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Several harps in question on this thread…
Smartwood and Harpsicle: The strings are quite loose especially in the lower range so unless you play with the nails they do sound twangy. Upgrades are available for both which will not put excessive tension on the boards and definitely improve the tone. But you are not paying for a professional’s concert instrument so don’t expect them to sound like one. I do know pros however who are quite happy with either or both of them for session playing, rentals, practice, travel, etc. MusicMakers offers a trade-up to one of their better instruments; the Smartwood does not require power tools.
Wire strung Limerick: You can either use the steel strings that they supply and keep the bridge pins or drop the range a few steps and use phosphor bronze. In the latter case, ask them to mark but not to drill the bridge pin holes and use #4 tapered pegs where the bridge pins would otherwise be located. Steel has a very different sound from bronze or brass.
My two cents,
BiagioThis question always engenders more questions: what kind of harps? what kind of automobile? do they have soft or hard cases?
Loading options will vary depending on the answers. In general you want to protect the pedals and neck (or levers and neck) as the first priority. I have a van for transporting multiple harps with custom frames and so do most of the makers that I know.
Some touring harpists with lever harps in soft cases load them flat but I shiver when they do that with one on top of the other. What ever the harp(s) and whatever the mobile they should be secured with bungee chords or (preferably) nylon web straps. The touring pedal harpists I’ve known all used a hard case.
I’ve been known to wrap a (large) lever harp in a blanket and flat load it in a Toyota Corolla for a short trip, but I REALLY don’t recommend that!
Biagio
OK I got curious about this Drowsy Maggie thing so went back to the DVD syncopation section (L. has been known to forget things – haven’t we all?).
Maggie is directly preceded by Rooftops of Langley; Laurie composed that in C for the double strung (which is also how I learned it). And that’s where she plays it on the DVD – all the levers are down.
BTW syncopation is lot easier on a 2x – give Rooftops a try on your new creation Mae, it’s fun and easy!
It looks to me as though they’re all down on Drowsy Maggie too – it’s not as easy tell with Lovelands as with Truitts (which she has on her double). So I’m guessing visually. that the harp is tuned in C. It would be really strange if it wasn’t given the DVD is about Celtic music (unless it were in F).
Another thought: could we be talking about Bonnie at Morn, but referring to Drowsy Maggie? Bonnie she plays in a minor key on the DVD – it’s typically played in G Aeolian, (Bb tuning) so maybe that’s what is going on with those levers. To be a little critical myself (sorry L) it is actually from the Border country of Northumbria; I’d bet both Scots and English could claim it but the style unique to that area.
My two shiny pennies on that:-)
Biagio
Mae, I just threw in the accidental comment for the sake of interest. Just got back from a workshop with Harper and we got into such variations at one point. He is a master of the cross strung and “just craved those out-of-the-home-key-notes” (his words). No real point to that except, I guess, other than with public domain folk music you get to do whatever you want. I learned Beach Spring on a steel strung lap dulcimer – boy is that a different sound!
L says it was tuned in C, but hell, that DVD was produced 15 years ago in 1999 so possibly not- no big deal. I think there’s one tune on that DVD in F – maybe that’s the answer to our question? it would make some sense to keep one tuning on a recording if possible, I’d guess. She made a face when I asked, so perhaps she’s been asked the question before:-)
At home she is always tuned to C except when she plays my Clark (Eb) or her wire (G). She made a face when I asked, so perhaps she’s been asked the question before:-)
My favorite on that recording is Wild Geese which she learned from Chris Caswell. Chris (one of my design mentors) plays it on wire and I do too – gosh I love how things get passed around in the folk harp community!
BSome of the harpers around here will sharp a note that is “normally” played as a natural or vice versa. One I heard recently – Beach Spring – is an old shape note song; Harper Tasche plays it in G but throws in a natural in one place for interest.
On the DVD that got us into this discussion for awhile….Laurie very clearly states on it that Drowsy Maggie is an Irish reel, that it is played differently in Scotland, and she plays it as she heard it in Appalachia on banjo.
Believe me, she would know what it is: Laurie has been a professional musician for most of her life, performing on harp for over 30 years of that, adjudicated for 20 years with Celtic music as her specialty, backed the Chieftains in place of Derek Bell….I don’t have to go on, I think.
You were mistaken.
Biagio
Someone mentioned the collections from Harper Tasche: I appreciate that all the tunes are also on a (separate) CD as well, and for each tune he gives historical information and a blank page of staves for your notes. That thoroughness is so typical of Harper! I just bought A Small Harp Taking it Easy. As the title suggests the tunes are for less advanced players; they are on his Keepsake CD. Arran Boat Song, Beach Spring, Sally Gardens, etc.
