October gave a party; The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet, And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the band.
~George Cooper, 1838-1927 "October's Party"
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
On Folk Harps, and Fingerings
Woohoo! My first issue of the Folk Harp Journal arrived today. I recently joined the International Society of Folk Harpers & Craftsmen (say that ten times fast!), and the journal is their quarterly publication. And it has music in it!
Just this week I was perusing Christmas songbooks online, and now this has arrived with lots of Christmas music! I'm hoping to have a few pieces ready for "prime time" by Christmas to play for friends when we get together.
I was sight-reading through the pieces, when I came to the last one, Sue Robinson's arrangement of the Austrian carol "Still, Still, Still." I have loved this song since I first heard it on a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Album, longer ago than we are going to talk about ;-).
When you play the harp, there are certain songs where the fingerings just reveal themselves. I love to play pieces by Turlough O'Carolan for this reason. Since he composed for the harp, his pieces just flow from your fingers when you play. Sue's arrangement of "Still, Still, Still" (link is to Ray Pool's* YouTube performance of his arrangement for solo harp) is like this. Right now I'm at the stage of still needing to make notes and brackets for fingerings on most of the music that I play, but this piece felt so natural - I was able to learn the right hand in minutes and it feels so smooth to play. Am excited to work on the left hand but I did something funky to my left thumb joint earlier today - how can you do that taking a glass from the top rack of the dishwasher? Not sure, but I managed. So am giving the left hand a break today. Hopefully it'll be feeling better tomorrow.
____
*Ray Pool has a lovely arrangement of a Canadian carol, The Huron Carol, in the same issue of FHJ. I would love to someday be able to play a little program of Christmas songs from around the world.
Just this week I was perusing Christmas songbooks online, and now this has arrived with lots of Christmas music! I'm hoping to have a few pieces ready for "prime time" by Christmas to play for friends when we get together.
I was sight-reading through the pieces, when I came to the last one, Sue Robinson's arrangement of the Austrian carol "Still, Still, Still." I have loved this song since I first heard it on a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Album, longer ago than we are going to talk about ;-).
When you play the harp, there are certain songs where the fingerings just reveal themselves. I love to play pieces by Turlough O'Carolan for this reason. Since he composed for the harp, his pieces just flow from your fingers when you play. Sue's arrangement of "Still, Still, Still" (link is to Ray Pool's* YouTube performance of his arrangement for solo harp) is like this. Right now I'm at the stage of still needing to make notes and brackets for fingerings on most of the music that I play, but this piece felt so natural - I was able to learn the right hand in minutes and it feels so smooth to play. Am excited to work on the left hand but I did something funky to my left thumb joint earlier today - how can you do that taking a glass from the top rack of the dishwasher? Not sure, but I managed. So am giving the left hand a break today. Hopefully it'll be feeling better tomorrow.
____
*Ray Pool has a lovely arrangement of a Canadian carol, The Huron Carol, in the same issue of FHJ. I would love to someday be able to play a little program of Christmas songs from around the world.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Hail, Fellows!
Well met!
Welcome to my life in words that start with F. I've been thinking about starting this blog for a while, because my other blog has such a singular focus (writing, specifically, fiction), and well, as important as writing is to me (and it is very important! don't get me wrong), my life has a lot more to it than that. And lots of those other things start with the letter F.
There's the obvious of course: Family, Friends. Food is right up there as well, since I love to eat good food, and cook good food, and talk about good food. The other stuff can be pretty random, from FIMO to Folk Harp. If it's in my life, and starts with F, it might end up here.
Welcome to my life in words that start with F. I've been thinking about starting this blog for a while, because my other blog has such a singular focus (writing, specifically, fiction), and well, as important as writing is to me (and it is very important! don't get me wrong), my life has a lot more to it than that. And lots of those other things start with the letter F.
There's the obvious of course: Family, Friends. Food is right up there as well, since I love to eat good food, and cook good food, and talk about good food. The other stuff can be pretty random, from FIMO to Folk Harp. If it's in my life, and starts with F, it might end up here.
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