Mildred Dilling on youtube

[carl-swanson]

I’ve been getting private emails about the Dilling video since putting that up. Here’s one that I got from Emily Mitchell.

The Mildred Dilling film is fabulous.  I didn’t know she was so good.  When I was growing up and heard her play live it was well after her prime.  She was a beautiful representative of the French School.  I’m completely impressed.

Most of us around today who knew Mildred Dilling only knew her in her old age, and that is not representative of what she could really do. Emily heard her play one of those Community Concerts programs. But that was long after her prime. So we all(those of us who knew her) are really blown away at how good she really was.

[barbara-brundage]

> His technique was completely self taught.

Yes, so he said, but I’ve always wondered. I have to say I’ve always been a bit agnostic about much of the harp-related stuff in the book, like his claim that he was playing on the left shoulder till he saw an angel in a picture in a store window. Given how much more uncomfortable a pedal harp is that way, I can’t believe that anyone who wasn’t an idiot (and he was a very, very intelligent man, although he concealed that, too, in his stage persona) wouldn’t have said, “Hmm, this hurts. Let’s try it on that shoulder–ah!”

[tony-morosco]

I never thought of that, but you have a point. I know some lever harpists play on the left shoulder in emulation of the old time Celtic harpists, but I have never considered how difficult playing a pedal harp on the left shoulder would be.

Now I can’t wait to get home tonight to try and see.

[harp guy]

Carl-

If you try slowing the film down, don’t be suprised if the whole film starts to seem disjointed with a strobe-light type effect. I have heard that one common method [that

[carl-swanson]

That’s very interesting. I didn’t know about that. it may be that the speeded it up to get it into the alloted time frame. it comes in at something like 9 minutes and 33 seconds. So it sounds like she probably played it at her usual speed, slightly slower, and then they speeded it up. Either way, this is a wonderful documentation of her playing.

[harp guy]

“Either way, this is a wonderful documentation of her playing. “

Absolutely! It is always a treat to watch really good players perform. It is so

[carl-swanson]

Bonnie-I just went to the blogs and found the 4 posts about Mildred Dilling. Until I get a chance to put these up on my own web site, here’s how you locate them here.

Go to the blogs and click on my name. Then go the the calendar list part way down and click on March 2006. Scroll down to the bottom of that until you come to Part I. After you’ve read that, scroll back up to get to part II(It’s before part I). Remember, these are archived in reverse order, with the earliest post at the end of the list, the second one up above the first, and the third one above that. To read the last part, Part IV, go back to the calendar and click on April 2006. You’ll find it in that text. Enjoy.

[carl-swanson]

One last thing about the Mildred Dilling blogs that I just discovered: At the end of each of the 4 parts is a little tool bar. One of the commands is COMMENTS. If you go directly to that BEFORE reading that part and click on comments, the whole text for that section fills the whole screen AND the comments that people wrote in which are really interesting, come up as well. So to recap:
Click on blogs
click on Carl Swanson
Scroll down to the listing of months and click on March 06
Scroll down(way down) to find part I, and scroll down to the bottom of Part I and click on Comments.
Read part I and the comments
When you’re done, do this whole process again to get to part II, etc.

[carl-swanson]

One last thing. All of the above information is correct. There are no comments to read after the first two parts, but you can click on comments anyway to get the text to take up the whole screen. When you want to go to the next part, just hit the ‘back’ button and scroll back to the next part and again click on the ‘comments’ command. Most or all of the comments are after part 3.

[karen-conoan]

This clip is a great treasure; I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

The mystery man is Salzedo, I think. Harpo did go to him, and Salzedo did not want to spoil what he was already doing. I believe that is described in Dewey Owens’s biography of Salzedo, “From Aeolian to Thunder.” Harpo also had frequent lessons with Marietta Bitter, or at least came to visit her often. I think you can see some changes in his playing over the course of his movies and shows, not counting the ones with stunt hands.

[carl-swanson]

Karen- It’s wonderful to hear about her concert from an “eye witness.” If you read the blog that I wrote about Mildred, you will see two complete programs that she used printed there. They both follow the same format you just described. I regret that I never saw her do one of those Community Concert programs.

[Mel Sandberg]

I am also entrhalled and enchanted by the clip on You Tube, and I also think Mildred Dilling was a fantastic harpist.

[patricia-jaeger]

On February 18, 1978, I participated in a harp workshop led by Mildred Dilling, at the U. of Oregon in Eugene. Also attending were harpists Bronn Journey, Laura Zaerr, Jeff Parsons, and others.I scribbled notes madly as she spoke and demonstrated; then

[carl-swanson]

Patricia- What wonderful memories you must have of that. I never heard Mildred perform, and I never attended one of her masterclasses. I regret both. I know that she was the first person to take Conrad Nelson under her wing and he went to many of her masterclasses. I’m curious though. You said her harps traveled separately. I was under the impression that, because she used a Chevy suburban, it was because it could hold the harps. Did she have a separate driver and van for the harps? I had never heard that. I’ll have to ask Geraldine Ruegg about that.

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