Easter this year, as cosmically determined from the equinox, full moon, and day of the week, is the latest that is possible for this festival: April 20. On April 19, 1924, Rudolf Steiner lectured about the Easter festival in Dornach, Switzerland. This, and the subsequent three lectures, would be the last time he would lecture on this topic. In 2025, Easter falls on a date near the one of Steiner’s final lectures on the Easter festival in relation to the evolution of the mysteries, which can allow us to cultivate a particular resonance with those lectures this year. We celebrate Easter in the Spring now, which, in temperate zones, is the time of the renewal
of plant life after the sleep of winter. Each time that Easter comes around (and we must be particularly conscious about the time as it is not a fixed date), we have a chance to renew our awareness of death, coming out of death, and the mystery of the Christ events at the time of Golgotha. But we are also aware that the Resurrected Christ continued to work with the disciples for another forty days. Music gives us the potential to be aware of the spiritual world in this regard, and, also, to give something back to the spiritual world, especially with the freed tone of the lyre.
–Catherine Read
Morning Prayer
This poem has been part of my Morning Prayers writing, as taught to me some years back by another poet, who said to ask oneself each morning, upon waking: “How is it now with me?” One awakens from dreams and attempts to get the hint of remembrance or feeling of where we were in our ‘night out’, and then, in the second stanza, really address how earth (one’s life), seems on awakening – in the spirit of Adam Bittleson’s prayer from Meditative Prayers for Today, “I come from the Realm of the Invisible and penetrate anew...”
–Margaret
Veils
Clouded veils close down our dreams
To seeming nothingness as night recedes-Darkened shadows retire from view Moving fresh forces and well I knew...
That Day awakens, spring has blossomed Trees are full of budding welcome Cloud forms lighten out of night Green of earth, sing the Risen One’s sight.
–Margaret Collinson from Morning Prayers
Let the Tone Come Alive!
Discovering the Living Essence of Music with Christian Giersch
Fri–Wed, August 15–20, in Copake, New York
Master lyrist, composer, and teacher Christian Giersch will be traveling from Germany to Camphill Village, Copake, NY to work with members and friends of the Lyre Association of North America!
• Plenary sessions with the whole group
• Small group intensive workshops
• An interactive concert, musical sharings, and more!
Register now at https://form.jotform.com/LyreAssoc/2025-registration
Early bird discount until June 30th! • A $150 deposit secures your place at the conference and helps us plan!
Lyre Association Summer Conference 2025: Let the Tone Come Alive!
Discovering the Living Essence of Music
Our 2025 conference will be lead by master teacher Christian Giersch, who is coming to us from the Black Forest area of Germany. Born in Thuringia, Germany in 1951, Christian studied church music and composition in Stuttgart and has been playing lyre and composing since 1978. He worked as a Waldorf teacher from 1982 to 2014. Presently, Christian works with ensembles and
gives interactive concerts with composed and improvised music. In 2018, Christian joined lyrist Martin Tobiassen to co-found an international summer lyre academy in Germany.
Christian has elaborated on the theme and his intentions for our summer conference in the following short description:
The wonderful sound of the lyre can lead both listener and player to the experience that musical tones, intervals, and rhythms are more than mere physical phenomena. They want to be experienced and formed like living beings. Only then does their inherent strength to create peace and community unfold. I have worked with this theme for decades as a teacher and performing artist and would like to share my experiences with you. By means of basic practical exercises (suitable for lyrists of any skill level), by moving together, playing the lyre (with and without sheet music), singing, and listening, we will come closer to the living essence of music: Let the tone come alive!
Fees: Conference: $315–$335 (tiered pricing for LANA members* and early bird discounts before June 30). The conference fee includes snacks. Limited financial aid will be available.
Meals: Lunch and dinner are prepared by a local chef using fresh, wholesome and, when possible, organic ingredients, with hearty snacks provided in the morning and afternoon breaks. The conference menu can accommodate people with vegetarian, gluten-free, and/or dairy-free dietary needs. If you have food restrictions beyond those, we recommend opting out of our meal plan and providing your own meals.
