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I play a lot of Kathryn Cater and Mary Lloyd at City of Hope because both of their compositions fall into this category for me. Kathryn’s music was discussed in an earlier post on this thread. Mary Lloyd pieces I play are The Journey, Wishing, Unknown Paths, The Gentle Rain, Peaceful River, and Waiting for Heaven.
Both Cater and Lloyd books are published by Afghan Press and available on the internet through Melody’s Traditional Music and Harp Shoppe.
Elizabeth, hubby and I hope to be at the WHC in Vancouver. I worked for R. Murray Schafer on his World Soundscape Project and also soloed in some of his works when the Vancouver Bach Choir toured Canada. I sang with the Vancouver Bach Choir and that’s how I got to know Llewellynne Adam, principal harpist for the Vancouver Symphony. She is still one of the most elegant harpists and dearest people I have ever met. I thought of her a lot when I was arranging “The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle” for harp as that was one of our favorite pieces with the Vancouver Bach Choir. Now that my harp arrangement is published I’d like to share it with her. Oh, I so want to come to Vancouver! (Murray and Lew knew me by my maiden name Swink.)
Ooh, I love hearing about the AHS conference. Hubby and I were all signed and paid up to go and then couldn’t make it so I have been waiting to hear all about it. Please post more if anyone can. I LOVE going to harp conferences! I followed every day on the schedule trying to imagine being there with everybody. Please everyone, please, please, post on this thread!
I’m glad to see folks are still able to view Harp Dreams on their PBS stations. I’ve checked with the three PBS affiliates we receive and none have it scheduled for rebroadcast yet. Y’all are giving me hope though! PBS usually repeats and repeats.
Missed the documentary, and no repeats scheduled (so far) but the DVD will be available through the PBS store in early July and will be released through Amazon on August 3rd.
Extra Features Include:
Maria Krushevskaya plays Eugen Onegin (7:34.24);
Building The Prize Harp (9:25.04);
Cheryl’s Harp Needs Repair (3:34.17); and
Selecting a Competition Harp (4:29.10).I missed the documentary “Harp Dreams,” and it is not scheduled for repeats (so far) but the DVD will be available at the PBS store in July and released through Amazon August 3rd.
Extra Features Include:
Maria Krushevskaya plays Eugen Onegin (7:34.24);
Building The Prize Harp (9:25.04);
Cheryl’s Harp Needs Repair (3:34.17); and
Selecting a Competition Harp (4:29.10).
I loved watching the video! Thanks so much for posting, Dave! So much fun to see harpists here in action!
I’m late to this string too. I just played my first Pratt harp last week, at the Harps International Showroom (Carolyn Sykes, rep — Pasadena, CA). I have six harps (one pedal, one wire, three 36-string levers, one lap). I had never heard of a Pratt and when I went into the showroom there was one tucked away in the back corner that caught my eye. I bee-lined right to it. It was a Pratt Chamber harp and I tried it and was completely blown away by the sound. I didn’t try lifting it, but was told that it is a heavy harp for its size. It is not just the audible sound for me. The way the soundboard vibrated into my body was bigger than my full-size pedal harp. That absolutely stunned me. If and ever we have enough extra money for another harp this is the one I want!
I had to laugh when I read the comments about visual vs. aural in choosing a harp. This is what happened to me: at Sylvia Woods Harp Center a couple years back some new 36-string Triplett Signature harps had come in and I tried them all. One I sat down at, when I started to play it, I felt a huge woosh and saw my aura expanding all around me, blue with gold sparks. First time that had ever happened in my whole life. The harp next to it was the same model and wood (bubinga) so I played that, but nothing special happened. It only happened on that one harp. Repeatedly. Week after week I would sit down at all the different harps and that harp kept picking me out with a huge woosh, blue light, and gold sparks. Unfortunately for my pocketbook the harp that ‘picked me’ was loaded with inlay design and so cost considerably more than the other plainer ones (same model, same wood) around it. I just could not justify all that extra cost. Then one day I was in there and someone almost bought it. I panicked. The harp went home with me that day and is by my bedside as my healing harp now. My husband calls it my Harry Potter harp because of the way it picked me — instead of the wand choosing the wizard, the harp chose the harpist!
I love all my harps. I wouldn’t part with any of them. Someday I hope to add a Pratt Chamber harp to the family.
Hasselmans’ “La Source” — I play the full version on pedal harp and a shorter version on lever harp (play the intro and then up to the pedal changes with an original bridge then up to the pedal changes again, then backwards through the intro, making it an outro — hard to describe, but it works!).
We’re still trying to figure out how our home computer email address got on a spammer list since we do not use it on the internet. We use a yahoo email address for all our internet interaction and have only given out our personal computer email address to family and friends. The only thing we can think of is if someone’s e-address book got hijacked or it got picked up from one of those chain emails going around ad infinitum, which I never forward and truly wish and keep requesting no one puts us on. Once you are on one of those your e-address gets forwarded to everybody everywhere.
I’ve never gotten a message from myself, but my spam catcher periodically receives hundreds of undeliverable message notices from emails I supposedly sent world wide. Most of them are in Russian, so I am assuming someone in Russia got hold of our email address and is using it. However, the ones in English are very embarrassing and judging by the worldwide volume and nature of the undeliverables, our email address is on some kind of list making the spamming circuit (i.e. used by spammers). I set up our spam guard at Earthlink to reject emails to myself, so at least they don’t all come down into our computer!
What an absolutely beautiful harp! My breath is totally taken away. I can just feel your joy. Lovely, lovely lovely!!
Stephanie has a page on her website about her appearance on Project Runway. So much fun!
http://www.stephaniebennett.com/projectrunway.html
Stephanie has been busy! First American Idol and now Project Runway. Woo hoo!
I am so very happy for you, Kay. When you are in love with your instrument the feeling never goes away. I haven’t been able to play my lovely pedal harp much these last couple of months due to medical setbacks, but whenever I walk through the house and see her standing there, sparkling, luring my heart, I am more determined than ever to hold her once again in my arms and feel her sound resonate throughout my body and soul. She takes my breath away at every glance. A permanent place in my heart and our home. She is a part of our family. I can see that your harp is already at home with you! How lovely! Can’t wait to see the pictures! I’m all smiles in anticipation.
I started out on a petite model and immediately had to start the trade-in process for a non-petite because of the pedal spacing. My feet are too wide for the pedal spacing on all the petite pedal harps. Later when the grand petite came out I was curious and tried it out and it also has the smaller pedal spacing. For people with slim feet they are perfect.
Anyway, I wish someone had told me about the pedal spacing before I bought my first harp. I was new to pedal harp so didn’t know it would be an issue. If I ever buy another pedal harp that will be one of the first things on my list to check.
