My short Harp Story

That Merry Month of May is fast disappearing, with the rest of the year!  Spring/Summer has gotten all bunched up and late winter has revisited, and all the blossoms opened at the same time, and I am behind on paperwork at work...ugh...  So reading your stories has boosted my mood, and I will just say, my first introduction to the Celtic Harp was when my best friend from school came home from college in 1971 with an LP of Alan Stivell- "The Rennaisance of the Celtic Harp"  from Britanny.  I was immediately sucked into the entrancing sounds, and carried back to my love of the Arthur Legends, and mythology, and particular love of Ancient and Medieval History.  I KNEW that, as much as I loved playing my piano, it would rarely have this magical quality to it (and possible portability!) but what to do???  No one in NJ was playing the Celtic Harp at that point!  A few years later, not sure when, I did hear a Patrick Ball album, but that must have been long after finding "The Thistle and Shamrock" radio program on our Public Radio stations. 

Of course, Folk music was very popular in the 60's and 70's, and then the HUGE hit "Riverdance" brought Irish music, and Celtic "stuff" to the front burners....I started noticing the rare appearance of Celtic bands appearing at a street fair north of Philly, then featured at a "Ren Faire" somewhere else. And I KNEW it was coming closer to me, and that one day I would find harp and teacher, and time and money, all at the same moment- and I would play that magic for myself! 

Sure enough, after chasing the degree, and then moving around til we finally settled on a town that became home, I was at the local "Wool Arts Tour" one rainy October day, and heard....yes....a celtic harp being played inside the building!  I followed the sound  almost in a trance into the room where Mary Graham was playing- and, she DID offer to give lessons and she was ONLY 1/2 hour away and had networked with several other harpers who could lease out a harp for short periods, etc!!!  Heaven!!  My first harp was a leased Lyon and Healey Troubador.  Great sound!  Not truly a Celtic Harp but a lever harp or "folk harp".  Moved onto a beautiful bird's eye maple built by David Kortier from Minn....mostly because Mary was acting as a distributor for him and I had no chance to really go far afield and check out other brands.  Big boy but quiet voice.  And finally (?) I fell in love love love with Sue Richard's Larry Fisher harp, and got that last year.  Sparkly on top and mellow down below- I just need to be playing more, and thinking about it less!  Does that make sense?  MUST GET ORGANIZED so rest of life does not keep distracting me from what I want to be doing!

Thank you ladies for ongoing inspiration- hope to meet you all in person some day!  Sharon

How the Harp Found Me #2

(Yes, I'm breaking my own rules, but for this particular endeavour I think it makes more sense to post these separately from my monthly notes.)

#2  So.... what did I read?

I wish I had written down the titles of the books they brought me that day,  but most of them were filled with  ‘the usual’ information., covered in such fine books as the Yeats, listed below. Thus there was plenty of information about the evidence for development of the stringed instruments, photos and drawings of carvings from Egypt and regions of the Middle East.... mostly two, three string curved, plucked instruments - from which all the stringed instruments gradually evolved.   In fact, all cultures have some kind of stringed instrument, along with wind and drumming.  As a child we certainly made music blowing on blades of grass.  Many believe that the bow and the harp have a close relationship - wonderful metaphorically as they both drive straight into the heart.   The most interesting book they brought me, for reasons I cannot think why, was one which showed how, in the late middle ages, once the ‘do re mi’ musical notation system was evolved that monks and others would hide messages in the music.  I spent a magical afternoon thumbing through these books, looking at pictures, reading text here and there until in the middle of all this reading, the lightbulb came on and I thought, What am I doing? Shouldn’t I be listening?

A Short Bibliography:

Story of the Irish Harp and Its History and Influence, Nora Joan Clark

Harps and Harpists, Roslyn Rensch

The Harp of Ireland  Grainne Yeats

The Belfast Harper’s Festival, 1792, and the saving of Ireland’s Harp Music, Edward Bunting

Tree of Strings, Crann Nan Teud, A History of the Harp in Scotland Keith Sanger

Carolan, the Life and Times and Music of an Irish Piper, Donal O’Sullivan

If anyone has more good ones to add, please let me know!

Almost June; How My Harp Found Me

Once upon a time I played the piano pretty seriously. It was my instrument in college, and because I played by ear, it came easily. Once upon a time, I came home from work and played to relax...played my daughter to sleep...played to learn more of the Baroque music I loved.

