Robert Maxwell

I've just come across a really good article about Robert Maxwell on the jazz harp website.

I must admit to buying a copy of his Ebb Tide when I was a teenager (which I know is lurking somewhere in one of my music cupboards), but never really playing it as I found it too cheesy and preferred playing Misty.

Born in 1921, he studied at the Julliard under Grandjany and became a popular showman harpist and songwriter, apparently more popular in his day than Harpo Marx! Another good article about him here where his music is listed as exotica lounge - Nothing quite like exotica lounge harp - FANTASTIC!!!

Accidental Slip on an Oriental Rug by Robert Maxwell, His Harp & His Orchestra

brilliantly bonkers and of course Ebb Tide 

Still not mad on the tune but great orchestration!

harp boogie

A "pop video" from the late Forties - harpist Adele Girard and kooky dancer!

Lovely comments on YouTube about this video - worth reading!

keep smiling

• Don't you wish you played the flute? - 1

• Bet you can't get that under your chin? - 3

• Which way to the toilets? - 4

That'll be the number of times asked those questions on a gig... 

Flog it

Before you ask I wasn't at Tatton Park trying to flog my harp....

My little stint on BBC Flog It which I did in May has finally aired on TV.

I played for 20 minutes in total, and 20 seconds was aired!

I love the unsubtle edit the BBC has done and must remember to do that next time I play the Dussek Sonata.

Iona

The highlight of August for me, was playing my tiny lever harp at a family wedding on the wonderful Isle of Iona - part of the Inner Hebrides.

Getting there was quite a journey! Long drive to Oban, than a ferry to the Isle of Mull. There are no visitors cars allowed on Iona, so you have to leave your car on Mull, and carry your luggage onto a smaller ferry over to Iona - hence the lever harp, and handy rucksack case for my Camac!

The wedding was in the historic Abbey on the island....

which you can also just make out in the picture below from the boat. (The only large structure on the centre right of the picture). Total population of Iona is 130 - info here

We made a family holiday out of the week, and had a lovely break on Mull and Iona. A truly wonderful place and we will certainly be going back there. The weather was fantastic, the air was pure and because there are no street lights, the most amazing night sky.

It's an hour by boat from Iona to the Isle of Staffa, and of course Fingal's Cave. It was worth the effort to see why Mendlessohn was so taken with it - it's an incredible place.

photo inside Fingal's cave - which was a bit of a slightly daunting trek across the basalt rocks!

Waltz of the Flowers

as you have never heard it before!!!

On googling Mario Lorenzi I came across this astonishing bit of footage (1:48) from 1947 of his playing of Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers. He makes the chromatic sections sound complete effortless!

It's a British Pathe film and the sound doesn't always sync with the recording, the close up of pedal work is quite funny considering the speed his feet must have been going at. However the sound recording is very good.

All that sound from an Erard.

Mario Lorenzi (1894–1967)

Harp weekend in Saltaire

Harp weekend coming up next weekend in the fabulous Salts Mill in Saltaire.

Organised by the Early Music Shop and Camac, it features a weekend of workshops and recitals by Sarah Deere-Jones and Louise Thomson.

(click on images for to view in detail)

Affiniti

Lovely music from Affiniti who are an Irish Classical crossover trio with Aisling Ennis on harp, soprano Emer Barry and violinist Emer Barry.

Inappropriate noise

Q. What's the worst noise that, as a harpist, you can make at a wedding?

A. A wire string snapping whilst the bride is waiting to say "I do"?

I very rarely have any wire strings break on me... I change them regularly every year and a half and I can count on the fingers of one hand how many have snapped on me. It's like a gun shot when they snap and even though it's a rare occurrence it quite freaks me out!

Half way through the signing of the register today (and the wedding guests were very quiet), there was a loud crack which is the horrible precursor to a wire string snapping.

Luckily I managed to draw to a close very quickly the piece I was playing and then jump up and slacken off the offending wire before it snapped. PHEW!!!

After a crazy month of being really busy and being stuck in the pit at Buxton Festival, I think my harp was trying to tell me I need some time off!

asbestos fingers

After spending most of my life obsessing about the state of my finger tips (too soft?... too hard?), you'd think I'd have tried most things to avoiding getting blisters?

Well it turns out not.

I'm doing a couple of operas at the moment, one is a bit of a pedal work-out, and the other one is a finger shredder.

(double click on image for closer view)

Kaschei the Immortal by Rimsky-Korsakov is a great little opera, which is really enjoyable to play.... apart from the 4 pages of solo (loud) harp glisses at the start (which you can't use felt picks for!)

After the dress rehearsal my fingers were SO SORE that I didn't know how I was going to get through the run over the next few weeks.

In fact they were so sore, they felt bruised to the touch, which was when I had the brain wave of using arnica cream.

Hallelujah! Had the first show last night and my fingers were fine - not sore at all.

Came home and rubbed a bit of arnica cream into my fingertips, and so far so good.

Fingers crossed (no pun intended) that arnica cream will be the answer to keeping the blisters at bay over the next few weeks.