Air on the G String original. Later, a spurious story was put about that the melody was always intended to be played on the G string alone. The violin solo part of Wilhelmj's arrangement is sometimes played on the counter-tenor violoncello. As a result of the popularity of the piece, "on the G string" remained in the name of various arrangements whether or not a string instrument playing on its G string was involved. Most of these versions have in common that the original melody of the first violins is played in the low register of a solo instrument, accompanied by a reduction of the
Cretan lyra plates was reported in 2006. The old model of the Cretan lyra (also called "lyraki" ~ small lyra), is tuned 5-1-4. That is, the middle string is the lowest in pitch and the others are a 4th and a 5th above it. The performer plays the melody on the 1st and 3rd string, using the 2nd string as a drone (Magrini 1997), similarly to the Byzantine lyras from ca. 1190 AD, found in the excavations of Novgorod (Anthony Baines, 1992). The contemporary lyra modelled after Stagakis' design is tuned in fifths to (d-a-e'), and like the violin, it uses no