But then, I just.....stopped playing. I had a beautiful Yamaha school upright, and gradually I stopped playing, and even stopped getting it tuned. We bought an old, old cape way down a dirt road, and I spent time researching decorating and gardening ideas. I missed being a musician, but I was involved as a music teacher, and eventually I sold the piano ( and bought the most beautiful DRDimes chair with the money!). I bought a small virginal, and played it now and then, but I was basically not playing anything. Since I'd had a piano from the age of three, you'd think I'd miss it, but honestly I didn't.

And then one night I went to our local coffeehouse -haha, the one I'm so busy managing now!  - and a lovely woman brought her harp onto the stage. I was so transfixed that I changed seats to make sure I could see her hands. Maybe my Scots ancestry zoomed in on the Celtic tunes. I was afraid to approach the woman, but spoke with her after the concert, and found out a few details.

And then I rented my first harp, a Pratt. I loved the wood and the pillar, but it was a mistake to begin on gut strings when my fingers were so weak. I found a teacher, but she wasn't a good fit, and because I wasn't a beginning musician as well as a beginning harpist, she didn't know what to do with me. So I stopped taking lessons with her and I returned the Pratt. I took a 2-month break, and did a lot of research.

I went to the Harp Connection with a check in my hand, and I asked my favorite saleswoman, Lily, to play me every Celtic harp they had in stock. I don't know, maybe I listened to 20 harps. I was so green, I didn't know to ask the right questions. But boy, I knew the harp I wanted the minute I heard it: rich, a beautiful deep first octave, mellow and serene upper octaves, and a walnut soundboard to die for.

Thank you, Sharon, for introducing me to the Celtic harp, an instrument I never knew I would love so much, and that would fill the empty spot I didn't know I was carrying!

May: How the Harp Found Me. #1

In the story I was writing, an attempt at fantasy, there was a woman who had been put out to sea in an enchanted boat, so that she could not marry the king’s son as planned.  Nobly born as she was, it was also known her mother was a witch from the North and many did not like the idea that she would pass this heredity onto their children.  And so, before the wedding, the kidnapping by a cabal of royal wizards, men who disliked the idea of women practicing magic.  However, there was one (of course) who did not fully believe the witches were such a problem and could not bear the thought of murdering a young and innocent person, and so after she is put in the boat and the other wizards have gone, he casts a spell that puts the boat and the young woman into a state where the boat will be protected and where she will not age.  Then, as with all spells, in order to work have to be breakable, he hid a harp with no strings in the boat.   If she found the harp, could string it, tune it, and play the melody that would shatter the spell, then she would be free.   

After I wrote this, I thought, I don’t know blank-all about harps, I don’t know what they really look like, how many strings, how you would tune it..... not a single thing.  I’d better go and do some research.   So I went to the nearest library which happened to be, at that moment, the main branch of the Philadelphia Free Library, which has an entire room devoted to books and journals about music, recordings and sheet music, and asked for books about harps, their origins and history.  

They brought me a stack.  I picked out the most general one first and began to read.

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In other news:
Once again, I can't seem to get it together until the month is half-way spent, but that is better than not at all......

Meanwhile, I have been playing the harp a decent amount, after all that, working the hardest over Carolan's Fairy Queen, and after that The Blackbird to be followed by The Crib of Perches a set which I was going to play at our bi-annual Among Friends party with a friend (flute) however, she can't attend, so that will have to wait for the fall party.  Also working on Planxty Dermot Grogan a very pretty tune (I have a recording about somewhere .... whistle and fiddle).  I should be brave and play The Fairy Queen at the upcoming Carolan festival in June but..... I hate playing alone, and that is a problem.

Since I missed commenting on your thread Andee - I love the 'play-together' group name - so much nicer than 'harp circle' which I've never cared for.  And I like that you teach other tunes to each other.

One thought I've had from time to time, that may not appeal, or it may, is for one of us to choose a tune for all of us to learn - then if and when we see each other we might have some tunes to play together.  The one whose turn it is could record themselves playing it slow.

Also as I mentioned in a note to Pam I may try to get back to thinking more about music and the harp and writing in more depth about some of the things I think about.  I'll start at the beginning, most likely, with how I found the harp or it found me.  They'll take time to write, so be patient with me!

