Paris harp joy

Imagine my utter joy when being taken away for a surprise short break in Paris by my lovely hubby and just around the corner from our hotel we come across this amazing sight.... I was peering through the window at night time when I first saw it!

utter joy!!

So, the next day we went into the main harp shop which was 2 doors down from this workshop, and very generously the owner, Alexandre Budin showed me around his workshop. So many wonderful and amazingly historic harps.

I was like a silly kid in a sweet shop that had been given ALL the best sweets.

Alexandre was a total star and despite my chronic lack of French, he gave me a tour in English around the wonderful harps in his workshop.

So the show stopper that had me stop in awe in the window the night before was of course the Pleyel cross strung harp. I have never seen one in the flesh before. And he has TWO in his workshop.

Clockwise from centre, Pleyel cross strung harp (that Debussy wrote his Dance Sacree & Profane for), Erat harp, 2 single action Budin harps at front (made entirely from carbon fibre), the beauty on the left being a Japanese style Erard harp (only 7 were ever made and I could kick myself that I didn't get more of it in the photo, a stunner of a harp.)

So, Alexandre said the Japanese Erard unfortunately would not be playable when they finished work on it, but I'm pretty sure he said that this Pleyel would eventually be playable.

Just when it couldn't get any better (there was a Naderman harp!) Alexandre casually told me that the Erard harp in picture above (foreground minus strings) was unfortunately dead and would never be playable again but they kept it for sentimental reasons because it had belonged to Lily Laskine.

midi harp

So - more about the midi harp in due course, as Sioned Williams will be premiering a midi harp concerto with the BBC S.O January 2011 that she has commissioned from Graham Fitkin.

What an amazing instrument! Here is Arnaud Roy playing on the midi harp.

I'm not personally a fan of blue coloured harps so good to see that Camac have just built a striking black & white midi harp

trusty steed

I've clocked up a substantial amount of miles in my car past month, with just short of 1,000 in 4 days last week!

I have a Volvo V70 estate, which I bought second hand a few years back and it's the first Volvo I've owned. What a brilliant car, it fits the harp in with loads of room for other gear and is so comfortable to drive.

So considering the very silly amount of miles it does, recently I've had to have 2 new front tyres, and new ball joint for the suspension and today I needed to get it a new battery. Which is not bad really.

Q. Where's the battery then in a Volvo estate? It has needed jump starting with jump leads the past 4 days hence me getting the new battery this morning, and I got a nice surprise when I opened the bonnet looking for the battery.

Thank goodness for smartphones and being able to google "where's my battery on a Volvo V70" when you are stuck in the middle of nowhere. There is a jump starting point under the bonnet, but the actual battery is not there.

A. In the boot of course. Lift up the little seats in the boot space, lift up the flooring and it's under there silly!

the glamourous life

I bought a Victorian style hooped underskirt from the most amazing "aladin's cave" of a theatrical costume shop in Cambridge today.

I had just gone with a friend who was buying a costume for a show she is doing and went into a frenzy when I saw all the Victorian dresses they had.

However, after trying on a few dresses I decided that the one I already have is best but was in need of enormous hoop underskirt to make it all stick out!

Just need to get a few more props sorted out with Richard then I think we are all ready for our first Queen Victoria's Parlour gig next week. So just about to pop out and rummage through some charity shops for props.

I've just been doing some practice with the hooped underskirt over my jeans to see how it feels playing the harp with it on, and am very glad I did as it is very, very strange. How did the Victorian ladies manage?

I've also got a bit of a cold in my right ear so I need to play with an ear plug at the moment. The combination of hooped skirt over jeans, t-shirt, flip flops and big yellow ear plug sticking out of right ear is not the most glamourous look! Hopefully my ear should be ok by tomorrow for the last of the run of Katherine Jenkins gigs that I'm doing this summer.

My One and Only Love

Just been showing a harp student some harp videos and have stumbled on this amazing video on YouTube which I've just added to my "inspiring harp videos" page on this blog.

Definitely the most tasteful jazz harp I have ever heard. Texan harpist Cindy Horstman in a duo with bass player Michael Medina.

Old v New

I played on a Katherine Jenkins gig yesterday at the Llangollen Eistedfodd and it's going to be broadcast on S4C this Sunday 11th July at 8pm. I played David of the White Rock as a duet with Katherine again, this time a very different and scarily chromatic arrangement, and there were also a few harp solos in the Welsh Medleys.

So that got me thinking about why I used my black Aurora harp and not the gold Iris, especially as that concert was being broadcast on the telly...

I really appreciate having two harps, especially as I've been managing with just one up until now. The new gold Iris is at the Phil at the moment, so it was convenience really that I used the black Aurora. But actually I was really glad I didn't use the gold Iris!

The Iris is now starting to bed in now that it is nearly a year old and has an amazing rich sound which really carries across an auditorium. For solo and orchestral work it is a truly stunning instrument to play and you can get a real range of dynamics.

