Exhibition description

Wheel lyre..
Wood. Metal
Handmade. Ukraine. 19th – early 20th century
The wheel lyre is an ancient stringed bowed musical instrument in which a wheel acts as the bow. The instrument is similar to the lyre known in Europe since the 9th century. In the 16th–17th centuries, it was widespread in the territory of modern Ukraine and Belarus. Travelling singers, known as lirnyky, accompanied their singing with the lyre. The repertoire of Ukrainian lirnyks included historical songs, dumas, church chants and psalms, and folk songs.