Book Review: An Irish Collection for the Lyre

We are excited to offer Anna Prokhovnik Cooper’s most recent collection of music for lyre groups. An Irish Collection for the Lyre contains arrangements of 16 traditional Irish tunes as well as melodies by Turlough O’Carolan and a beautiful nocturne by 19th-century Irish composer, John Field. The pieces are set for different combinations of lyres: some for solo lyre, some for duos, and some for two soprano lyres and an alto lyre. Notably, the collection contains a group of tunes entitled “Three Pieces for Lyre Teacher and Pupil” (“Kerry Slide,” “Buttered Peas,” and “South Wind”) that are duos arranged simply so that early players can join in with confidence.

The composer says: “… I find that Irish music speaks to us all in a special way. It expresses fun, sadness, joy, and pain in a way we can all relate to.” This collection truly taps into the range of human experiences and emotions that Irish music so vividly embodies. From the haunting “She Moved Through the Fair” to the joyous, energetic “John O’Connor,” Anna Cooper has artfully set pieces that are moving and resonant, suiting the lyre perfectly. And because the arrangements accommodate so many different groupings, there is something here for everyone.

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, we highly recommend this beautiful collection of Irish music!

Julia Elliott, for LANA Music Sales

Lyre Mantle for Ukraine

Dear friends of the lyre,

Due to recent and ongoing events taking place in Ukraine, the wish has been expressed to me to reawaken our international Lyre Mantle initiative with the attached composition by Christian Giersch, Kleines Gebet in Klang für Leier rund um die Erde ("Short prayer in sound for Lyre surrounding the Earth"). This powerful piece of music dedicated to the memory of Channa Seidenberg could very well also be played to address so much else that is going on in the world right now that calls for our renewed musical efforts. The sounding of this musical prayer throughout the world will also serve to strengthen our unity and awareness of each other across the globe, transcending time and space.

With warm greetings,
Veronika Roemer

Click here for this free music download.

Calling for contributions for Lyre Notes

Spring 2022 Lyre Notes, coming out soon . . .

We welcome news, stories, short articles, photos, and announcements of lyre happenings in your region.... also reviews about any item in our music sales store as well as ads from our members.

If you are using special music for the Lyre Mantle, we'd like to know what you’re playing!

The copy deadline is March 10th.

Send contributions: lyrists@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!!

International Conference – Lyre 2022

Dear Friends,

Rising out of the global situation that did not permit us to gather as a world lyre community in the summer of 2021 as originally planned, our brave colleagues and friends in the Czech Republic have rescheduled their hosting of our international lyre conference for this summer of 2022.

The conference has been planned to take place in the stunningly beautiful town of Český Krumlov in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic from August 7–14, preceded by a Pedagogical Conference from August 5–7.

The theme that has been chosen is “The Presence of Spirit: Playing the Lyre as an Art of Presence.” During our musically rich days together, we will be able to experience the following:

  • Meeting with lyre-builders and music publishers

  • Workshops for all the levels of playing the lyre (for children and young players, for beginners and advanced players)

  • Eurythmy, meditation work, open stages, concerts, lectures

  • Rehearsals for the common public concert.

The full program will be published in March, but a number of lyrists from around the world have already submitted workshop offerings, including three from the United States. Some will address the conference theme and others will address more broadly-themed aspects of lyre playing. All of the workshop proposals sound intriguing and pertinent! For more detail, please see https://www.lyra-symposium.cz/en/symposium-2020/workshopy.

It would need to be said that although the planning is going forward without impediment, the reality on the ground is a moving target, and over the next several months, we will need to pay careful attention to hopeful changes in travel requirements that are currently still barring the entrance of many of our colleagues from around the world. We ask you to join us in putting all of our positive thoughts toward policy changes that would open the Czech Republic to all who would wish to travel there. LANA will be publishing updates on this situation and the conference in general here in this blog and in our Lyre Notes.

Please also feel free to consult the conference website at any time for updates (ignoring any 2021 year indications...): https://www.lyra-symposium.cz/en/world-lyre-conference2021.

Because we have not been together as an international lyre community since 2018 in the Netherlands, this summer's gathering will be a particularly joyous event! We hope that many of you will consider joining us in this very special fairytale land of castles and fortresses to sound the lyre together once again as an international community of musicians and friends!

