Kimberton Regional Lyre Workshop

L to R: Lyrists Margo Ketchum, Samantha Embrey, Veronika Roemer, Molly Halliday, & Sumin Dai

It was a diverse group that assembled at Margo Ketchum’s home in Kimberton on April 4 for a regional weekend workshop: Our ages stretched from 17 to 83; our homes ranged from Long Island, NY to Crozet, VA; our experience of lyre playing varied from well over 30 years to only a few years: and our lyres were created in five separate workshops. Yet, under Veronika Roemer’s leadership, we quickly found common ground in making music together.

In addition to Veronika and Margo, the group included Molly Halliday, Sumin Dai, and me. Mostly, we played the sheet music that Veronika had previously sent us. There was a wonderful variety – music by Bach, Beethoven, and Telemann as well as music written for the lyre by Christian Giersch, Martin Tobiassen, Lothar Reubke, and Max Gross. Each piece posed its own set of challenges and prompted technical tips for lyre playing. For me, the most memorable tip was “flesh on the strings” – i.e., use the full finger pad to produce a full tone on the upper strings of the lyre. For the lower strings, on the other hand, we learned that the tips of the fingers are best.

As a musicologist, I have to note that, thanks to Veronika’s transcription, it was likely the first time that Bach’s B-flat minor prelude and fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Volume I, had ever been performed on the lyre! It was beautiful music that worked well on the lyre, despite its five flats!

Interspersed with playing sheet music were sessions of improvising, each session introducing a different approach to improvising. In one, for example, we took turns around the circle, continuing the thread begun by the person next to us. In another, we overlapped melodies –someone improvised a melody and another person joined in, the first person stopped and a third joined it, and so forth.

I suspect the rewards of the weekend varied somewhat for all of the members of the group but that we all found joy in overcoming our personal challenges and in making music together.