Output details

Lyra viol

This is an example of an artefact that is the result of, and embodies, an extended research process, revealing new insights into the musical instruments of the 17th century and their performance. McGillivray researched and commissioned a speculative version of a ‘Lyra Viol’, a relative of the viol with six playing strings and eight sympathetic strings that provide a rich resonance, which the documentary record suggests was used in England and Germany until around the 1670s.

This is the only Lyra Viol with sympathetic strings in the UK and the only Lyra Viol of this design in the world; the instrument was made by Shem Mackie of Ramsgate.

In addition to researching and commissioning the instrument and mastering its unique challenges in performance, the researcher has extended a longstanding programme of archival research by bringing to light three significant unpublished Scottish manuscripts for Lyra Viol (the Leyden, Blaikie and Magdalene Cockburn MSS), which she has performed in various recitals, including a demonstration of the Lyra Viol at the Greenwich Early Music Exhibition (8 November 2012).

The researcher has also used the Lyra Viol in a range of other performances, including the Tobias Hume project with Concerto Caledonia.

The portfolio that accompanies this output includes makers plans, correspondence between the researcher and the maker, photographs, recordings and an article by the maker.