With enthusiasm for the musical possibilities before us.

Sheila Johns for the LANA Board

From Brazil - Gift of the Butterfly Dance

Dear Friends of the Lyre!

The world needs more joy, more optimism, more lightness... the Butterfly Dance brings light and joy when we play it.

Two years ago we received Longing for Spring, sent by Veronika Roemer. At that time, it brought for me a kind of lull, that I could share with my lyre students.

So, I send now my Butterfly Dance, a pentatonic composition, hoping that it can bring light to your hearts

With love,
Karla Polanczyk
https://www.cantaro.com.br/

Download a free copy of Butterfly Dance from our store here.
To see more from the LANA store, click here.

Prints and Postcards of the Raphael Madonnas

NEW IN OUR STORE! Prints of the Raphael Madonnas – set of 15, size 19 x 13”

Set of 15 Prints

Raphael’s paintings of the Madonna express secret truths. Rudolf Steiner described the healing effects of Raphael’s Madonnas in August 1908, and between 1908 and 1911 he directed Dr. Felix Peipers to arrange fifteen images as a therapeutic meditation for patients suffering from emotional disturbances. Sometimes called the Raphael Madonna Series, these fifteen pictures invite our active contemplation. Each image can awaken inner pictures that lift us into communion with realms beyond the physical world, stirring our feelings of wonder and reverence and opening our souls to divine mysteries. – By Brian Gray, from Discovering the Zodiac in the Raphael Madonna Series.

“In the different arts… we are presented with different languages that give expression to certain truths living in the human soul. They are often the most secret truths, the most secret knowledge, which cannot readily be reduced to rigid concepts nor clothed in abstract formula, but seek artistic expression.”

– Rudolf Steiner, 29th April 1909.

Book Review: “Xavier Sings Stories of His Alphabet Friends”

Xavier Sings Stories of His Alphabet Friends
By Mary Lynn Channer

See this new book in the LANA store here. 10 copies available now at $17.50 each.

I have been using several songs from Xavier Sings Stories of His Alphabet Friends (by Mary Lynn Channer) for many years, much to the delight of my beginning first grade lyre students. The beautiful illustrations and catchy lyrics make these songs fun and bring true joy to the children’s faces. It makes learning the fingerings of the fifths in “Naughty Nymph” a fun challenge. The children build their vocabularies as well, as they try to think of the meaning of such words and phrases as raucous and regal revelation in the “Raucous Rooster” song. The children insist on playing and singing “Raucous Rooster” in every lesson! Thank you, Mary Lynn, for sharing your delightful songs with us.

Review by Nancy Carpenter
LANA President and lyre teacher at The Detroit Waldorf School

A note about the author, Mary Lynn Channer: Mary Lynn Channer, BME, is a graduate of the Dorion School of Music Therapy. As a vocal and strings teacher for over fifty years, she has applied the educational principles of Rudolf Steiner in Waldorf schools and various other settings. Even as a child growing up in Canada, she loved to draw pictures and make up songs. Now in her later years of life as an anthroposophical music therapist, she considers these creative activities essential for the nourishment of all children – more important than knowing their ABCs! The delicate tones of the lyre have been the background of all this work.

Xavier Sings Stories of His Alphabet Friends is a 91-page, beautifully illustrated book with a song for every letter of the alphabet. Audio files of the songs can be found at Waldorf Publications: www.waldorfpublications.org/collections/xavier-sings-of-his-alphabet-friends-audio-files. This book is a treasure for parents and teachers of young children.

For a current list of featured book reviews, click here.

Have you read the recent issue of LYRE NOTES?

LYRE NOTES - Advent 2021

READ IT HERE: https://mailchi.mp/5b7e719bedef/lana-advent-2021

  • An "Ode" to the Season

    • Including excerpts from Lyre Newsletters in 1986 and 1991. Christof-Andreas Lindenberg‘s words from 30 years ago are more relevant now than ever before….

  • Greetings from President Nancy Carpenter and the Board of LANA

    • We are pleased to include a seasonal gift of music, a free download from lyrist John Billing for all of our members and friends, to thank each of you for your continued financial as well as soul support.

  • Used Lyres For Sale

    • LANA offers its members the opportunity to buy and sell used lyres through Lyre Notes and on our website. The sales transaction is solely between the buyer and the seller, and we do not take responsibility for the condition of lyres being sold or purchased. All communication must go directly through the seller, and buyers should have all their questions answered before purchasing a used lyre.

