Inter Level: The Golden Lyra

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The Golden Lyra by Danaë Xanthe Vlasse;

For Intermediate Pianist. Approximately 3 min.

This piece was a gift for a couple’s joint 50th Birthday Celebration: the melodic material spells out "Happy Birthday Carlos and Irene!" This work was composed with the aim to teach it to this couple’s young daughter who studied with me for 4 years.

This charming piece in a-minor is appealing to students for quick learning and even faster memorization; students are not intimidated by this otherwise “impressive” work because the notes are presented in a simple, consistent, pattern-based construction, with clear melodic voicing notated with clear accents. Furthermore, the harmonic language is simple and the work is largely a study of arpeggiated chords (for the left hand in particular). This piece is very forgiving to students who want to deliver an impressive performance without working a whole year to prepare their recital. I consider this a “Pupil Saver” for emergency situations!

As a teaching piece it has the unique advantage of making students drill arpeggios in a controlled and musical manner as they imitate the sound of the “Ancient Greek Lyra” (a predecessor to the modern harp). The Coda even challenges students to carry the arpeggios across both hands while inter-weaving the simple melodic line; this is essential preparation for the music of the 19th century masters, especially Liszt.

The emotional breadth is vast enough to appeal to boys and girls alike, and can be taught with an interpretation to accommodate more masculine or feminine tastes as needed (which is to say that for boys there could be a faster and more dramatized version than I normally play for girls when demonstrating this piece)!

For audiences this piece is instantly appealing. The arpeggios span the whole keyboard, which allows students to “show off” their technique to listeners. This work is as effective a piece for inspiring “proud performers” as it is for saving students from the boredom of bland technical exercises!

Many of Mrs. Vlasse's compositions are published by bpr music. Contact the composer to obtain scores for anything not sold through bpr music.

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Listen to this piece on Spotify.