$120 Friday supper–Wednesday lunch (breakfast on your own)
$65 Lunches (main meal) only
$55 Suppers only
Lodging information: AirBnBs can be found in Copake, NY. Some rooms are available in private homes (contact Sarah Stosiek at sarahstosiek.lyre@gmail.com). Or you can stay at The Brooks Motel (617-918-7793) or The Alander (518-329-3000).
*See: http://lyreassociation.org/membership to join the Lyre Association of North America and to take advantage of member discounts.
Friday 8/15
3:00 - 4:15 pm Registration
4:30 pm
LANA Annual General Meeting
6pm Supper
7:30 - 9:00 pm
Opening Evening
Introductory Talk
Musical Offerings
Tone of the Day
Lyre 2025 with master lyre teacher
Christian Giersch
Let the Tone Come Alive! Discovering the Living Essence of Music
8:45 am 10:00 am 10:30 am 11:15 am 12:30 pm 2:00 pm 3:00 pm 4:15 pm 4:45 pm 6:00 pm 7:15 pm
Camphill Village, Copake, NY 8:55 pm
Announcements and Tone of the Day Plenum Morning Break
Flowing Forming – Strömendes Gestalten Lyre Groups Lunch
Honing Lyre Skills Plenum
Afternoon Break
Lyre Groups – Continued Supper
Sound Workshop/ Dornach 2026 Full Group Rehearsal Community Music Sharing
Tone of the Day
8:45 am Concluding Session 10:30 am Break
Closing Plenum Reflections/ looking ahead
12:30 pm Lunch
Christian has composed a piece of music for lyres that will be played at the World Lyre Conference to be held at the Goetheanum in 2026, entitled ‘A Mantle of Time and Sound’. Below he describes this piece of music, which we will work with this summer at our LANA Conference in Copake, NY.
A Mantle of Time and Sound
February 2025
All people share the experience of the earth’s daily passage from day to night. This cycle unites us as human beings and, at the same time, allows us to witness the relationship that our different dwelling places (cities, countries, and continents) have to each other. Every location is at the same time eastern, western, and central, depending on the direction from which it is being seen. Our 2026 international conference in Dornach is intended to bring together people from all parts of the world under the signature of the new sound of the lyre. It is as if all times of the day will meet in one place at the same time to search for a great harmony of the future. Based on this image, the music piece, “A Mantle of Time and Sound” was created. Its four parts are dedicated to the times of the day: morning to midday, afternoon to evening, night to midnight, and midnight to dawn. The
middle voice represents the path of human beings. The piece can be played on soprano and alto lyres and can also be sung. The upper voice is only for soprano lyres (and advanced players) and was composed with the air and light-beings of our atmosphere in mind. The lower part (alto and bass lyres) gives voice to those beings who accompany us on and beneath the earth. The capital letters indicate individual tones (not chords). They can be played “ad libitum” by beginner lyre players or they can also be played with bells and other metal instruments. After several repetitions, the last tone “a” concludes the piece. An asterisk (*) underneath a tone indicates damping: Please mute when the next tone sounds! This music is part of the Plenum-Gesamtkunstwerk that is to be created in Dornach in 2026. –Christian Giersch
Zeitmantel - Klanghülle A Mantle Of Time And Sound
Oberstimme
Hauptstimme
S./A.L
Summer Youth Music Camp WE LOVE MUSIC!
Ages 9–16, in conjunction with the 2025 LANA Summer Lyre Conference in Copake, NY
DATES: Saturday, August 16th through Wednesday, August 20th
TIME : 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Performance on the evening of Tuesday, August 19th
Our Summer Youth Music Camp will be held again at Camphill Copake with master teacher Veronika Roemer. Please join us as we explore the world of sound with percussion and wind instruments made from metal, wood, clay, and stone as well as string instruments (psaltery and lyre). Participants are welcome to bring instruments that they would like to share with the group, but no previous musical experience is required or necessary.
Our youth program will offer a wonderful foundation for any young person who is interested in attending the 2026 World Lyre Conference at the Goetheanum next summer!
Contact Julia Elliott at juliabelliott@gmail.com for more information.
For those wishing to register by mail with a check made out to “Lyre Association of N. America”, please fill out this form and mail to: 2237 Kimberton Rd, Phoenixville, PA 19460.