  • LYRE Rentals

    • The Lyre Association has lyres of various types and sizes that are available for LANA members to rent. Monthly rent is typically $20–$40, depending upon the size and quality of the lyre. For more information on lyre rentals, go to: lyreassociation.org/lyre-rentals, or contact Julia Elliott – (978) 352-5581 / juliabelliott@gmail.com.



The Board of LANA is grateful for your support. Tax-deductible donations from members and friends around the world are so important in defraying the costs of accomplishing our mission. Our membership numbers continue to grow, and we look forward to bringing even more new lyrists to LANA. We invite all members to help us in this endeavor and urge you to consider promoting membership in the Lyre Association among your lyre-playing friends so that more people can enjoy the community support of the ‘freed tone’ that is so rare in our world today.

Calling for Contributions for Lyre Notes for Advent 2021

We welcome news, stories, short articles, photos, and announcements of lyre happenings in your region, reviews about any item in our music sales store, and ads from our members ... also your favorite songs to play at your region’s Advent Gardens.

The copy deadline is December 9th.

We look forward to hearing from you!!  Contributions may be sent to lyrists@gmail.com.

Book Review: “Lyre One”, by Colin Tanser

Colin Tanser’s compositions in his book Lyre One, edited by Andrew Dyer and published by Upper Esk Music, is a rich collection of 22 varied, short pieces that can be played for festivals, healing, and inner enrichment. They are written variously for one or more lyres and other instruments, but many can be played by the solitary lyrist. Some are deceptively simple, and others take some careful practice to sound their best.

Here are a few comments on some of the pieces… I have performed the first piece, ‘Sarabande,’ for a funeral, and am preparing the ‘Advent Pastoral’ for the weeks before Christmas. For many years I have loved playing ‘Sun Child’ in the version for two lyres, and I am very much looking forward to seeing if I can develop the inspiring solo version presented in this collection.

‘Six Untitled pieces’ are deceptively simple, and the ‘Seven Modal Moods’ are a great introduction to modes and an invitation to work more with them.

Then there is ‘Breathing,’ working to accomplish the balance between breath and heart beat.

I am looking forward to working more with these compositions in the future.

Debbie Barford Chicago, IL


Lyre One by Colin Tanser is available at LyreAssociation.org. “Twenty-one original compositions by Colin Tanser, some with variation - including ‘Sun Child’, Prelude to ‘Silent Stones’ , ‘Advent Pastoral’, and more.”

Music Sales

LANA’s music sales service has been growing and expanding at a rapid pace this year. The store has offered us a platform to reach out to the community, sharing free downloads in support of International Lyre Day and the Lyre Mantle of Sound initiative, showcasing contemporary composers’ latest works, and connecting customers to important historical texts. We sent out 433 orders (including PDF downloads) to 22 different countries in the past year, and we are thrilled that we were able to make lyre music and accessories available internationally.

This year we also added two important collections of used music. When our beloved lyre colleague, Kerry Lee, crossed the threshold in September of 2020, her family asked LANA to make her collection of books available to the community. The collection includes books on curative music therapy, music education and pedagogy, science, religion, health and healing, the natural world, and anthroposophy as well as volumes of music. The books are gently used and in good condition and can be found in The Kerry Lee Collection. In addition to this important collection of used books, we recently added a listing of books on music. These books are also lightly used and cover such topics as music history, contemporary musical research, and the biographies of composers (see the Books on Music page). We feel that these two collections include important books that will appeal to LANA members and non-lyrists alike, and that offering them is a form of outreach to the broader community.

As ever, we continue to sell the music of lyre composers, both contemporary and from generations past, from all over the world. Throughout the year, we receive many orders for beginner books such as Anna Cooper’s “How to Play the Lyre,” Gerhard Beilharz’s “Meeting the Lyre,” and Mechthild Laier and Gerhard Beilharz’s “A Guide to Playing the Pentatonic Children’s Lyre.” But we also have a diverse and rich collection of lyre music for solo or ensemble playing, for performance or practice, for festival and seasonal events, and for all levels of experience.

