Only he who raised the lyre
Even among the shades
Can dispense the infinite praise
("Die sonette an Orpheus", Rainer
Maria Rilke)
The lyre (lyra) is the universal symbol for music in Euro-
Western culture, and has been since antiquity. It was the
most important instrument in Ancient Greece. But like so
many other aspects of what we call "Western" culture, its
origin was Asian.
The first known examples of the lyre were recovered from 3rd
Millenium BC tombs in Mesopotamia. It was the musical
instrument of the Assyrians and Hebrews. Archaic in modern
Europe, it is a popular folk instrument in Africa.
The lyre was the traditional instrument of the agones,
musical competition festivals sponsored by the Greek and
Roman cities. For the ancient Greeks, as an attribute of
Apollo the god of music, the lyre symbolised wisdom and
moderation. Aristotle and Plato saw it as the instrument of
the education of the free Athenian citizen.
Against that background, the "Lyra" was the obvious choice
of name for the Hungarian Performing Arts Foundation' award
for excellence. When the success of those awards led on to
the idea of an Olympiad, the choice of 'Five Lyra'
symbolising the participation of all five continents,
conveys all that we hope for from the essential humanitarian
message of music and dance.
