Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Mia,
The old Irish harp was traditionally played by blind harpers, so even today, a lot of people who own replica historic instruments don’t color their wire strings. They play by what they hear and where they feel their fingers to be on the strings instead. So you’re in good company!I think too, a lot of their tunes were passed down, one from another and improvised on, rather than relying so much on sheet music like we do today.
Beautiful poem Sylvia, I’ll have to remember that one. Where did you find it? I like the way your harp’s name spelling came out. It never occurred to me to name my Triplett Luna (although I guess I kind of like the Luna part of the name). Maybe after a few years of owning it I should start thinking about names!
Wow, that’s a lot…. pedal and lever harp both. Also singing in Irish. That’s a pretty language – I like the sean nos singing. Wish I could do that.
How long have you been playing?
I was working on finishing my bachelor’s degree in my mid-30’s and my organ professor was teasing me one day that I was spending too much time on the pipe organ – thinking about that and nothing else. And he knew my husband had a little-used Paraguayan harp at home so he said, I think you need another instrument to balance things out a little. How about the harp? You’ve got a harp at home! Yes, I think you’re going to be playing the harp! Start filling out your independent studies forms this evening. See you in my office tomorrow! Found myself out in the hallway and wondering, what did I just agree to?? So we have a great laugh about that now, he still keeps in touch, and denies ever saying that of course (but mind you, I clearly remember the conversation!). I did do the independent study (on the history of harps) and came across the wire-strung harp that way, and just fell in love with the sound. Absolutely knew I had to have one of these instruments when I graduated, although in reality I studied on the nylon-strung harp for two years before I did get my Triplett Luna. And still in love with my wire harp! 🙂
Hi Carol,
I got your friend request ok. Real easy…. all you have to do is go to your profile and you should see my hello on your Music Stand page. Then you can do a reply from there. Plus like you say, there’s always email! 🙂I’ve never gotten around to starting a post, just replying to the ones that look interesting. I guess I wasn’t paying too much attention to the pedal harp/lever harp content ratio but anyway…. maybe I should think along the lines of starting threads.
Hi Deb and Carol,
I’m not a pedal harpist and I don’t play publicly either. I play wire harp and I don’t do repertoire on it either…. just my own arrangements. You’re welcome to friend and post to me on my profile page, if you like. As far as the print size goes, I think you can tweak that on your browser…. I’ve done that a few times on some websites I’ve visited, especially when things get moved over so far you can’t see them. View -> Zoom if you’re using Firefox is pretty helpful for me.Hi Briggsie,
Too bad my husband isn’t at his old church anymore, because we could have gotten your stuff played there (FUMC Burlington, VT). He was handbell director there but now he’s at an Episcopal Church much closer to home. The long commute, esp. in the winter time was getting to be too much. They don’t have a handbell choir at his new place. They have a historic tracker organ with a flat pedalboard. I was never able to adjust to those! I much prefer electro-pneumatic touch, and radiating concave pedalboards. Then I know for sure where everything is!I used to belong to the AGO but left last January. I wanted to do some new things with organ, and the way I wanted to do it was all studio recording work, my own arrangements, and not historical repertoire (unless Gregorian Chant counts as such). But I hear you about getting over the organ thing, because I just needed to go in a new direction with it. I don’t know if the word is getting bored with the traditional repertoire and style of playing, it was just that I could hear something different in my head, and I wanted to get that out, but it wasn’t something easily done live – not easily anyway, unless you have a vast cathedral conveniently located nearby – and I wanted to add in a lot of extra sounds as well, plus my harp. Sometimes I think the harp world is growing in some pretty exciting ways, but the organ world has just stagnated. And I don’t know why that is.
Hi Jack,
That sounds very interesting. Please post again about how the new design is coming along, and if you have any pictures of it as well. They sound a bit like getting blades installed…. I understand those have to be set pretty precisely too, but that’s a permanent setup. I didn’t realize bray pins were exacting in their placement.Hi Nancy,
Don’t know if this will be much help to you, as mine doesn’t have a specific make or model on it and I don’t know much about its history (my husband got it a few years ago at a church fundraiser for an organ restoration) but anyway…Mine has an opening on the bottom, no convenient access ports on the back like my wire harp does, so changing the strings was a bit of a challenge. What I did was, I loosened the old strings a bit but didn’t remove them completely. I got a bit of tape and attached the new string to the old, so I could pull it through the soundboard hole. Once I got it that far, I removed the old string and its wooden toggle as well, and then attached the toggle to the new string. Then I pulled the string up all the way and inserted it into the tuning pegs at the top. This is probably not standard procedure, but it worked for me.