One of the updates to our store has been our new offering of PDF downloads. With the LANA-supported International Lyre Day in July 2020 and the “Lyre Mantle of Sound” project (initiated by Veronika Roemer), the music sales site became a storefront for free music downloads, which created a powerful musical bond between musicians all over the world. Over the course of the year, 383 pieces were downloaded for free and the music we made available included compositions by Channa Seidenberg, Christian Giersch and John Clark as well as arrangements by John Billing and Veronika Roemer. We are hoping to expand our inventory of free downloads as well as to make as many of our printed music books as possible available in digital format. PDF downloads get scores into players’ hands immediately and in a cost-effective way, which expands our customers’ access to lyre music.

We hope that LANA members will be inspired by our store as you look for ways to support your musical life with the lyre. We always welcome your suggestions and will do our best to help you find what you need.

Lyre Gathering in Eugene, Oregon

By Diane Rowley Portland, OR

Harmonizing tones resounded through the open windows and doors and out into the verdant gardens and beehives as the fingers of four women gently kneaded the strings of their lyres; some tentatively, after months of disuse, some with confidence and skill, all with joy and gratitude for the opportunity to play music together.

We would like to extend heartfelt thanks to Margo Ketchum for taking the initiative to organize this small gathering of northwest lyre players at the home of Lucy O’Neal in Eugene, Oregon. Margo and her husband were planning a trip to Eugene to visit their son and his family, so she contacted lyre players in the region and extended the invitation to participate in a day of lyre playing while she was there. Three people responded, a date was set, music was shared, and a potluck was organized. On August 26th, Diane Rowley drove down from Portland to join Jo Forkish and Margo at Lucy’s welcoming home on a green hillside in the outskirts of Eugene.

We spent time at the beginning of the morning chatting and getting to know each other, discovering unique individual and shared backgrounds, experiences, and interests. We warmed up with the scale of the day (E) and sang and played Colin Tanser’s piece on the related planet of Jupiter. Then we dove into our chosen repertoire with Reigen zum Johannisfest by Beatrijs Gradenwitz, which we repeated again at the end of our session. In between, we played a variety of music, including two pieces by Julius Knierim that appeared in the Supplement to our most recent edition of Soundings: Zwischenspiel aus “Der treue Johannes” and Klingen und Nachklingen. Our remaining repertoire was Sarabanda by Corelli, the Ashokan Farewell, the Old Gaelic Prayer, Enchanted Wood by Colin Tanser, Sarabande by Handel, and Spielmusik für Zwei Leiern by Lothar Reubke.

We enjoyed a delicious and bountiful potluck lunch on Lucy’s porch overlooking the garden, and the temperature of the day could not have been more perfect as we visited and commiserated. By the end of the afternoon, we had made plans to meet and play together again soon. Our invigorating day of lyre playing was thoroughly enjoyed by all, as the vibrations of the strings resonated in our hearts and bones and brought smiles to our faces!

A letter of thanks from the Bleffert family in Germany

Manfred Bleffert Playing Celtic Cello

Manfred Bleffert Playing Celtic Cello

Dear LANA friends,

Many, many thanks to all of you all for your generous donations to support Manfred! Your great help is proving to be a big part of Manfred's healing process, and we are very, very thankful for that!

Manfred is slowly getting better, though he has not yet fully recovered, of course. He will be going into a rehabilitation program for the next two weeks, which should be very helpful.

It has been a great blessing that we have my little apartment in the south of Germany near Basel, which I have needed for my work as a eurythmy teacher in Switzerland. So Manfred is now living here with me, and we are very grateful for that. Manfred is looking at the possibility to work as a composer and much more. He just needs more space for working in wood, in stone, or for building instruments.

Time will show us the right way, I think. We are just so thankful that he is still living! Things could be such a struggle for him, but he is so very positive in his thoughts and his speech, also painting, writing, and just being here. It really is a wonder, and most wonderful!

Warmest greetings to you all and to everyone who is thinking of Manfred and sending good thoughts!

God bless you all,
Ulrike Bleffert


LANA has raised $3,280 for the Bleffert Emergency Aid Fund to date.

