stradivarius guitar strings 5 (1680)
6 string guitars also made the first time in Italy at about the 17th century, at the end of the Renaissance period. Then after that the whole of Europe abuzz adopt this form, and were created many musical arrangements based on a six string guitar.
George Louis Panormo guitar 6 strings (1832)
George Louis Panormo guitar 6 strings (1832)
In terms of form, a guitar in the past are relatively small and has a slim body guitar. Until in 1859, a Spaniard named Antonio Torres made classical guitar a larger size and proportions change. Antonio Torres design is accepted as the standard of modern guitar making to this day.
Antonio Torres guitars (1859)
Antonio Torres guitars (1859)
Electric Guitar
Guitar using wire strings (steel string) was first introduced by a German immigrant in the United States named Christian Fredrich Martin in the years around the 1900s. Based on this finding guitar modified further towards electric guitar, made by Orville Gibson (founder of the Gibson Guitar Corporation) and his colleague Lloyd Loar.
Electric guitar was originally a solution for the needs of jazz musicians at that time who wanted his music to be more powerful sound. Electric guitar was first made at the end of the decade of 1920, but did not gain success until 1936, when the Gibson Guitar Corporation to produce the first commercial electric guitar called the Gibson ES-150. This guitar is in production until 1941.
Gibson ES-150 (1936)
Gibson ES-150 (1936)
Smallest Guitar
Nano-technology experts at Cornell University, the U.S. succeeded in making the smallest guitar in the world that measures just 10 micrometers (as large as the size of a single cell). Guitar made of crystalline silicon has 6 strings of 50 nanometers and is played by firing a laser beam into the guitar strings. Of course this guitar was made not for the musicians, but only for the sake of science.
Nanoguitar: World's Smallest Guitar
Nanoguitar: World's Smallest Guitar...
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