Lyre Mantle II

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A new impulse for our Lyre Mantle project

A message from Veronika Roemer . . .

Dear friends and lyrists,

It has been five months since we began to weave the Lyre Mantle. Surely it has become the most beautiful and stunning fabric, woven from the sounds of many different lyres, varying in size, range, structure, wood, and being played by people from many different cultural backgrounds.

In March, I imagined that we would work on this mantle for a few months. Now, however, it seems that the world needs it as much, if not more, than ever before.

One of the many sad consequences of the all-dominating fear that surrounds us at the present time, is that people have less access to live music than perhaps ever before in our lifetimes. Instead, throughout the world, electronic sounds are permeating our homes via our televisions and our computer screens.

But every time a lyre sounds, healing takes place. We are so fortunate to have an instrument that, purely through its sound, opens our listening and touches the soul deeply, regardless of the music that is being played. Merely by enabling the lyre to sound, we offer living forces. One might call it "prayer in sound." My five-year-old daughter knew this instinctively while playing the lyre. "I'm giving the sound to the angels," she exclaimed, while lifting her arm in a graceful ascending arch after gliding her fingers across the strings of her pentatonic lyre.

With such an inspiration, we would like to propose a new impulse for our Lyre Mantle project going forward. First, please do continue to sound your lyre tones as often as you are able – alone or with others – with the clear intention to offer healing to our troubled world and a balm to your own soul. Second, we would like to invite all of our friends in the worldwide lyre community to share their stories with the Lyre Association of North America.

  • What has the lyre meant to you during these last months?

  • How did you choose the lyre as your instrument?

  • How does it enrich your life?

  • How do you picture the role of the lyre in the coming months and years – for yourself, and for the world?

Please send one or two paragraphs to lyrists@gmail.com. LANA will publish your responses in its Tuesday blog as well as on the World Lyre Community Facebook page.

Veronika Roemer, Quakertown, PA