Biagio
Hey Allison, no harp police here. I try to play The Orange Rogue sarcastically with percussive dynamics which doesn’t often work:-) But just as often legato, it really does lend itself to that – which is why I brought it up! My bad (grin).
Getting back to alternate tuning though…do any of you sometimes just tune pentatonically, sit in a dark room and see what happens? Pretty fun, but I can’t remember what I did when it sounds good, darnit:-)
Balfour, nice to have you out and about! I was going to write to thank you for the kind things you wrote, will do so tomorrow. Right now I’m pooped.
Later all,
BReporting back – Laurie says she was tuned in C; Inisheer she plays in G, Drowsy Maggie in C. I guess it might also be said that we are talking here about the style of the piece, not the composer. Drowsy Maggy f’ instance is Irish in origin but it’s played differently in Scotland and even more differently in Appalachia, as Laurie does on that DVD. That sort of thing is what I like about folk music; it changes and you can make it your own.
Of course sometimes it gets a little out of hand; anyone remember Farewell Angelina by Bob Dylan? Now that’s an outright theft of Farewell to Tarwathe. Dylan plays it without the snaps but they’re in there in the original (Scottish) song – which is about a whaler going off for the hunt in Greenland.
BiagioEr….seems like I’m being argumentative but honest not trying to be. Allison is right – Thomas Walsh is an Irishman. But – ah ha – living in Scotland and Inisheer is a Scottish piece about the Island (Inis Oirr).
Off to my lesson!
Biagio
By the way, when Laurie or someone else advocates researching a Celtic piece, they are not speaking of a particular key that you choose, but to the style. Bear in mind that many tunes were never written down so one should know the history if one wishes to be traditional; e,g, Irish music has a lot of ornaments but they are rarely written in. Here are two examples:
The Orange Rogue is thought to be named for William of Orange who was roundly hated; playing that legato as a slow air would not make much sense though it might sound pretty.
A more extremely one: Port na bPucai. Some mystery surrounds the origin – some think that Sean O’Riada actually composed it in the early 20th century to sound deliberately archaic. Be that as it may, Janet Harbison’s arrangement is lovely but it is not at all traditional:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM8wZEK2cWM
Most pipers would agree that Evertjan ‘t Hart has it “right”:
Pretty different styles! Of course, if one wishes to play as Aoiffe O’Dowd does with Harbison that is up to you – I quite like it and I can’t get Everjan’s interpretation except on wire. The point being that knowing a tune’s history will give you a clue to your interpretation – which you are of course free to disregard – no one is stopping you. Let the harp police go somewhere else:-)
Biagio
I doubt that you will find many Celtic harpers more knowledgeable than Laurie and no offense, I rather doubt that she tunes to B. I’ve never seen her do that and I have a lesson every week or so. If she did, she had a very particular reason; I’ll ask her and report back though, I have a lesson at 12:00.
Inisheer and Drowsy Maggie are frequently played in G D or F and those are the key she plays them, trust me on this. Which will depend for her or any other harper on the instrument’s range and the other instruments in a session. If your bagpiper is in F it would be silly to tune into G.
On the other hand, if you’re recording a DVD with many different tunes it could conceivably make sense to tune to Cb and set your levers for whatever you want. All up and you’re in C major albeit a half step lower than concert A 440 e.g.
Biagio
Had an Ah HA! moment this morning – like Balfour I’m browsing older posts and thought I’d blather about it. To whit: all of the really fine harpists I know started as children (not necessarily on the harp of course). So what does that say to be as an old guy like me? AH HA: try to reclaim that joy and wonder, Biagio, stop looking at practice as drudgery.
Hee hee,
BiagioI agree very much Balfour. There’s a lot to like about Music Makers. As a kit maker their standard models are pretty good just as they are, but the nicest thing IMO is that they can be easily upgraded to really fine harps, which says a lot about the care they take in the design.
Both the Regency and the Voyageur, fitted with a solid wood sound board and better strings are excellent concert harps; the Limerick with phosphor bronze strings dropped a couple of steps and a hardwood board is a very nice wire strung.
I think it is a shame that they discontinued the 22 string Shepherd, which with a few tweaks (stronger SB, thicker neck) would make a great little double…and so on. I can’t speak too highly of their service!
Biagio
Thank you Balfour and congratulations Mally! Judicious experimenting sometimes pays off better than going all techie. Here’s an interesting example: a friend bought one of those new bowed dulcimers but didn’t like the tone. (There are only two makers at the moment and both use steel strings – Ken Bloom and Nic Hambas if anyone is interested).
So she went to her friends at Dusty Strings and got some cut-offs from their new gut strung Boulevard. Sounds great!
Biagio
