JAVS Summer 2025

After the lira da braccio fell out of fashion, years later an echo of how it might have sounded was written in the one-page work “Capriccio for solo violin a modo di Lira” by the seventeenth-century Venetian composer Biagio Marini.

Jeanne Clausen has had a multi-faceted career as a violinist, violist, baroque violinist, baroque violist, lira da braccist, teacher, musicologist, and entrepreneur. She has performed extensively throughout North America and Europe with leading ensembles. Furthermore, Jeane has participated in numerous

radio broadcasts and recordings, establishing herself as a gifted interpreter of repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries. Jeanne holds degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and The Cleveland. Institute of Music. She has taught at The Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Southern California, Il Laboratorio di Milano (Italy), and Oregon Episcopal School of Portland (Oregon). As an independent musicologist, she continues to research and publish articles on the history and performance of the lira da braccio . As an entrepreneur, Jeanne organized concerts in Italy, collaborating with the Milanese impresario Sandro Boccardi. Clausen performed the lira da braccio in the 1989 production of “La Pellegrina 1489 Florentine Intermedii,” held at Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, presented by the Centre de Musique Ancienne, Geneve, and broadcast live for Swiss radio. Additionally, Jeanne founded and led her own string ensemble “La Cetra,” which performed in Milano at prestigious venues including Chiesa San Simpliciano and Musica e Poesia a Chiesa San Maurizio. Jeanne was a member of the famous Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra of the Netherlands, conducted by harpsichordist Ton Koopman, touring and recording with them regularly. Jeanne has a daughter who, along with her husband, are finishing their second year of graduate school in England at Oxford University. Footnotes 1 Howard Mayer Brown, “ Lira da braccio, ” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , vol. II., 19. 2 Emanuel Winternitz, “Musical Instruments and their Symbolism in Western Art,” Yale University Press , 1979: 96. 3 Lawrence C. Witten, II., “Apollo, Orpheus, and David. A Study of the Crucial Century,” Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society (1975): 5-55.

Figure 8. Manuscript of Capriccio a modo di lira for solo violin by Biagio Marini, seventeenth- century.

The lira da braccio was forgotten for nearly four centuries after its disappearance. During its lifespan of approximately one hundred and fifty years, the instrument flourished in a vibrant period of musical and cultural transformation of the Renaissance. It gradually fell out of favor by the early seventeenth-century. The lira remains one of the last great instruments of Western music to be thoroughly researched and revived. Its unique combination of lyrical expressiveness, harmonic richness, and symbolic significance continues to captivate scholars and musicians, inspiring renewed interest in its sound and repertoire. As efforts to reconstruct its music and playing technique continue, the lira da braccio promises to reclaim a vital role in early string performance and Renaissance cultural heritage.

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 41, Summer 2025 Online Issue

43