Giga (instrument)

Last updated

The giga was a type of bowed lyre that was very popular, especially in Norway, but also common in England, Iceland and Denmark. [1] It is considered to be extinct; however, there are some interesting reconstruction projects. The name does not originate from Latin, but rather derives from an Old Norse Viking word meaning "to vibrate", "to move in a fast way". This term is also the origin of the name of the dance called Jig, which is very common in Northern Europe, especially in the British isles.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Sources

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String instrument</span> Class of musical instruments with vibrating strings

In musical instrument classification, string instruments or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyre</span> Ancient Greek string instrument

The lyre is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a yoke that lies in the same plane as the sound table, and consists of two arms and a crossbar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebec</span> String instrument

The rebec is a bowed stringed instrument of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance. In its most common form, it has a narrow boat-shaped body and one to five strings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psaltery</span> Stringed instrument

A psaltery is a fretboard-less box zither and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer. Plucked keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord were also inspired by it. Its resonance box is usually trapezoidal, rectangular or in the form of a "pig's head" and often richly decorated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arzachel (crater)</span> Crater on the Moon

Arzachel is a relatively young lunar impact crater located in the highlands in the south-central part of the visible Moon, close to the zero meridian. It lies to the south of the crater Alphonsus, and together with Ptolemaeus further north the three form a prominent line of craters to the east of Mare Nubium. The smaller Alpetragius lies to the northwest, and Thebit is to the southwest along the edge of the mare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doerfel (crater)</span> Lunar impact crater

Doerfel is a lunar impact crater that is located in the vicinity of the southern pole, just on the far side of the Moon. It lies approximately midway between the large crater Hausen to the east-northeast and the even larger Zeeman to the southwest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berlage (crater)</span> Lunar impact crater

Berlage is an old lunar impact crater that lies in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. The smaller crater Bellinsgauzen is attached to its northern rim, and Cabannes is less than one crater diameter to the northwest. To the east-northeast of Berlage is Lemaître.

<i>Aliger gigas</i> Species of mollusc

Aliger gigas, originally known as Strombus gigas or more recently as Lobatus gigas, commonly known as the queen conch, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family of true conches, the Strombidae. This species is one of the largest molluscs native to the Caribbean Sea, and tropical northwestern Atlantic, from Bermuda to Brazil, reaching up to 35.2 centimetres (13.9 in) in shell length. A. gigas is closely related to the goliath conch, Lobatus goliath, a species endemic to Brazil, as well as the rooster conch, Aliger gallus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viola organista</span> Musical instrument

The viola organista is a musical instrument designed by Leonardo da Vinci. It uses a friction belt to vibrate individual strings, with the strings selected by pressing keys on a keyboard. Leonardo's design has intrigued instrument makers for more than 400 years, but though similar instruments have been built, no extant instrument constructed directly from Leonardo's incomplete designs is known. Sometimes it is mistakenly referred to as the harpsichord viola, which is a different instrument.

<i>Rebab</i> String instrument

The rebab is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via Islamic trading routes over much of North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Europe. The instrument is typically bowed, but is sometimes plucked. It is one of the earliest known bowed instruments, named no later than the 8th century, and is the parent of many bowed and stringed instruments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghost bat</span> Species of bat

The ghost bat is a species of bat found in northern Australia. The species is the only Australian bat that preys on large vertebrates – birds, reptiles and other mammals – which they detect using acute sight and hearing, combined with echolocation, while waiting in ambush at a perch. The wing membrane and bare skin is pale in colour, their fur is light or dark grey over the back and paler at the front. The species has a prominent and simple nose-leaf, their large ears are elongated and joined at lower half, and the eyes are also large and dark in colour. The first description of the species was published in 1880, its recorded range has significantly contracted since that time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jouhikko</span> Lyre

The jouhikko is a traditional, two- or three-stringed bowed lyre, from Finland and Karelia. Its strings are traditionally of horsehair. The playing of this instrument died out in the early 20th century but has been revived and there are now a number of musicians playing it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talharpa</span> String instrument

The talharpa, also known as a tagelharpa, hiiu kannel or stråkharpa, is a two to four stringed bowed lyre from northern Europe. It is questionable whether it was formerly common and widespread in Scandinavia. Historically, it has been played in the Estonian-Swedish areas and in Western Estonia, particularly among Estonian Swedes who came to Estonia around the 10th century from the Swedish part of Finland; they likely brought the instrument with them It is similar to the Finnish jouhikko and the Welsh crwth. Jouhikko, a close relative of talharpa, is still known in Finland.

J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings has been translated, with varying degrees of success, into dozens of languages from the original English. He was critical of some early versions, and made efforts to improve translation by providing a detailed "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings", alongside an appendix "On Translation" in the book itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gue</span> Extinct type of bowed string instruments

The gue is an extinct type of two-stringed bowed lyre or zither from the Shetland Isles. The instrument was described in 1809 by Arthur Edmondston in View of the Ancient and Present State of the Zetland Islands:

"Before violins were introduced, the musicians performed on an instrument called a gue, which appears to have had some similarity to the violin, but had only two strings of horse hair, and was played upon in the same manner as a violoncello."

German submarine U-404 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II.

The nares-jux (нарс-юх) or Siberian lyre is a musical instrument, a type of box-lyre, played by the peoples of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Russian Siberia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Andersson (musicologist)</span> Finnish musicologist

Otto Emanuel Andersson was a Finnish musicologist.

References

  1. Otto Emanuel Andersson. The bowed-harp: a study in the history of early musical instruments. AMS Press, 1973. ISBN   0-404-56503-4, ISBN   978-0-404-56503-9. Pg 258.