Category Archives: News & Misc.

General harp stuff and links (everything & anything, pretty much)

June Tune of the Month: Early One Morning

Posted on by
Reply

This cheerful sounding melody is often referred to by older Canadians as “The Friendly Giant Tune”, for its role on the well-loved kid’s show of yore. While it may sound chipper, the lyrics in fact are far from happy: “Early one morning, just as the sun was rising, I saw a fair maid singing in the valley below: “Oh, don’t deceive me, oh never leave me; How could you use a poor maiden so?”

Early One Morning

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

A Day in the Life of a Harpist

Posted on by
1

A Sunday in May, 2007

Wake up, stretch, groan, wish I could just go back to sleep, but cats are chewing on my toes and elbows. Get up, stumble downstairs in bare feet, bleary eyed. Feed cats. Put coffee on to brew. M. is just getting up. Pull out the griddle and leftover pancake mix, syrup and fruit compote. Let cats out. Make and eat pancakes w. M., drink coffee. Feel just a bit more human.

After brushing teeth and other standard self-cleaning procedures, turn on the magic electronic box. Check e-mail, and otherwise generally futz around on computer for a couple of hours. After a while, realize it’s getting close to That Time. Get harp packed up, put music and tuner and all other necessary accoutrements into gig bag; make sure I have extra sweater and lots of clothespins (it’s windy today, and we’re playing outside by the water).

Take a shower, pad around in old sweatshirt and pyjama bottoms so as not to get dressy clothes dirty while eating lunch. M. has made lunch for me while I was in the shower, which we eat with much gusto. Clean up, get into nice clothes, find something to keep hair neatly tied back in gale force winds. M. packs harp into car while I’m getting dressed (think I to myself: I so totally have the best roadie ever).

The other gals arrive. We hop in the car, and begin our familiar 45-minute journey down winding country roads towards the resort, one we’ve played at so many times we’ve lost count. Watch clouds gather with great foreboding. Arrive to find that sky at resort is blue and clear, and wind isn’t really so bad – unfortunately, in the pleasant stillness, we realize mosquito season has officially begun. Lug stuff down to our usual spot to find a distinct lack of chairs awaiting our arrival. I tune the harp standing up. Eventually, the co-ordinator (who we’ve known since we started playing this resort) shows up, and arranges to have chairs brought. Co-ordinator struggles with amp system (for minister, not us) and curses under her breath. I am glad I have my job, not hers.

Everything at this resort tends to be in a permanent state of semi-disrepair, despite being advertised as super swank. Lovely location; not so great with the upkeep. We suspect many corners cut in the name of profit, but keep this to ourselves. Wind picks up; sweaters and clothespins to the rescue as usual. Wedding starts late and goes late, is generally unremarkable aside from having a rather strong religious focus. I get a weird vibe off the guys in the wedding party; much aroma of testosterone fills the air. I suspect cops; discover, during ceremony, that they’re fire-fighters. Hmm. Not too far off the mark there. Small male child tottering around, oblivious to the solemnity of the moment, playing with toys and visiting mom and dad (who are both in wedding party), is the most entertaining part of the ceremony.

While everyone else prays, I look up at the trees, through dappled light, admiring the bright green of the leaves, the pale green of lichen on grey trunks, the crisp blue sky, the sound of the wind through the branches.

While we play, the wind keeps stealing the air from our flutist, our instruments slide out of tune (we tweak them back again); chilly fingers stumble in spots, but otherwise this is an easy one. No stands blowing over, no danger of hypothermia, no missed cues (well, no serious ones, anyway). We finish up, drive home, go our separate ways. M. takes harp upstairs for me; I change into comfy clothes, and it’s time for tea and a nice long break.

Throughout the day, I am plagued by thoughts of debt, bills, future employment, piles upon piles of unfinished projects. I realize that my share of the gig money just covered groceries for the week.

I decide to work on my new screenplay as a means of distraction.

As gig days go, this was about as textbook uneventful as you can get. I just thought I’d put this up here to act as a foil, as it were, to all the hellish, mind-numbing, hair-pulling events that will doubtless follow. Cynical? Jaded? Nah – just realistic. There will be times when I wonder, why am I doing this? And then I’ll look at the harried clerk behind the counter at the Timmy’s, and reminisce on all the other jobs I’ve had, and remember – ah yes. That’s why.