Child’s Name
Parent/Guardian’s Name
Address
Parent’s Email
Phone
Child’s Age
Do you have a lyre you can bring? ☐
Will you need to borrow a lyre? ☐
Request for Financial Aid (Fill in the balance you can pay) $
Register my child for:
Full Day with Lunch Only ($200) ☐ Full Day with Lunch & Dinner ($250) ☐
Full Day without Meals (Includes 2 snacks, $150) ☐ (Vegetarian and dairy-free/gluten-free options available for meals and snacks.)
Payment enclosed: $ Deposit $100
Listening to What You See From
the Archives
[Excerpt from Lyre Newsletter Vol. 18 – Whitsun 1991]
When times were less burdened than they are today, namely in medieval times, some people could hear the recreated secret of the universe! Here is a paragraph from The Death of Merlin by Walter Johannes Stein that I found inspiring as Nature buds forth into Spring.
–Janet McGavin
Look, the grass grows and the flowers in the grass are blossoming. But you overlook many things if you stop there and seek no further explanation of what you see. If you want to understand reality you have to learn to see through the appearances which provide such a spectacle for the eyes. Something makes the grass grow. To discover what it is, you have to pass from the observation of external appearances to interior listening. If you pay close attention, you will recognize that the act of remembering an observation is a listening process. A wonderful musicality in things will one day be revealed to you if you live with this thought and repeatedly pass from observation to inner listening. The whole of the plant world will resound. The cup opening upward will be transformed into the
sound of trumpets. All growth will then resound with music. And as you learn to listen to nature even more deeply you will learn that the resonance of growth and development is an echo. The real music resounds in the cosmos. The sun and the stars resound; you hear the music of the planets and understand how they are calling the plants. Every opening blossom is a little sun. Every plant twining its way upwards is a planetary revolution. Look at a tree: its whole being resounds. The interval of a second resounds where the tree first divides, where it first branches out. And so it goes on. But most plants finish with the interval of the fifth. If you want to find a sixth or seventh you have to listen to the sounds which occur when the blossoms open delicately and the insects carry the pollen away to other plants. The new seed is the octave.
The whole cosmos is music, and I listen to it year after year without ever tiring of it. Nothing in the cosmos that is repeated is ever quite the same.
So every year, every century has its own music.
–from The Death of Merlin by Walter Johannes Stein
Published by Floris Books; available at Anthroposophic Press. Reprinted with permission.
Listening through the Sacred Silence
On March 8th, 2025, 16 people gathered at the Christian Community Church in Chestnut Ridge, NY for a day of intentional listening. Using lyres, our voices, and movement, we focused on listening to one another and our surroundings in a variety of ways. Inspired by experiences from the Resonare Foundation Year in Music out of Anthroposophy, this workshop grew from the wish to share a unique approach to deep listening, developed through the work of Channa Seidenberg, Sheila Johns, and others. The aim was to offer a safe space where people could experience the quality of individual tones and intervals, and thereby encounter the elements of music as emerging from a space of quietude.
This workshop was organized by Sally Willig, longtime musician and leader of singing groups.She was joined by Resonare faculty members Catherine Decker and Julia Elliott, who helped Sally facilitate this event.
Those in attendance represented a wide range of ages and musical experience. While some were seasoned vocalists or lyrists, no background was necessary for this listening work. Participants were welcomed into the sanctuary to experience fundamental qualities of musical sound coming out of a place of reverent silence.
After streaming and familiarizing new participants with the lyre, we passed single tones. We introduced the interval of the 5th, both ascending and descending. By means of slowing down and giving attention to individual tones and the spaces between them, we were given the opportunity to enhance our listening capacities. By engaging in this structured listening activity, a space was created that allowed the purely experiential aspect to come into focus. Individuals shared their images and understandings, yielding a deeper meaning to what we heard.
Along with using stringed instruments for these initial listening activities, we explored both vocal exercises and listening to one another through song. Rounds and 3- and 4-part harmonies challenged us to listen closely to everyone in the group in order to create a harmonious blend. It was remarkable how readily this group was able to hold parts in newly learned pieces!
Another component of the workshop was that of movement. Incorporating exercises and concepts from Spacial Dynamics, participants had the chance to explore dimensions of space, listening with their hands and arms to what the surrounding space could offer. We explored the substance of space and ways to interact with space to enhance our perceptions.
