EXAMPLES OF CHROMATIC NOTATION FOR MODERN LYRES - III.
Another transcription of an old piece of music: Vánoční noc (“Christmas Night”) by Adam Michna z Otradovic, a great Czech composer of early baroque era. This is a choral compositon for 4 voices (SATB) condensed to a single 4-octaves chromatic staff for lyre. Doing things like playing four melodies together on a lyre certainly takes some effort to master but this beautiful little piece of music is worth to try... A nice feature of the lyre notation comes in handy: White (hollow) notes are always played by the right hand and black notes are played by the left hand (each in a separate row of strings). This helps a lyre player quickly judge an optimal fingering to reach all desired strings. It becomes especially useful in wide spreading polyphonies - like the one from Adam Michna. The chord names are added to score for a quick reference and perhaps also for having fun with improvising within the harmony.
