Book Review: Music for Alto and Soprano Lyre by Murray Wright

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Book Review: Music for Alto and Soprano Lyre by Murray Wright

[Reviewed by Sheila Johns, Cuenca, Ecuador]

I am delighted to enthusiastically recommend this beautiful small collection of lyre music composed by Murray Wright, lyre builder, composer, and player from Melbourne, Australia.

Music for Alto and Soprano Lyre is a volume of eight early intermediate lyre pieces. Although only the first two pieces are written on a single staff, it is actually possible to play all of the first four pieces on one lyre.

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It’s Retreat Time for the Board of the Lyre Association of North America!

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The LANA Board will be holding its Annual Directors’ Meeting on August 26-27. Our 2020 lyrists’ “gathering” was our well-attended Zoom call on International Lyre Day. Next year, however, we hope to all be together again at the International Lyre Conference in the Czech Republic. There, members and friends of LANA will gather for an in-person Annual Members’ Meeting to reflect on the past year as an organization, to collect thoughts and ideas from everyone, and to share with one another our regional lyre work.

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Book Review: “SAFE FROM THE STORM” for Lyres and Harps by John Billing

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Book Review: “SAFE FROM THE STORM” for Lyres and Harps by John Billing

[Reviewed by John Clark, Kilkenny, Ireland]

Did John Billing have a premonition of the great Covid storm all humanity would face in the months following its composition? Certainly, it was a great help to me, playing this piece during this fearful and alarming period, and I began to notice that its gentle syncopations can have a steadying and soothing effect, though I would have expected the opposite to be the case.

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Book Review: “FROM IRELAND WITH LOVE” for Lyres and Harps, by John Billing

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Book Review: “FROM IRELAND WITH LOVE” for Lyres and Harps, by John Billing

[Reviewed by John Clark, Kilkenny, Ireland]

Here in Ireland we talk a lot about “the living tradition”. We mean by this term that there is not only the performance of traditional and well known music from the folk tradition in nooks and crannies all over the country, but also the creation of new repertoire, sometimes with a quite modern twist, continually finding its way into the canon of Irish Traditional Music.

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Lyre Day Greetings from around the World

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We are so pleased to see all the appreciative and supportive comments from various parts of the world! Amazingly, it is clear that we ended up touching and involving more people many times over than if we had held our original conference in person. Under normal circumstances, this would never be a true substitute, of course, but it has nevertheless proven to be a very satisfying and rewarding alternative in this particular year. Bravo and gratitude to all!

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