Alternative styles of lyre

[Louise Finch]

Hi

It is Last Post and Reveille time again.

Although I know both fluently off by heart, I've always used music on the day. I don't know why, I think it is just added security. I play Principal cornet, so have done a fair few cornet solos in my time, and really enjoy playing solos. I admittedly haven't played the Last Post or Reveille for around eight years, but historically, it has been the only gig which makes me feel nervous. It has always gone well (I've even received lots of compliments over the years, which is always nice), but I can't say that I usually feel particularly well. Owing to nerves and possibly also the cold, I seem to have a tight chest, can't breathe particularly well and have even felt dizzy and sick. I'm playing the Last Post and Reveille at a new setting this year, on behalf of my brass band. I've got to telephone the vicar tomorrow to finalise the arrangements, but my understanding is that the war memorial is outside the church, and I've either got to set up outside and wait in the cold, or attend the service and go out just ahead of the congregation. I think that it would be rather unsociable to wait outside, so plan on attending the service.
I don't imagine that the weather will permit leaving a music stand outside ready, so I thought that I'd try my lyre.

Firstly, the stem of the lyre is too small for the lyre holder of my cornet and rocks back and forth, secondly I have the combination of being almost 44 and having convergence insufficiency (a difficulty in converging my eyes at near). My optician did say that she could give me an additional +0.25 for reading, but it didn't seem worth having a second pair of glasses only +0.25 stronger than my everyday pair, especially since I rarely need to read particularly close. The result is that the lyre distance is slightly blurred with my distance prescription (not too much to not be able to see it reasonably well, but enough to give me a headache), and although it remains single today, kept separating into two separate images when I tried it a few days ago, which makes it unreadable.

I'll use a stand this year, and carry it out with me, but I'm wondering about options for future years if I get this gig again. It is no big deal, but just for interests sake, I'm wondering what others are doing + alternatives.

I've asked my colleagues, and have gotten responses from taking their glasses off (that makes it even worse for me), to wearing their reading rather than music glasses, to not caring if it is out of focus as long as it is readable, to closing their eyes and playing it from memory.

Are there other types of lyre available that don't end up with the music so close.

Or is it a case of braving it without the security of the music, since it is not as if I even need the music, and I just have it there for the sake of it?

Good luck to everyone who is playing the Last Post and Reveille on Sunday.

Take care

Lou
_________________
Trumpets:
Yamaha 8335 Xeno II
Bach Strad 180ML/37
B&H Oxford
Kanstul F Besson C
Yamaha D and D/Eb
- James R New Custom 3Cs
Flugel:
Bach Strad 183 - Bach 3CFL
Cornets:
Yamaha Neo + Xeno
Bach Strad 184ML
B&H Imperial
- Kanstul Custom 3Cs

[zaferis]

There is a lyre that clips to the bell.. the obvious down side is the weight - really throws the balance off - all the weight is at the end of the trumpet. But is significantly easier too see..

I've have also seen some DIY settups... one of the stock lyres from a Baritone or Trombone and bending the long rod/stem to hold the music further away.
But you'd have to have an instrument with a pretty significant lyre mount - or "mickey mouse" some way of attaching it to your horn.

Knowing well that "security" issue. I 've had the pleasure of serving in the US Air Force with assignements from Japan to Belgium. I've had the opportuinty to render many Bugle Calls and other music from various counrties and services. Not being the quickest to memorize things... I've been known to make a rather small copy of a particular piece and tape it to my bell where only I could see it.
_________________
Freelance Performer/Educator
Adjunct Professor
Bach Trumpet Endorsing Artist
Retired Air Force Bandsman

[Andy Del]

The simplest solution is to just memorise Last Post and Rouse (Revaille if you will).

Cheers

Andy
_________________
so many horns, so few good notes...

[ketch22]

Hi Lou,

I am also playing Last Post and Reveille tomorrow morning. I've known professional musicians who used music for security - it is not an easy piece to memorize. But many years ago I "bit the bullet" and started playing by memory. It is so much a better presentation for the seriousness of the service and the Veterans always appreciate someone who has taken the time and effort to play without the music. That is my recommendation.

I will be playing outside at a local park cenotaph again, and this year I'm expecting an almost warm -8C (15F) in sunshine. Last year was -15C with a 20km wind - not pleasant - but 1000 people stood there in that bitter wind for an hour service!

Good luck with your service tomorrow (today in the UK) however you choose - memory or music.

K22
_________________
"I see music as fluid architecture": Joni Mitchell
http://www.rupertslandbrass.ca

[Louise Finch]

[Louise Finch]

[Louise Finch]

[zaferis]

Security -- many professional performers, singers and instrumentalists alike, have a copy of the music nearby.. For those moments that some crazy thing goies on, you go blank, or you just want to be prepared for the unplanned.
You have one shot to render a Bugle Call, a National Anthem, or other beloved selection, with all that it brings in meaning there is no room for error.

Regarding memorizing muisc was it Beethovan that said, "I have written more than notes, no musician should perform from memory as they will not recall everything...."?
_________________
Freelance Performer/Educator
Adjunct Professor
Bach Trumpet Endorsing Artist
Retired Air Force Bandsman

[Louise Finch]

[dstdenis]

That’s a pretty long bugle call. I don’t know it, so I’d use the music. But if knew it well, I’d rather play it from memory.

I can relate to that last-minute panic attack: what if I lose my place? I always worry about that. But I’ve played lots of solos from memory, and somehow that rarely happens when I feel well-prepared.

A benefit to playing from memory is that I memorize and recall phrases, not individual notes, whereas reading music tends to make my mind work a note at a time, or a few notes at a time. I think performances tend to sound better when I’m thinking about delivering phrases rather than processing notes.

Anyway, good luck, and I’m sure you’ll do well!
_________________
Bb Yamaha Xeno 8335IIS
Cornet Getzen Custom 3850S
Flugelhorn Courtois 155R
Piccolo Stomvi

[Louise Finch]

[Louise Finch]

Hi

Going back to the topic of lyres, as a matter of interest, can most people see the music clearly at the distance of a cornet lyre?

I can see it well enough to read it, as long as it decides to stay single (having convergence insufficiency, sometimes I cannot keep the images from each eye fused together at such a close distance, and it keeps alternating between single and double), but it isn't fully in focus unless I move it to behind the bell.

My optician didn't seem to think that there was much amiss with my near vision, although she said that she could give me a little stronger prescription for close reading, which there didn't seem very much point to at the time, as reading the Last Post on a lyre was not something I was thinking about when I last had my eyes tested in June, and she didn't recommend it, as she knows that I can't bear my distance vision being not fully in focus, and the difference between the two prescriptions would be too little for bifocals or varifocals. Probably this slightly stronger prescription would be the answer, if the image always stayed single.

I imagine that I am very lucky to be able to be able to read music as well as I can, since an optician told me when I was only twenty that my eye tracking and convergence were so poor that he was surprised that I could read at all. I could and I still can at almost 44, so I reckon I'm doing alright lol.

Good luck to everyone else playing the Last Post tomorrow.

All the best

Lou
_________________
Trumpets:
Yamaha 8335 Xeno II
Bach Strad 180ML/37
B&H Oxford
Kanstul F Besson C
Yamaha D and D/Eb
- James R New Custom 3Cs
Flugel:
Bach Strad 183 - Bach 3CFL
Cornets:
Yamaha Neo + Xeno
Bach Strad 184ML
B&H Imperial
- Kanstul Custom 3Cs

[dstdenis]