—by Laura Sherman

One of the exciting things about being a freelance harpist in New York City is the variety of gigs that I get asked to play. Being conversant in a wide variety of musical styles is an absolute must in this city. One type of music that I never imagined playing on the harp was hip-hop, so when I was invited to play on the cast recording of the new, hip-hop influenced Broadway show Hamilton last summer, I knew it was going to be a unique experience.

Here’s how Broadway cast recordings usually go: the cast and musicians perform a slightly condensed version of the show in just a couple of sessions, in order to keep the length of the recording and its costs down. That’s largely how it went for the cast recording we made for Wicked, the show I regularly play.

So when I found out that Alex Lacamoire, Hamilton’s brilliant music director and orchestrator, had scheduled two full weeks of recording in Manhattan’s top studio, Avatar Studios, with multiple sessions each day, with Questlove (of the Roots and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon fame), as one of the executive producers, I knew this project was going to be different.

Hamilton is a musical about Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers. The words and music written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also stars in the show, and who wrote the acclaimed musical In the Heights, which won Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography, and Best Orchestrations (Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman). Adapted from the Ron Chernow biography about Alexander Hamilton, this new musical has had superlative buzz and reviews since its Off-Broadway run at the Public Theater in early 2015 and its opening on Broadway on August 6th, 2015. It is definitely the hardest ticket to get in town, that’s for sure!

On Broadway, most of the Hamilton harp parts are included in the second keyboard player’s book, played by Kurt Crowley. I took two shows off from Wicked to sit in the pit and watch him play the parts and see Alex conduct before we went into the studio. What I heard blew my mind! While Hamilton is often described as a “hip-hop musical,” it includes an inventive variety of styles, including rap, jazz, funk, R&B, folk, rock, Brit-Pop, neo-Classical music, and yes, hip-hop, and I mean the real deal, or so I’ve been told by those in the know. The words and music fit together organically and seamlessly, producing the most glorious cornucopia of rhythm and groove I’ve ever heard.

I received the harp parts and an audio file of a live performance three days before my two recording sessions and completely and joyfully immersed myself into the Hamilton soundscape. The first session of the day was with their 10-piece band (string quartet, two keyboards, rhythm and percussion), all of whom had been playing the show since the beginning, almost a year earlier. I was the only “new kid in the room,” having never played the show at all. It was a thrill to work with such supremely talented and sincerely nice musicians and to try and match their highly perfected performances.

Alex’s harp parts were a dream—not only idiomatically perfect and fun to play, but also creative. In addition to the more typical narratives involving intimate and familial love in “Satisfied,” “That Would Be Enough,” “Dear Theodosia,” “It’s Quiet Uptown,” and “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” I got to accompany scenes involving pain and heartbreak in “The Reynolds Pamphlet” and “Burn,” of desire in “Take A Break” and “Say No To This,” and of youthful bravado in “Blow Us All Away.” I even got to be the eye of a hurricane in “Hurricane!”

During the second session of the day, which was with just Alex, his fantastic sound engineer Derik Lee, and me, Alex’s creativity exploded. Because of his phenomenal ears and deep knowledge of styles and orchestration, he was able to continually suggest ideas about how to get different sounds and rhythmic phrasings out of the harp. In several sections, we experimented with putting folded paper in the lower strings and muffling specific notes at specific times to produce clearer harmonies. Other times he added synthesized “delay harp” sounds on top of my acoustic playing, producing the “eye of the hurricane” sound. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard before!

Perhaps most thrilling was being surrounded by the exquisite art of time and groove that Alex and his band have. As any studio musician knows, there’s an art to playing musically with a click track. But these folks have taken it to a whole other level. The wide variety and subtle manipulation of “grooves” were breathtaking. Each one had a different, indescribable relationship to the click track, and some varied within the song or even within a measure! The deep listening and feeling required, along with Alex’s generous direction, made the experience one of the most intense, fun, and memorable of my musical career. Take a listen for yourself, either on the recording, or in person at the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York City. Be prepared to hear a show like no other! •

Listen

Want to hear Hamilton for yourself? Listen to some of the tracks Laura mentioned in her article, with notes on how they illustrate specific concepts in the musical. Many thanks to the producers for providing these tracks for Harp Column readers. You can also tune in to Harp Column Podcast Episode 2 for more of Laura’s behind-the-scenes stories about recording Hamilton.

Satisfied

Listen for examples of intimate and familial love: “Satisfied” Acoustic harp (1:38-2:08); combined with key 2 (1:05-08); combined with piano (key 1) and with some digital effects added (4:02-22)

The Reynolds Pamphlet

Listen for examples of pain and heartbreak: “Reynolds Pamphlet” into “Burn” Acoustic harp (1:54-0:14)

Burn

Take a Break

Listen for examples of desire: “Take A Break” Acoustic harp (0:18-56 & 2:06-3:00; 4:27-30 & ending)

Blow us All Away

Listen for examples of youthful bravado (graphic word): “Blow Us All Away” Acoustic harp with digital “delay harp” effects (0:56-59; 1:10-11; 1:23-26; 1:48-55; 2:16-17; 2:41-42; ending glisses)

Hurricane

Listen for examples of being the “Eye of a Hurricane”: “Hurricane” Acoustic harp with digital “delay harp” effects (0:35-53; 1:35-56)