A Short List of Pentatonic Tunes

Posted on by
Reply

An inquiry from a visitor to the Celtic Harp Page reminded me that I never did re-post the list of pentatonic tunes I had up a while ago, so I thought I’d rectify that here. If you can think of any other well-known pentatonic tunes to add to the list feel free to note them in comments. A pentatonic scale is just as it sounds, a scale made up of five notes (as opposed to the 7 notes used by major and minor scales and the classic modes). For example, an example of a major scale would be CDEFGABC, while an example of a pentatonic scale would be CDFGAC. Playing the black keys on a piano will also give you a pentatonic scale. Here is a short list of some well-known pentatonic tunes:

A la claire fontaine (French Canadian )
Amazing Grace
Auld Lang Syne (Scottish)
Derby ram, The
En roulant ma boule, roulant
Git along little dogies (trad cowboy)
Go tell it on the mountain
How Can I Keep From Singing
Il etait un’ bergere (French)
Land of the silver birch (Canadian)
Loch Lomond
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen (spiritual)
“Old Chinese Song” by Marcel Grandjany (based on Chinese trad. tune)
Old gray mare, The
Sakura (Cherry Blooms, Japanese)
Skye Boat Song
Sukiyaki
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
The Cherry Tree Carol
They Stole My Wife Last Night (Scottish pipe tune)
Wha wadna fight for Charlie?
Wayfaring Stranger
Ye Banks and Braes

…. plus numerous other spirituals, Scottish pipe tunes, Japanese and Chinese songs, etc.

April Tune of the Month: Lord Inchiquin

Posted on by
Reply

Apologies for the infrequent posting; I’m caught up in April Fools (another monthly writing challenge, to help spur on the finishing of the first draft of my novel), and in the madness my websites are feeling a wee bit neglected. Here’s a cheerful tune for April, by the famous Irish composer and harper, Turlough O’Carolan. (Although it’s hard to believe it’s spring today – here in southern Ontario it’s been quite wintery for five days now, below zero and snowing!).

Lord Inchiquin by O'Carolan

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

February Tune: Drowsy Maggie

Posted on by
Reply

Drowsy Maggie is an example of the type of quick reel that is often played in sessions. We usually do this in a set with several other E minor reels. The chords are fairly simple, mostly alternating between Em and D in the A part; and D, A and G in the B part.

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

Harps in Historical Paintings: Domenico Zampieri

Posted on by
3

King David playing a triple harp, Domenico ZampieriThe well-known picture of King David playing a triple harp, by Italian painter, architect and harp-builder Domenico Zampieri (1581-1641). You can click on the image to get a bigger picture. The colour in the larger image isn’t quite as good, but it does show more detail, including a bit more of the top of the painting, and you can see the strings on the harp more clearly.

A number of harp-makers have made replicas based on this painting. Since Zampieri was himself a harp-builder, one might assume that the harp is accurately represented. However, having King David play a triple harp of this sort is, according to Roslyn Blyn-Ladrew, “an anachronistic error by Zampieri of over 2000 years”. You can see Ms. Blyn-Ladrew’s full article here.

January Tune: Brian Boru’s March

Posted on by
5

Once again it’s properly winter here in the PeterPatch, with snow swirling merrily about outside. The snow first arrived on Tuesday. Concerned that it might just up and melt away the way it has every other time this year (it had been a disturbingly warm and wet winter up to that point), M. and I decided to take advantage of the stuff and dig out our snowshoes. So the past few days have seen us tromping through the snow, and coming home cold but happy to cups of hot chocolate. The cats, of course, are deciding that this is the perfect time to curl up under warm blankets. What has this to do with harps, you ask? Not much, I admit. Except that since this is a very quiet time of year as far as harp gigs are concerned, I’m able to dedicate more time to working on the update of the Chubby Sparrow Site, and to playing with Sibelius. January’s tune is Brian Boru’s March, because – well, because I just couldn’t avoid it any longer. This is one of the very first tunes I learned on harp, and one that I teach to many beginners. It’s easy to pick up because of its repetitive patterns, and it’s a cheerful little upbeat march that works well on just about any instrument. Enjoy!

The HarpBlog Tune of the Month is courtesy of Chubby Sparrow Music . For a printable version, right click on the picture and choose “save target as”, or pop over to the Chubby Sparrow Free Music page for more detailed printing instructions (note: if you just left click and try to print directly from the browser, it probably won’t print at the right size).

Harp-related lists and groups

Posted on by
1

There have been some new additions to the various harp-related groups on Yahoo, including the addition of an all-Ontario list, so I thought I’d post the list as I have it so far here. I’ve taken off groups that no longer exist or have not been active for an extended period of time. If you know of any active harp-related discussion groups that I’m missing, just let me know!

BCHarpsOnline (British Columbia harp group)
Harplist (Currently the largest harp-related group)
Harps_UK/International (Note that while very quiet lately, this group appears to still be active.)
harpmakers
Historical Harps (newly public)
Ontario Harps (new group; membership required)
WireHarp

For other types of harp groups and communities, print journals, and so on, you can visit the Celtic Harp Page general harp links section. Suggestions for new links are always welcome!