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.
