A lur, also lure or lurr, is a long

natural horn The natural horn is a musical instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day (French) horn (differentiated by its lack of valves). Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the natural horn evolved as a separation from the tr ...

without finger holes that is played with a brass-type embouchure. Lurs can be straight or curved in various shapes. The purpose of the curves was to make long instruments easier to carry (e.g. for marching, like the modern

sousaphone The sousaphone ( ) is a brass musical instrument in the tuba family. Created around 1893 by J.W. Pepper & Son, J. W. Pepper at the direction of American bandleader John Philip Sousa (after whom the instrument was then named), it was design ...

) and to avoid directing the loud noise at nearby people. The name lur is used for two distinct types of ancient

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch ...

s. The more recent type is made of

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

and was in use in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The older type, named after the more recent type, is made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

, dates to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

and was often found in pairs, deposited in

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

s, mainly in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It consists of a mouthpiece and several pieces and/or pipes. Its length can reach between 1.5 and 2 metres. It has been found in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, Denmark,

South Sweden South Sweden () is a national area () of Sweden. The national areas are a part of the NUTS statistical regions of Sweden. Geography South Sweden is situated in the southern part of its country. It is close to Denmark and it borders with the of ...

, and Northern Germany. Illustrations of lurs have also been found on several

rock paintings In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...

in Scandinavia.

Wooden lurs

The earliest references to an instrument called the lur come from

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

sagas Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

, where they are described as

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

instruments, used to marshal troops and frighten the enemy. These lurs, several examples of which have been discovered in

longboat A longboat is a type of ship's boat that was in use from ''circa'' 1500 or before. Though the Royal Navy replaced longboats with launches from 1780, examples can be found in merchant ships after that date. The longboat was usually the largest bo ...

s, are straight, end-blown wooden tubes, around one metre long. They do not have finger holes, and are played much like a modern

brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by Sympathetic resonance, sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meani ...

. A kind of lur very similar to these war instruments has been played by

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

s and milkmaids in

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

since at least the

. These instruments, called in English a

birch trumpet A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 to ...

, were used for calling

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

and signalling. They are similar in construction and playing technique to the war instrument, but are covered in

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

, while the war instruments are covered in

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

Bronze lurs

Lurs made of bronze were used as musical instruments in ancient Greece, as well as in northern Europe where a total of 56 lurs have been discovered: 35 (including fragmentary ones) in

, 11 in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, 4 in

, 5 in northern

, and a single one in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

Lurs today

The word ''lur'' is still in the

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the G ...

, indicating any funnel-shaped implement used for producing or receiving sound. For instance, the Swedish word for

headphones Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an ...

is ''hörlurar'' (hearing-lurs), and a

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

might be referred to as a ''lur'' in contemporary Swedish (derived from ''telefonlur'', telephone handset), and ''luuri'' is similarly used in Finnish for the handset part of old-fashioned landline telephones. The Norwegian and Swedish words for

foghorn A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. ...

are respectively ''tåkelur'' and ''mistlur''. The Danish butter brand

Lurpak Lurpak is a Danish brand of butter owned by Arla Foods. It is sold in over 75 countries worldwide, and is known for its distinctive silver packaging. Lurpak came into existence in October 1901 after a cooperative of several Danish dairy farmers ...

is named after the lur, and the package design contains pictures of lurs. The word ''lur'' has several other meanings in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish that are not related to sound.

References

External links

2007 CD by Odd Sylvarnes Lund of Lur and Bukkehorn music
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20131216090858/http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/lur/ The Nordic Lurs part of O.J.'s Trumpet Page {{Authority control Danish musical instruments Early musical instruments Natural horns and trumpets Nordic Bronze Age Germanic archaeological artifacts Norwegian musical instruments Sámi musical instruments

Wooden lurs

Bronze lurs

Lurs today

See also

References

External links