Christian Giersch

(Germany)

Forming the lyre-tone by movement and consciousness

Using very simple melodies and elements of improvisation, the workshop will lead to some mysteries between the spiritual and material world.

Level: All levels
Language: German/English
Capacity: Up to 12

Susanne Heinz

(Germany)

The TAO-Melody

We create together a musical form, in which this melody (Tao-Melody) is our main topic. This Form depends on the spirit of the location and on the ideas, the participants will get.This workshop is open for everyone! Even a knowledge of how to play the lyre is not necessary. But naturally lyres can be very helpful. Please bring your lyre or other instruments with you.

Level: All levels
Language: German/English 
Capacity: Up to 30 

John Clark

(Ireland)

1. Introduction and Improvising on the Scales of the Tone of the Day 

In this workshop, which is intended for any lyre players unfamiliar with these scales, I shall introduce and explore The Seven Scales of the Tones of the Day (sometimes called Planetary Scales) each with its own spiritual-etheric counter movement. We will discover the character in each scale and begin to find ways to use them by improvising to a simple story. 

Level: All level
Language: English
Capacity:  Up to 30

2. Lost And Forgotten - Playing Unknown Songs of the Scottish Islands 

Many lyre players have adapted and used the well-known Songs of the Hebrides by Marjory Kennedy Fraser drawn from her 5 volumes in her lovely settings for piano and voice. Beside these more than 200 well-known settings she collected and published more than 100 tunes and songs without any settings.This workshop will draw on my recent publication Scottish Traditional Tunes & Songs : Forgotten Music from the Isles of the West which has 42 of the best of these in simple settings for lyre.

Level: All levels
Language: English
Capacity: Up to 30 

John Billing

(Ireland)

1. The Zen of Lyra Playing

The present moment
the lyre strings gently sounding
tension all released.
It is a lyre playing workshop: we will
exercise our whole body with the lyre;
play scales and chords;
play from a score;
play from memory;
perform for each other and with each other;
improvise;
sing.
In the here and now
the strings of the lyre resound;
I resound with them.

Level: All levels
Language: English 
Capacity: Up to 30

2. "Bring a Score Party"

Participants are invited to bring any music score for the group to have fun playing together.

Level: All levels
Language: English
Capacity: Up to 30 

Susann Temperli 

(Switzerland)

The presence of Spirit in forming the Lyretone

During the Independent Music School I had the luck to get to know a musical training path with Annemarie Loring, which gave me a new approach to playing the lyre. Years of practice and development have given me an approach to how the lyre sound can become more and more lively, richer and more radiant. The necessary permeability, presence and connection with the instrument and the lyresound can be achieved through exercises.

Level: Intermadiate/advanced
Language: English/German
Capacity: Up to 30 

Gunhild von Kries

(Germany)

Musical elements as a door to the spiritual presence

A deeper understanding and experience of intervals and other musical elements as a door to spiritual presence while playing the lyre.

Level: All levels
Language: English/German
Capacity: Up to 30 

Yael Barak

(Israel)

Bringing the presence of the spirit in group work - where is the spirit?

Simple improvisations in group therapy work - giving and receiving with lyre playing - as the archetype of health. We will play the Tao lyres and Bordun lyres, as well as your own lyres. The emphasis will be on listening - to our body and to the others in the group. Could fit beginners on the one hand, and music therapists on the other hand - to discuss therapeutic issues in group therapy with lyres. We will search for the spirit between active and receptive activity.

Level: All levels
Language: English
Capacity: Up to 30 

Hartmut Reuter

(Germany)

Playing the Lyre - Development of the New in Listening and Musitating

What is listening as a process in addition to its content? May be exchange and enhancement of experience and maybe the creation of experience. "Musitating" arises out of experiences I have had. First, playing music I regard as two differentiable beings: Music as a proportion and the audibility, the way it comes to be bearable, the substance of sound. Then - especially after having played music, or more exactly, having played the lyre, there is the mood of existing in the way of existing after meditation.

Level: All levels
Language: English/German/Spanish
Capacity: Up to 30  

Martin Tobiassen

(Germany)

Sheltered Freedom

In many pieces for lyre there are open spaces in which you have to/are allowed to improvise, so you are invited to join in the process of creation even more profound than only by interpretation. On one side, this is a big help because the composer inspires you with his music; on the other, it is a challenge, because by doing too much, too less, too long, too short ... you can easily disturb or even destroy the balance of the musical form. So this is what freedom means in this realm: finding the balance between a given environment and my own impulses. And hopefully the environment is not a limitation, but a shelter.
In this workshop we play music by Pär Ahlbom (excerpts from Improva"), Julius Knierim ("Today's TAO" and other pieces), Carl Orff (from "Musik für Kinder") and others.