Joyful Lyre Gatherings in Colorado!

by Wendy Polich, Littleton, Colorado

The Rocky Mountain Lyre Choir:  Holly Richardson (Carbondale, CO), Lorraine Curry (Glenwood Springs, CO), and Wendy Polich, (Littleton, CO)

The Rocky Mountain Lyre Choir: Holly Richardson (Carbondale, CO), Lorraine Curry (Glenwood Springs, CO), and Wendy Polich, (Littleton, CO)

We few lyrists of the Rocky Mountain region gathered over a July weekend as part of LANA’s regional summer-into-fall gatherings. For me, living on the Front Range near Denver, I always relish the opportunity to see my mountain lyre sisters, Holly and Lorraine. Each time I visit them it’s a breathtaking journey through pine and aspen forests and incredible mountain views, my little car chugging its way over not one, but two 11,000-foot mountain passes of the Continental Divide. The final 12-mile stretch of my 3-hour odyssey traverses through rugged Glenwood Canyon, equally breathtaking as you wind through its high mountain walls and tunnels along the Colorado River, a seemingly impossible place to put a railroad or an interstate, yet both are there, the interstate divided into an upper and lower highway, one above the other, in order to fit.

Both Glenwood Springs and nearby Carbondale, where Lorraine and Holly live, are charming, gorgeous, warmly hospitable places, just like these lyre sisters! It’s a magical nourishing place of natural beauty and sisterhood where my heart wells up with joy. And if that weren’t enough, the cherry on top is our communion with our lyre playing. After a year’s absence, we met where we left off, our lyres getting reacquainted with each other after reading the Calendar of the Soul verse, then streaming, improvising, singing; “Dona Nobis Pacem” and Colin Tanser’s “Sea Mist” among our favorites. And always there with us in spirit, listening intently or making mischief, was dear Hartmut, and, I imagine, Channa and Kerry, too.

Of course, I would be remiss not to acknowledge the darker side... that this was the first time I ever travelled that entire mountain corridor through veils of smoky haze coming from all across the West. Travelling through Glenwood Canyon was the first time since a year ago when the fires closed it for weeks. I was witness to the burn scar—the charred, barren canyonland annihilated by the fire—and after returning home, the canyon was again damaged and closed because of mighty mudslides.

I am so grateful that I have my lyre sisters and community to bring healing beauty, with intention, into the world.

Wendy Polich (Littleton, CO), Marianne Dietzel (Minnesota), and Virginia Anderson (Denver, CO)

Wendy Polich (Littleton, CO), Marianne Dietzel (Minnesota), and Virginia Anderson (Denver, CO)

And finally, I was pleasantly surprised when Marianne Dietzel, from Minnesota, contacted me recently because she was visiting Colorado and wanted to play lyre together! I contacted Virginia Anderson (who only lives 15 minutes from me yet we had never met) and we all got together to play this last Sunday. What a joy to play and sing for the first time ever together! It was as if we had always been playing together. After playing the tone of the day planetary scale and improvising on it, we played Colin Tanser’s “Sun Glimpse”, Thomas Pedroli’s “Prayer” arrangement, Channa Seidenberg’s “Though in Noon’s Heaven” round (while singing) and Christof-Andrea Lindenberg’s “Weaving Threads of Gold and Silver”. As we sent up prayerful tones and voices, we were nourished and grateful, since each of us are used to having to play alone.

I’m happy to report that Virginia and I will be playing together on a regular basis, and that Marianne and I are committed to going to the Czech Republic next year! Holly, Lorraine and I have committed to meeting at least once every quarter, and, I can’t wait to introduce them to Virginia and welcome her into the Rocky Mountain Lyre Choir. She will be a wonderful addition!

I look forward to reading about other regional gatherings!

LANA's 2020-2021 Annual Report

Dear LANA members and friends of the lyre,

We are excited to share with each of you our 2020-2021 Annual Report of the Lyre Association of North America. You will hear the voices of almost all of our Board members in the various committee summaries. The compilation of reports included in this edition provide an exciting picture of the diverse programs and activities that have characterized this last year for our Association!

We have dedicated this Annual Report to our dear colleague and friend, Kerry Lee, who crossed the Threshold of Death last September 2020. We wished to take the opportunity this publication has provided for us to share with you a description of Kerry's life and the important role she played in the development of our lyre work in North America.

Please enjoy this once-a-year special issue of our Lyre Notes!

The LANA Board

To see the 2020-21 Annual Report, please click here.

Open the above link to read the Annual Report. Once there, click on the icon in the lower right hand corner to get an Index of each article so that you can choose to read them in any order you wish.