I'm so happy that you all post even when I am being dilatory!

How I Became a Harper / Oh the merry month of May!

     I was about 31 years old and very blocked creatively.  I enjoyed my job at Essene Market and Cafe, I had lots of friends, but the magic was missing and it made me really sad.  I no longer had any inspiration to paint or sew or do the creative things I used to do all of the time.  Everything was flat and colorless.

One of my favorite tapes at the time which was by a 'celtic' or new age harpist.  She is not well-known at all and I can't even remember her name now.  All of her pieces on this particular tape had something to do with legends (mostly Arthurian) and magic.  I also had a Patrick Ball tape and an Alan Stivell tape.  These three tapes were given to me by my roommate at the time.  I loved them.  I had discovered the magic of the harp, even if only to listen to.

One afternoon I was on the train from Center City to the 'burbs and was listening to the little-known new age harpist on  my Walkman and staring out the window.  My mind wandered and emptied.  I must have been in a very meditative and receptive state.  And then something amazing happened.  Nothing like it had ever happened to me before or since.  It was the stuff of fairytales (or crazy people!)!

"You can do this", a voice said  The voice was large, perhaps male but not necessarily.  It was definitely a voice that while inside my head, had come from outside my own consciousness.

"Do what?"  I asked it silently.  "This.  Play the harp.  You can learn to play the harp."  It was definitive.  It was almost a demand.  I was stunned.  While not a skeptic at all, these things just never happened to *me*.

Up until this point I had never remotely considered the possibility of taking up a musical instrument.  Other than piano lessons when I was 9 and violin / viola lessons when I was about 10 and 11, I had never played an instrument.  I considered myself an artist, a painter since I was in my early teens.  After all, it was what I went to college to get a degree in!

My life was about to change drastically.  I remembered a little dusty shop on South 4th street, a couple blocks below Fitzwater.  The windows were lined with tinted yellow plastic (to keep the sun out I suspected).  Inside looked like a wood workshop with harps all over.  Some intact, some in pieces.  The shop was no longer open to the public, but there was a note taped inside the window with a phone number on it.

I called the number and made an appointment.  I spent over an hour or more talking with the man who owned the business.  He was harp and dulcimer maker.  He went on and on about the history of harps and the harp in folk music and the care and feeding of harps.  He gave me a stack of papers and info.  I thanked him for his time and left.  I was thrilled and inspired!

From there I started to research them more.  For a year I read up on folk harps. I was also just getting into Irish music, folklore, and culture at the time.  My tape collection grew.   And then when I felt ready I started to look for a teacher.  How would I find one?  I went into the little Irish shop on South Street between Second and Third and picked up a copy of the Irish Edition.  In it was an article congratulating two young harpists for placing in the Comhaltas Regional Fleadh.  There was a photo of the proud girls alongside their teacher.  "*She* is going to be my teacher", I said.  There was no maybe about it.  It was Kathy DeAngelo, of course and I phoned  her immediately and set up my first lesson.


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Is anybody here a member of the HarpColumn online discussion group?  http://musicstand.harpcolumn.com/
 I don't know why I bother as half the time it's totally boring (classical) and the other half it's infuriating.  For example at the moment a woman new to the harp already plays tin whistle up to session standard and was asking for tips on how to get the tunes on harp up to speed.

A classical know-it-all basically told her she needed a classical background and 10 years of study!  WTF?!  Comments like that are like a red rag to a bull for me.  All she needs is a bit (or a lot--but not ten years!) of practice, keep the left hand simple (especially for sessions) and a few lessons on ornamentation.

I love nosing in and telling the classical know-it-alls they know nothing when it comes to trad Irish.

Update:  The woman who made the comment has since pointed out that she didn't think classical training was necessary, it was just in the absence of any folk harp teachers, a classical harpist would be able to teach good technique.  I apologized for any misunderstanding and agreed, but said that it stopped there, the learning of the tunes themselves is best done by ear if at all possible and that 10 years study was more than just a bit conservative an estimate.

I just inquired through email at a cafe in town if they'd like me to do a free concert.  I'd like some paying gigs, but the cafe is actually run by the charity I work for so it would have to be for free.  It's a really nice cafe in a historic building in the city center and I saw they've had a few informal concerts before.

My fiddle teacher last night said I have the best rolls of all his students--yay!  Thank you Kathy for teaching me such nice roll technique!