The Lyre in Malaysia

Lyre Festival in Malaysia – John Billing, Republic of Ireland

In September of this year, Lau Yee Ching invited me to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for a four week “Lyre Festival” of concerts and workshops.  During the weekdays, the two of us, occasionally joined by Ching’s student Le Xin, practiced a repertoire of duo and trio pieces. First, however, came a little sightseeing:

Park in Taiping

I was taken to Taiping, Ching’s home town, a few hours north of  Kuala Lumpur. Taiping is famous for its beautiful lake set in parkland with enormous “rain trees” (Samanea saman Fabales) covered with epiphytic ferns. We took walks here every evening – when the temperature had dropped from the daily 34 to about 25 degrees centigrade. Many birds were chattering in the trees, and around the lake, we saw storks and some hornbills, which made strange honking sounds as they flew around the tree tops.

Workshop I – Intermediate Level Lyre Playing   

3–4 September 2023

The workshop members were almost all Ching’s students of school age. We set out with the aim of improving skills by playing major and minor scales; freely improvising on the lyre – alone and in ensemble; learning melodies by heart, playing from a score; playing chords and using them to accompany a song; damping the strings, and using extended techniques (such as harmonics).

In between the intense lyre playing sessions, Ching got us all singing, moving, clapping and doing some group games to loosen up. Ching is well trained as a Waldorf teacher as well as being an excellent musician.

We played some Irish and Chinese traditional melodies and a Bach Chorale in four parts. The latter was a completely new experience for all of the students, and they were very moved by the beautiful harmony.

Of particular interest for lyrists may be the way we interpreted the Irish melody “Dilin O Deamhas” with damped glissandi:

Intermediate Workshop participants

Concert Weekend I 

The venue for our concerts on the weekend of 9th and 10th of September was a picturesque old wooden building called The Simple House. Monkeys played on the wires outside while we rehearsed for the concert (but they didn’t come inside!)

We performed the same program on both Saturday night and on Sunday morning for two enthusiastic audiences. For many, this was their first experience of the lyre.

Concert Program

John, Ching, Le Xing Rehearsing

Workshop II – Beginner Level Lyre Playing 

16–17 September 2023

On the following weekend, we had another workshop. This workshop was for beginners and was attended by a group of ladies who had never played a lyre before. We were able to use lyres borrowed from some of Ching’s students.

The beginner group did a lot of experimenting with different sounds on the lyre and played some simple listening games. We played the C scale as well as learning to play simple tunes, and we improvised melodies to the accompaniment of a slow descending scale. I think several of the participants were keen to get themselves a lyre and begin to learn seriously! Also, I could see that they really enjoyed Ching’s Waldorf activity sessions!

Beginner workshop participants

In the days after the Beginner Workshop, Ching took me down to Malacca, a UNESCO World Heritage city with beautiful buildings showing the influence of a multitude of cultures (Malay, Indian, Chinese, Portugese, Dutch...).

Malacca

I got sore feet from walking too much during those two days!

Concert Weekend II

On the 23rd and 24th of September, Ching and I performed with Ng Teck Hing, a professional guqin player and teacher, in his beautiful studio venue.

Ng Teck Hing playing the seven string guqin for Reubke’s “Kleine Ubung” and Giersch’s “Kanon mit Ostinato”

To play lyres with the guqin was very special indeed, and I am so grateful to Ng for his interest and willingness to share in our performance. Ng played the soprano lyre part (the melody) of Kleine Übung an octave lower, and he played the ostinato to the Kanon mit Ostinato. In true guqin style, he included some improvisation in the performance.

Our finale “Mo Li Hua” is a popular Chinese song, and for this Ng brought out the guzheng pictured above. The guzheng is ancestral to several other Asian zithers, including the Japanese koto.

Select the links here to view the Wikipedia articles on the guqin and the guzheng.