The LANA Board

Our Mission

The Lyre Association of North America is a non-profit organization whose mission is to initiate, to inspire, and to support the sounding of the modern lyre as a musical instrument in artistic, pedagogical, and therapeutic activities in North America and throughout the world.

Our aims are:

  • To foster the experience and recognition of the freed tone as well as the rediscovery and deepening of our capacity to listen.

  • To cultivate our community of members and friends through the following services:

    • Sponsoring conferences, concerts, and regional workshops for adults and children

    • Publishing a newsletter (Lyre Notes) and journal (Soundings), and to support the publishing of other materials relevant to our work

    • Providing the opportunity for members to rent or purchase LANA-owned lyres and to advertise used lyres for sale

    • Offering a music sales service for printed music, books, and journals in paper and digital format, along with lyre accessories

    • Helping to connect new lyrists with partners or mentors.

  • To promote lyre builders whose work aligns with LANA’s mission.

  • To collaborate with national and international colleagues to further support the development of our worldwide Movement for Musical Renewal in all of its manifestations, including innovations in anthroposophically-inspired instruments as well as the human voice.

http://www.lyreassociation.org

Donate to Manfred Bleffert’s Emergency Aid Fund

The house and the workshop where Manfred Bleffert lived were completely destroyed by the devastating floods in the Ahr Valley, which is located in the Eifel, in western Germany.

In addition to all of his personal belongings, the workshop studio with instruments from his instrument and musical research, the entire compositional work, the painterly and graphic works as well as all sculptural works succumbed to the violence of the flood. The extensive writings from 50 years of research are destroyed or lost as well.

To read a letter from Manfred Bleffert’s wife, Ulrike, go to our blog post.

We welcome you to use LANA's website for your donation. If you wish to donate directly to the German fund for Manfred (in euros), use the information in this link.

LANA is receiving donations in all currencies toward the emergency aid fund set up for Manfred. Funds contributed via the Donate button below will be sent to that account in Germany by LANA.

News from Cântaro Belo Horizonte

Cantaro group.jpg

by Karla Polanczyk, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, cantaro.com.br

In May we had one more Cântaro “birthday”...

We went through strong changes, when (unfortunately!) Flávia returned to São Paulo, in 2019. After that we had a new singing teacher who stayed a year and left. And then came Covid-19.

Our group is now a much smaller group than it was five years ago. We are now around 18 lyres in Belo Horizonte, among very beginners and advanced lyres. We remain always strong and aware of the importance of the lyre and kantele sounds in our world, especially nowadays. I (Karla) am now the only one responsible for the kantele, lyre and singing groups at Cântaro Belo Horizonte.

Whenever possible, as has been the case since April 2021, we have in-person classes, always according to covid-19 security protocols. Unfortunately, in Brazil, we don't know how long we will be able to keep classroom lessons. But even when classes need to be online, all students continue with classes, as best as they can, until the city is back up and running.

We had a very rich meeting with some lyre players from different classes, in a beautiful and opened place. We could play and sing together the pieces that everyone and every small group play, each in their class. It was a “meeting of groups", a small lyre workshop with Cântaro´s students.

Here are some photos of this meeting:

Pictured below: In the warmth of St. John´s festivities, united in singing and lyre, we renew our strength and rekindle our light, which we carry forward like our lanterns that show us the way each day, every day!

We always appreciate, after each class and each meeting, the possibility of having such wonderful lyres and kanteles to nourish our souls and our hearts!

I hope I was able to tell and show to you how important it is to us to continue this work playing the lyres, even in such difficult and, in so many different aspects, challenging times!

Karla Polanczyk

Karla Polanczyk

Warm greetings from Brazil!

Lyre 2021 Regional Workshops

Thank you all for completing the LANA survey regarding regional workshops.

The following people are willing to host or facilitate workshops in their areas. Please contact them for more information.

We were hoping to have workshops in all the regions, from sea to shining sea.

We also have requests from other lyrists in Texas, Eastern Ohio, Colorado and California (Los Angeles and San Francisco). We would love for them to have an opportunity to play with a group. If you would be able to host or facilitate an event for these lyrists this summer, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to send their information to you.

We are looking forward to seeing the pictures and reading the reports after your gatherings!

