Here is a simple pentatonic song to open and close our bedtime storytelling and/or reading. I composed it to introduce the lyre I made (posted below) for my two young daughters this Christmas.
Sun and moon and shining star
Gently guide my dreaming far
To the land of angels bright
Fill my heart your golden light.
The melody is D, E, G, A, B, D, E ascending
and then E, D, B, A, G, E, D descending.
This repeats twice with the lyrics.
This is my second Lyre, carved from a single piece of walnut with a padauk bridge. I used ultra-fine guitar strings (D, G, B and E). It is tuned to a pentatonic scale: D, E, G, A, B, D, E, which creates a gentle floating feel. The tone is quite mellow and can be amplified by placing it on a table. The music dances about the central A, “Sun Tone”, and meanders without settling into a resolve – perfect for young children whose hearing does not crave the more grounded resolution of a major or minor scale. For them music floats just like their imaginative games which can flow fluidly from one theme to another without interruption.
I am grateful to Luciana, who sewed a beautifully quilted case for it complete with a little pocket for the tuning wrench. She is a craftswoman extraordinaire. We will play it every night at our story time to punctuate the beginning and end of the stories as we prepare to go to sleep. Now all I have to do is come up with suitable melodies and lyrics.
This is my second lyre. Carved from maple and tuned to a pentatonic scale it yields a gentle tone that resonates well with its flowing forms. It was a pleasure to make this and its sister lyre, which will be a Christmas gift to my girls, in a series of evenings this autumn – so much less demanding than a guitar. This lyre was donated to the Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto Advent Craft sale to benefit early childhood education. Pentatonic music is well suited to the mood of early childhood and helps children to remain lithe and dreamy.