Early Lurs from the Nordic Bronze Age and Living Indian Metal Horns

Abstract

From the Nordic Bronze Age periods II-IV we have findings of early forerunners of the first European brass instruments, the first smaller bronze lurs. None of these instruments is in such a state of preservation that musical capabilities or sounding could be investigated. In this work we have made brass-replicas of four different lur findings from Rørlykke Mose, Påarp, Gullåkra Mose and Hindby and investigated their musical properties. It was found that these instruments are limited to very discrete types of playing techniques by physical laws of wave mechanics and that they must have been purposefully designed for specific musical applications each. A search for similar still existing instruments which fulfil similar physical boundaries has revealed an extremely high similarity for a variety metal horns from the traditional India. Comparative studies have been performed by blowing experiments and sonographic measurements to give a plausible reconstruction how the earlier Bronze Age lurs must have been used and how they have sounded.