I had to change ALL the strings on mine because they were hardened with age (nylon) and quite a few were broken, so I ordered a complete new set from Vermont Strings. Took me two days to get them on all there because I had never done this before and it was a little tricky at first.
No experience with taquitos. Aaron Walden here on the HarpColumn knows a lot of stuff about sharping rings and taquitos, so he’s probably your best bet to ask for advice in that area.
Hi Angela,
When I was learning to multitrack record, I studied Enya’s albums a lot and modeling my layering techniques after hers – only it’s organ layered many times, not voice. (That took me a few years to master, because in the beginning it just sounded like mud, but now it’s gotten a lot easier to do and everything comes out very lush but clear.) But I guess I meant singing like that, or some of the Gregorian chant I heard sung by nuns when I visited a convent in Ireland. Very light, not operatic or heavy or belting type singing, but yet trained at the same time.I can get some head resonance going, so the check bones buzz. And my throat doesn’t hurt either so I guess I’m doing something right there. But I don’t want it to be particularly loud (would overwhelm microphones) and I’ve never been terribly fond of the shouting on pitch thing, as you describe. Just something appropriate to chant, if I could get that going.
Would be great if you could teach me, but yes, it’s a bit of a drive getting over the mountains. You’ve given me some food for thought though…. have to see what I am doing with my voice next time!
(and thanks Madeline, for putting up with my likewise thread hijacking, but I think I’ve learned something here! 🙂
Getting back to your original thread, I do in fact have a violin, a student one and I think it would be fun to carve a few hours out of the day to learn folk tunes on it. Classical is fabulous, but a serious time and energy commitment. I had always wanted to play violin, since a child, but there was no string program in my grade school and it just never came about. I think now as an adult maybe I would like some of the French-Canadian and Cape Breton folk tunes I’ve heard, and some of the Nova Scotia styles of playing. And here I am, talking about voice lessons too! 🙂 Always music I want to learn!
My husband is carillonneur of two colleges in Vermont and he recorded the Kol Nidre on the Bok Tower carillon in Lake Wales, Fl. People love it. He plays a lot of Jewish music on the carillon for the High Holy Days too (he was a synagogue organist for many years in CT) and never any objections there either. The college rabbi invites him to do a program every year. Carillon bells aren’t traditionally associated with Jewish music but he’s found a way to integrate the two successfully. Maybe you could find a cantor and show them what you’ve got so far? Would put your mind at ease and maybe even get some guidance how to develop your ideas. The scales are a little different, kind of like the modes in Gregorian Chant that differ from traditional major/minor tonality, but that’s what makes it interesting to work with! 🙂
Hi Angela,
Natural voice? (as opposed to operatic, etc.?) I prefer natural voice actually, when it’s well done, breath support, good intonation and all. I haven’t pursued singing per se, but I’m somewhere among alto/soprano, maybe mezzo soprano. Some of the higher notes I can’t comfortably hit, and if I can’t then I think it doesn’t sound good and probably isn’t good for the voice either. Any suggestions on how to work gradually up to higher notes without causing strain/damage? How long it would take?Hi Briggsie,
Nice that you earned a B. Mus in organ! I wanted to do that but my school didn’t offer it. I went back to college after many years and earned my B. A. in 2007 at the age of 37 (in music, on organ), but with a lot of other studies as well, so that’s how I came to the harp. My husband (many years my senior) is a retired public school music teacher, church organist since 13 and carillonneur at two area colleges in Vermont. His website: http://community.middlebury.edu/~gmatthew/index.htm
I don’t perform live at all anymore – if you read my post to Angela you know about that – but I was very interested in music theory and arranging, so I’ve just pursued that primarily now, and doing the recording work.
Where are you playing organ now and what is your primary interest? My husband George really goes in for Bach. I always like the French Romantic, myself. Widor, Boellmann, that sort of thing. Ever do anything with handbells? He did that a lot at the church where he was playing a few years ago.
