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Playing Sappho

The how-to site for performing Sappho in the Modern Age
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Lyre/ Lyric Blog

On Cats and Costumes

July 23, 2020 mmcloughlin Leave a comment

Hello all! It’s been awhile! I am still working on the ancient greek version of We Shall Overcome, but in…

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Some Minor Lyre Repair

July 1, 2020 mmcloughlin Leave a comment

Ran into some minor lyre issues, so here’s a new video documenting that! It’s been awhile since my last post,…

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Filed under: Black Lives Matter, Lyre Repair, Sister

My Performance of Sappho’s Hymn to Aphrodite and Fragment 16

April 25, 2020 mmcloughlin Leave a comment

Here it is! This is the final performance for my Senior Independent Study, but worry not the Playing Sappho Project…

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Filed under: Final Performance, Recitation, Sappho, song

An Introduction to My Final Lyre

April 20, 2020 mmcloughlin Leave a comment

Hello all! A lot has changed since I began this project, but I thought it was time for for a…

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Filed under: final lyre

Onto the Song, and How I am Singing

March 22, 2020 mmcloughlin 1 Comment

Broadly speaking, there are two schools of thought on how to pronounce ancient Greek. One is to pronounce it like…

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Filed under: ancient greek, Modern song, Pitch meter, singing, Stephen Daitz

Attaching the Goat Skin to the Frame of My Final Lyre

mmcloughlin Leave a comment

The rubber cement did harden the fabric I attached to the shell, and firmly attached the arms to the base.…

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Filed under: boiling, final lyre, goat skin, mistake, super glue, turtle shell
Image of my final lyre, made of goat skin and turtle skin drum, with two carved lyre arms and crossbar, 7 sheep gut strings attached to crossbar with round pegs and old recycled fabric. Only 5 strings are attached as I have to re-string them

Attaching the Strings to My Final Lyre (and Further Design Blunders)

mmcloughlin Leave a comment

After my goat skin was attached and dried, I attached the string holder (that’s what I’m calling the piece of…

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Filed under: design issue, draw knife, lyre, mistake, string holder, strings
Final lyre frame from the front, arms affixed to shell with rubber cement and old t-shirt forming a scaffold

Beginning My Final Lyre

mmcloughlin 1 Comment

For my final lyre, I wanted to use ancient materials, such as gut strings, and a tortoise shell. Ultimately, I…

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Filed under: carving, final lyre, jigsaw, rubber cement, turtle shell
Assembled prorotype lyre base consisting of cicrular bowl and wooden dowels glued inside of it

Lyre Learning Curves and Snafus

March 20, 2020 mmcloughlin Leave a comment

For my third prototype, I purchased dowels hoping they would bend better than the bamboo I used previously. I began…

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Filed under: lyre arms, mistake, third prototype
Goat skin done boiling being laid across bowl of lyre frame as the process to attach it to the frame begins

Finishing Up My Second Prototype and Further Barbitos Planning

mmcloughlin 1 Comment

Crossbar and arms of lyre holding the strings, which have wooden pegs attached to them. The pegs (2 inch pieces of wood) dangle from the crossbar loosely and all over the place because the strings (clear fishing line) cannot properly be wound around it

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Filed under: goat skin, lyre making, second prototype, strings, tuning

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