Abstract

It has commonly been assumed that, on ancient Greek instruments of the lyre-type, when a string had been tuned to a certain note, that note and that note only could be played, until the string was retuned; thus, that a separate string was required for each note of a given scale. This view involves certain difficulties. The canonical number of strings was seven, and seven-stringed lyres and citharas continue to be represented in art throughout the classical period. But, with one note to each string, a seven-stringed lyre could not even play a complete diatonic octave.