Supported Children's Learning

December 28, 2018

The Kérar (Amh., Tgn. ; Harari kirar) is a five or six stringed plucked lyre consisting of two upright or v-shaped pillars joined by a crossbar at the top, and held by a taut sound-box skin at the bottom near the front surface of the sound box. Resonating boxes can be round or in the shape of a rectangle or trapezoid.

The word Kérar may derive from Amh. g::, kärrära (to twine into a fine stretched cord', Ashenafi Kebede 1967:156; KaneDic 1386); alternatively, Leslaucompares Ethiosemitic terms for Kerar with the Semitic terms for lyre (Hebrew kinnör, Arab. kinnara, Akkadian kinnaru; Leslau 1979:350; cf. also MonVidMus 3186). The origin of the Kérar remains uncertain. Al- though ancient lyres existed in Asia, it is thought that the lyres of East Africa and the Horn came via Egypt (Powne 1968:57 suggests an Egyptian origin both for the Kérar and the bägäna the larger trapezoid lyre).

Egyptian lyres include an asymmetrical instrument held horizontally and played with a plectrum (ca. 2000 B.C.) and a smaller symmetrical lyre played upright (ca. 1000 B.C.). The Hebrew kinnör was also a box lyre (New Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003:592f.). The Kérar and similar instruments are widely spread in Ethiopia and Eritrea among various ethnic groups, sometimes under local names, such as kihayta in Konso, dita in Diraassa, etc. (s. also VSAe I, III). The masinkoob, or basinkoob (a term etymologically related to -masingo) of the Bega of Eritrea are said to be similar to the Kerar (Wedekind 2005:151, 130f.). The present entry describes the Kérar amongst the Amhara, Tégréñña, and Dorze. Lyre type musical instruments similar to the Kerar are wide spread not only in Ethiopia, but also among many East African peoples (s. Asnaqetch Werqu .. 2004; Kidula 2001; Tamasuza 2005; Kwabena Nketia 2000:140; for the various lyre names s. Marcuse 1975:319-23).