Maltese Lira (instrument)
The Maltese lira is a string, bowed instrument
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which has maintained its basic physical properties across history. The main characteristics are three strings; tuning pegs fitted perpendicularly to the head; absence of a fingerboard or frets; mobile bridge and soundpost; generally fretted with the back of the nails; held vertically on the knee or between the legs; the body is carved out of a single block of wood with a wooden soundboard; in most cases the tuning is IV-I-V.
There is a red line connecting the instrument all the way from Dalmatia on the Adriatic to Locride in Calabria. One of the most important references to the lira in Malta is by Giovanni Pietro Aguis de Soladnis (1712-1770) published in his Damma tal Kliem Kartaginis mscerred fel fomm tal Maltin u Ghaucin, published around 1759.