By late afternoon, this immersion in listening activities gave us a jumping off point for improvisation. Using natural objects, participants joined in spontaneous music making, feeling our way into the sounding landscape. This work requires close attention to what one’s neighbor is “saying”. There is both receiving and responding as well as reflecting and introducing something new into the tapestry of sound that is created.
It is worth noting that these elements of improvisation and participating in the listening circle are similar to the dynamics found in conversation. Just as we strive
to be engaged in meaningful conversation with others with attention and respectful listening, musicians practice “waiting,” remaining engaged and alert as to how each one fits into the whole. Entering into the stream of the sounding when it is “right” for the whole compositional landscape is an experience of presence.
At the close of our day of Sacred Listening, all who joined together had the opportunity to share what had been most meaningful to them. We raised many questions and expressed gratitude for this rare opportunity to create a vessel where silence is honored, where listening is uplifted, and where each person’s voice is deeply felt and respected. It was lovely to witness the eager participation of all present, including LANA Board member Saeko Cohn and LANA member Christiane Landowne, who lent their particular support to this endeavor.
We recognize the community building aspect of this special work, and how nourishing it can be to carve out the space/time for devoted listening in this way. It was the expressed hope of many present to continue this work to further refine our listening ‘through the sacred silence’.
–Catherine Decker
3/12/25
Rudolf Steiner: Life as an Easter Moment – Easter Occurrence, & Johann Sebastian
Bach
March 2025
The lifetime of Johann Sebastian Bach was an Easter moment: the possibility of realizing music in ALL twelve modes was new – new for all of humankind. And Bach dedicated his genius to this circumstance, ‘composing’ on his well-tempered piano. He then gave to his contemporaries the means and the tools to live with all twelve modes.
‘Compose’ is not an adequate description for this activity. The word ‘compose’ is derived from the Latin componere, which means compound, i.e. to arrange some known items into a ‘composition’. But this is not what constitutes a creative handling. The artistic attitude is: being aware, in a mood of inspiration, to remove all that does not belong to this artwork. Michelangelo described that his David had already been in the stone – “I only had to remove all stone that didn’t belong to the statue”. I think that all music ‘works’ are already existing in the cosmos (German: ‘im All’). Johann Sebastian Bach “just removed” all that did not belong to his special musical ‘work’.
200 years later, Rudolf Steiner gives the hint that a new epoch for humankind was beginning – had begun
– while entering the 20th century. One example of this can be found in the musical dimension: We must let go of the acoustic impression of the piano if we want to move forward toward reaching the musical nucleus. Therefore, Rudolf Steiner did not condemn the piano! Concerning instrumental development, it was shortly after his passing that the ‘lyre impulse’ started. Here is a possible Easter-moment: We may dedicate our awareness of tone in order to put ourselves at the disposal of new listening possibilities so that we may grasp and create contemporaneous music.
This is what Bach did: he used acoustical means to realize the 12-mood-musical-consciousness of his new epoch of humankind.
Music for Good Friday – “The Seven Last Words from the Cross” (for solo concert lyre, or soprano and alto lyres, or piano)
We are happy to share with our members and friends John Clark’s “The Seven Last Words from the Cross” on the following pages. This piece was commissioned by a lyrist in Australia for use in a Christian Community event of readings of the Seven Last Words with music in between. John composed the seven lyre interludes based on the planetary scales, beginning with the Venus (Friday) scale and working backwards through the week. The music is accessible and quite beautiful.
Many thanks to John for this generous Easter gift!
The Seven Last Words From The Cross
For Robin Jaworski
1. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do
JS Clark March 2025
2. In truth, I say to you, this very day you will be with me in Paradise
3. Woman, see, here is your son. See, here is your mother
4. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
7. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit
12 As a fitting closure to our Spring 2025 Lyre Notes, we are pleased to be able to share a lovely Easter song for voice and lyres that was written nearly 30 years ago by Norma and Christof-Andreas Lindenberg.
LANA’S MISSION
• To foster the experience and recognition of the freed tone
• To foster the rediscovery and the deepening of the capacity to listen
• To initiate, inspire, and support the sounding of the lyre for artistic, pedagogical, and therapeutic activity
• To support the development of a movement for musical renewal in all its manifestations.
