Bowl lyre

This instrument was collected in the field by Christopher Powell-Cotton, and is associated with a "Bari tribe," which may refer to the "Bari people" found in South Sudan, or to a cultural group who speak the Bari language, spread across the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Northwest Uganda. This particular instrument exhibits characteristics that are common among other lyres found in South Sudan and Ethiopia, such as the use of tortoise-shells for the resonator bowl, the rectangular angle of the arms and the pierced holes in the soundtable along the arm bars. The soundtable of this instrument is made of animal skin stretched over the tortoise-shell resonator with hide lacing in a cross network pattern on the back. The arms and crossbar are made of wooden dowels secured with twine at the junctions. The arms pierce the soundtable at the top and are laid down over the bowl edge at the bottom. The soundtable was then stretched over the bottom of the arms and the pierced holes along these might have been originally used to keep the hide in place while assembling. There are eight gut strings tied to the crossbar, along with gauze cloth lacing, forming rings that can slide along the crossbar to change tuning. The strings twist and pierce the soundtable at the very bottom, being then secured to a piece of iron alloy, serving as tailpiece. The bridge is a small piece of wood. The instrument also has small pebble stones inside of the resonator bowl fro rattling effect.