“...Montefiore Lyres in the classroom work such a treat... they hold their tuning extremely well...”
“...Playing the Alto Lyre is a satisfying performance experience .... projection is great and I can explore such beautiful timbre...”
What is the lyre? The Modern Lyre is something for everyone. Today’s chromatic lyre’s setup and technique is with one bank of strings for natural notes and the other for the flats and sharps, similar to the piano. Lyres also have beautiful sculptural shapes and are often purchased as an object of beauty. The modern incarnation of the lyre came about when Rudolf Steiner talked about an instrument like a Kithara being ideally suited to the art form eurhythmy. It was the music therapist, Edmund Pracht and sculptor, W.Lothar Gärtner that gave birth to the modern lyre in the 1920s. Today, the Lyre is an instrument used in many different circumstances: Performance, Music Therapy and Pedagogy.
Website Update
I am in the process of moving Montefiore Lyres. Please check out www.montefioreinstruments.com
If you are a parent, student or teacher in a Waldorf school or a school working under the indications of Rudolf Steiner, then take a few minutes to look at the Kinder Lyre and School Lyre pages. The Montefiore school lyre display a sculptural grace and produce beautiful tones and are ideally suited to the needs of Steiner Schools.
If you are a performer or music therapist look at the performance lyres designed with a wider range and more powerful and richer tone. If you are a lyre player like John Billing who works as a performer, teacher and therapist, or like Yumi Kimura in Japan, who has popularized the lyre by using it to accompany her singing, then a Montefiore Performance Soprano Lyre or Performance Alto Lyre would suit. These lyres have a domed back which pays homage to Apollo’s Lyre, which, by the way, was made by Hermes from a tortoise’s shell and bulls horns. The domed back produces a rich tone and the Performance lyres are upgradable.