Nancy Carpenter and Debra Barford,
for the Lyre Board (lyrists@gmail.com)

Dear all who are connected in any way with Manfred Bleffert from Germany,

German musician, composer, visual artist, and instrument maker Manfred Bleffert

German musician, composer, visual artist, and instrument maker Manfred Bleffert

A letter from Manfred Bleffert’s wife Ulrike
Date: 7/18/21
Subject: Greetings from the heart to everyone

Dear friends and people close to Manfred near and far!

We send you all warmth and comforting thoughts and big thanks for your deep sympathy, which gives us light and strength!

Yes, it is an unimaginable event that struck with full force and almost robbed Manfred of his life twice in a row. He had many helping good spirits with him when he stood alone in the top attic chamber on the night of July 14th to 15th and listened to the unleashed violence, which raged with unbelievable thunder and roar over the valley – 8-10m high! It had been raining extremely hard for many hours.

At midnight the rising water suddenly stood still, just a little under the roof ridge, the sky tore open and a bright starry sky appeared! Manfred had seen trees, houses, cars swim away and heard how the water tore away two whole walls of our house and the balconies. He stood at the window all night, sometimes singing, and experienced the dramatic rage of violence, which only gradually calmed down towards morning.

Johannes was in another house nearby; they couldn't talk to each other anymore. I myself was still in Freiburg; we wanted to go on vacation to the North Sea in a few days. Manfred had been able to call me again in the evening before all lines and the cellular network broke down, saying it was the end of the world.

I wasn't able to drive off until the next afternoon, only when the catastrophic weather and traffic conditions allowed it again. Bettina Westphal accompanied me with loving support. I wanted to pick up Manfred, who had been saved with Johannes in the meantime.

Towards the morning of the next day we both woke up very early at the same time. Manfred suddenly said the sentence: "Now the events are just reaching me," completely horrified.

Shortly afterwards, he suffered a heart attack.

He's doing reasonably well now, I'm allowed to visit him, but he's still in the intensive care unit. With our friends as well as volunteers from Bonn who are available here, we have meanwhile been able to rescue individual items from the house. The help is overwhelming and fills us with great gratitude!

Everything was under water. Nevertheless – we hope that it dries up. Individual sound tubes and cymbals lay on the completely destroyed ground, individual small sculptural works made of soapstone ... We keep looking ... many friends and our children have offered their help!

Large parts of the house and the whole studio workshop, all musical instruments and the whole household have disappeared in the floods and with it all of Manfred's artistic work from 50 years. It is incomprehensible and still needs to be understood. Irreparable destruction that cannot be physically rebuilt.

Due to my work as a eurythmist in the south, which will end at the end of January with my retirement, there is a small household available for us, including some of Manfred's work, of course. Manfred will join me in Freiburg after his extensive recovery. From there we will look for our "place to live in old age" and trust that we will find it! A place where we can continue our artistic work together. ....

I greet you all near and far in the world in Manfred's name with the light of the heart and great joy over this almost stolen but newly given life for him, the life that gives us so much to work, to learn, to understand – something full of light and pain to the same extent. We do not want to give up our gratitude and hope, bearing Rudolf Steiner's words within us:

Light divine,
Christ-Sun,
Warm our hearts;
Enlighten our heads;
That good may become
What from our hearts we are founding,
What from our heads we direct,
With focused will.

With heartfelt thoughts and in Manfred's name and will,
Ulrike (ulrikebleffert@posteo.de)


Read the article Travels with Manfred about David Adams’ 2014 visit to Manfred and his home and studio in Heiligenberg, Germany, which includes various photos of his paintings, sculptures, furniture, and unusual musical instruments. From the Art Section Newsletter, No. 42, Autumn-Winter 2014, pp. 35-39.

The Beings of Silence: An Introduction to the Musical Work of Manfred Bleffert – From Soundings 3, 2 (Spring 2011): 5-14, published by the Lyre Association of North America.

Read a report on Workshops with Manfred Bleffert in a 2010 article by David Adams, published in Being Human: https://www.rudolfsteiner.org/fileadmin/user_upload/being_human/bh-articles/adams/Bleffert-Adams2.pdf

Field of Strings

Field of Strings

"Field of Strings" was one of Manfred’s one-of-a-kind original instruments, consisting of 12 rectangular "Lyres" linked together on a stand in a half circle. Lots of fun to play (but now probably destroyed).