Mildred Dilling on youtube

[carl-swanson]

My computer guru is up visiting for a few days and I had him upload this 10 minute film of Mildred Dilling onto youtube. You can find it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNFtRU_c2Ec or just go to youtube and type in Mildred Dilling. It’s titled Harp Performance recorded in 1940.

The film was made in 1940 and was intended as a film short to be shown in movie theaters before a main feature. The original intent was to make a short film for each instrument of the orchestra. But only 4 films got made, and thankfully, one of them was of Mildred playing. She was 47 years old at the time she made this and in peak form.

I’m not sure but I believe that each of the three pieces she plays has been truncated

[barbara-brundage]

Really interesting, Carl, thanks. But you might want to ask your web guy to go back and fix the information paragraph, which says things like:

“Original a one movie shorts series about instruments of the orchestra. It rain before the movie.”

[carl-swanson]

Hahaha! I didn’t check that. Ill tell him when he comes back tonight.

[brook-boddie]

Carl, this is amazing.

[joan-steinberg]

Thanks so much for sharing this, Carl.

[dawn-penland]

Thank you for sharing that Carl.

[carl-swanson]

She’s a pretty amazing harpist, isn’t she?

[mr-s]

thanks Carl for presenting me the DVD she is really perfect…………………….

[Maria Myers]

Carl,

I love how relaxed she looks!

Is she resting/sliding her right arm up and down the area where the soundboard meets the soundbox?

[Han Hsieh]

Thanks for the wonderful

[leonard-lim]

Thanks Carl for posting this!
She’s so relaxed and so fluid when she plays. And it does seem like she’s trilling with 4 fingers! Amazing. Beautiful beautiful beautiful!!!

[steven-todd-miller]

Awesome! I found her album, “Romantic Music for Harp” on eBay. It’s incredible, but watching her actually play is a treasure! Thanks for posting this!

[carl-swanson]

That is in fact a 4 finger trill, using the fingering 43214321 etc. It’s amazing how clean it is. Yes, she rests her right arm on the edge of the soundboard. My good friend Geraldine Ruegg, who went to France with Mildred before and after the War to study with Renie, thought the tempos were a little faster than Mildred would have played them and that led me to the conclusion that she may have speeded them up to fit the 10 minute format of the film. Geraldine also thought Mildred’s left arm was moving around(sort of flapping) more than Mildred would have done in a concert. John Mangrum, who found the film and who studied with Mildred, observed this too. It may be something that she, or the director of the film, thought would “liven up” the image. I don’t know. At any rate, there’s a lot of good technical information one can get from seeing her play. So now we can ALL say we had a lesson with Mildred Dilling!

[barbara-brundage]

Perhaps it was pushed a bit in the editing, Carl. That would be very common during that period and would account for the jumpiness of some of her movements.

[Maria Myers]

“Yes, she rests her right arm on the edge of the soundboard.”

I don’t play the pedal harp.

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