For Katherines gigs though all the instruments are miked up and the harp has 2 very close mikes, 1 at the bass end and 1 at the top. The engineers get a great sound (so I'm told) of the harp out at the front, but it is a complete nightmare playing with such close mikes. You have to be so aware of every finger noise, damp and pedal noise.

My Iris produces so much sound that I'm very conscious of having to damp all the time especially the mid range. You don't notice that when you play acoustically but it really shows up whenever I have done some test digital recordings.

I was going to do a CD recording earlier this year, but I've postponed it until the harp settles in and matures a bit more and generally doesn't have so much "boom" on a close up microphone.

So the Aurora came into it's own! It's a really lovely harp with a great sound and I'm very lucky to have two such amazing harps.

Bollywood and Bond

I've just had a very busy few days of gigs. First up was a Katherine Jenkins gig in Whitehaven, which was nicely presented by Katherine after all the recent tragedy there. The next day was a James Bond gig with the RLPO which was fun but it was just page after page of glisses, and there were lots of pages.

Slotted in between the glisses there were a couple of pieces where I actually had some notes to play, namely Schindlers List and then a 2 bar harp solo in Hill Street Blues!!! Then back to even more glisses. Thank goodness for felt picks, otherwise I wouldn't have any fingers left.

In the morning on the way to the Bond gig I had a Bollywood wedding to play at which made the whole weekend a bit of logistical nightmare. Probably more about Bollywood harp music on another post.

This is a new thing which I have recently started doing and the repertoire is very interesting, especially as there doesn't seem to be any sound clips on the web of how it is supposed to sound on just a harp! So I've recorded a few quick clips which although it's not the best recordings, at least give a rough idea of the sound.

Carol

Andy and I played at the funeral today of a very special lady today, who died before her time. It was a really lovely church service, and it was nice to catch up with some old friends afterwards.

Playing at a funeral is definitely one the hardest gigs you can do, but it was a real privilege for me and Andy to be able to play for her as she was really good to us when our kids were little.

I played some solo harp music before the service, and then just before the service started we (Andy on tenor sax) played "the Water is Wide" which is such a beautiful tune. As Carol was brought into the church we played "Pie Jesu" by Lloyd-Webber, and then as Carol was taken out of the church we played "Fields of Gold" followed by "Autumn Leaves".

Andy and I so rarely play together which is a shame as the harp and tenor sax sound really lovely, but Andy does have to "hold in" the volume so as not to blast out the harp. It balanced out ok in the church though and I'm glad we could do this for her.

God bless you Carol.

admin v practice

I've been really busy with gigs, but have hardly had any chance to practice. A very unsatisfactory way to be, but thats the way it goes sometimes.

I spent most of this week in between gigs (and during breaks in the gigs) writing up proposals, filling in funding application forms and generally catching up on loads of admin. All the applications need to be submitted in the next few days, so hopefully I can get my life back and get some practicing in then.

Finally got my flyers for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe dates to the printers last night which was long overdue considering the tickets are now on sale. It would be really good if being a musician was just about practicing and playing, but I think at least half of it is about admin. Otherwise how do you get the work in the first place? On reflection I suppose it's not that often really that the admin takes over completely from the playing, it's just annoying when it does!

Daily Dozen

I've been playing through Salzedo's "A Daily Dozen" as technical exercises a lot lately.

I'm a real fan of the "Conditional Exercises" and have been using them for years, and bought "Daily Dozen" last year as something new to try out.

I'm really not sure what I think about these. I find them very good, but have slight reservations about them - especially number 2 with the octave jumping. They do however deliver a condensed version of what you can achieve by going through something like the LARIVIERE book.

Like the "Conditioning Exercises" you can play through the whole book in just over 15 minutes which works as a good technical warm up.

I think the problem I have with them is that they are obviously designed to be done by players who use the Salzedo technique. I've not come across any players in the UK who do not use either the French or combination of French/Russian method of playing, so I must admit that I find the Salzedo technique really odd to look at with the high elbows.... I suppose it's a case of what you are used to!

With that in mind, exercises like the octave jumping in number 2 of Daily Dozen are probably lost on a harpist with French/Russian technique, although they are still fun to do.

Here is a good little video explaining the basics of the Salzedo technique

Unfortunately I couldn't find a similiar video showing French method but here is some text off the net explaining the differences...

There are two main methods of harp technique: the French (or Grandjany) method and the Salzedo method. Neither method has a definite majority among harpists, but the issue of which is better is a source of friction and debate. The distinguishing features of the Salzedo method are the encouragement of expressive gestures, elbows remain parallel to the ground, wrists are comparatively stiff, and neither arm ever touches the soundboard. The French method advocates lowered elbows, fluid wrists, and the right arm resting lightly on the soundboard. In both methods, the shoulders, neck, and back are relaxed. Some harpists combine the two methods into their own version that works best for them.

(Short) History of the Harp