Level: intermediate/advanced
Language: German/English
Capacity: Up to 30   

Andrea Schade

(Switzerland)

A creative path of finding a tone

 ccording to Heinz Grill, the sound is designed on a clear creative path of thought in such a way, that a spiritual being can take the lead and the true sound comes to shine.

Preparing the music under good conditions, with concentration and a real imagination is precious and joyful. The spiritual world will then help that the tones can rise in simplicity. The etheric body can restore, and a next order can manifest that has a regenerating effect. In this workshop, we will explore the creative path of finding a tone step by step. Preparing the tones, practising simple exercises, improvisations and melodies. The question will accompany us: What is the quality of the tones? Can etheric forces be experienced? You can also bring another instrument.

Level: All levels
Language: German/English
Capacity: 6 - 16

Christina Porkert

(USA)

Improvisation - the Art to Capture the Spirit of the Moment

We will work with music from the Renaissance ("Canons in the Church Modes" by J. Walter) as well as the 20th century ("Tricinia" by Z. Kodaly) to prepare us for improvising. While the first in a unique way teach us to play in a free-flowing rhythm, the "Tricina", in contrast, are harmonically liberating and offer the experience of melodic integrity in short polyphonic settings. Building on these foundations will help to deepen our listening space, an essential prerequisite for any improvisation. (Music can be shared ahead of conference.)

Level: intermediate/advanced
Language: English/German
Capacity: Up to 30  

Thomas Leinz

(Germany)

Contemporary music composed for lyre

How do I access new music?
How do I speak with tones?
The sound of the lyre is poor (but purer) in contrast to the rich sound of the piano.
With this poor sounding instrument, what are the technical possibilities to be able to create musically?
Works:
Peter-Michael Riehm: Moment musical
Stefan Werren: Music for two lyres
Julius Knierim: Wir Menschen der Gegenwart (We people of the present)

Level: Advanced
Language: English
Capacity: Up to 30  

Jan Braunstein 

(Czech Republic)

Organic Improvisation

One of the most magical moments in artistic creation is the one right before it begins. The moment just before a painter draws the first line, a poet writes the first verse, or a conductor raises his baton to begin a symphony. In our workshop we shall fully embrace this initial moment of presence and explore the origins of musical gestures in search for an organically flowing form of free improvisation.

Level: Intermediate/advanced
Language: English/Czech
Capacity: Up to 15

Anna Cooper

(USA)

Searching for the Celtic spirit 

My workshop on music inspired from four different Celtic regions comes from my experience of music, living in Ireland and Brittany, and will be developed out if my long experience of teaching adults, children and the disabled the lyre, in many different settings and situations. We will explore similarities and differences in this music, and question the meaning of the word "Celtic" in relation to this music. We will also look at playing this music in different ways, i.e. with kanteles.

Level: All levels
Language: English
Capacity: Up to 15  

Thea Kaesbach

(Switzerland)

The mood of fifth and pentatonic music for the young child
(through Eurythmy and lyre playning)

What is the mood of the fifth? What is pentatonic music? We will explore through singing, movement and lyre playing the quality of the interval of the fifth and the quality of pentatonic music, which corresponds to the nature of the young child, with their light-filled essence and the freedom from a fixed tonality. Everybody is invited to take part, who likes to enter into this fresh and joyful space of childhood, discovering the mood of the fifth in this early stage of life. 

Level: All levels/Beginners
Language: English/German/
Portuguese
Capacity: Up to 30 

Hana Adamcová

(Czech Republic)

The whole person experiences music and words

In seven eurythmy encounters, we want to experience the effect of intervals in a person's limbs. With the help of eurythmy, we, as the strongest parts of the human body, will learn to remember the creative forces of movement. In the connection of music, words and movement, we will look for relationships between the seven creative forces and the human organism.

Language: Czech/German

Helena Hlaváčková (Bartošová) 

(Czech Republic)

The whole tone lyre 

Coordination of the physical body and its effect on the life forces and healthy. The cooperation of our hands that leads to the balance. Music therapy options. Practical exercises and finding options.
(workshop of the Pedagogical Conference)