Louis Spohr – Fantasie in C minor Op. 35

Apologies for the intermittent postings as of late. To make up for it, here are some lovely performances of classical masterworks, brought to you by the magic of the internet. – T.H.

Lena-Maria Buchberger performing Fantasie in C minor for solo harp, Op. 35, by Louis Spohr.

20 Harps for the Holidays: Dec. 7th Concert in Los Altos

20 Harps for the Holidays Concert
Sat. December 7th, 2013

An ensemble of more than twenty harps will be making music for Harpeggio Music’s fifteenth annual holiday harp concert on Saturday, December 7, at 4:00pm at Los Altos United Methodist Church, 655 Magdalena Avenue, Los Altos. The program will feature a variety of festive holiday music, including traditional carols and a delightful harp and organ duet. Organist and composer T. Paul Rosas will be our guest artist. Paul has a wealth of international music experience, and he is the senior organist at the concert venue, which houses one of the premier organs in the Bay Area. For more information and tickets, please call Stephanie at (408) 366-8810 or email events@harpeggio.com. Proceeds go to Harpeggio Music to help support studio activities, including this concert. Harpeggio website: www.harpeggio.com

Harp effects in action

Ever wonder why your teacher insisted you learn things like harmonics, tremolo, trills, près de la table, and all those other harpy effects? This arrangement is a good example. And yes, all the effects she uses are also perfectly doable on lever harp.

The piece is Sweet Blues by Bernard Andres, performed by Ruth Boyajian during a Focus on Youth concert at the 11th World Harp Congress in Vancouver.

‘Summertime/Why Don’t You Do Right’, performed by Tamsin Dearnley

Great arrangement, stellar playing. And she flips levers like a boss. I won’t be buying a newsprint dress anytime soon (awesome though hers is), but this has definitely inspired me to get back to some of my more jazzy repertoire.

You can find out more about Tamsin via her website: http://www.tamsindearnley.co.uk/

2013 Earth Day Harp Circle Tunes

The 2013 Earth Day (Peace Day) Harp Circle tunes are up on Chubby Sparrow. The first is a duet version of Come Give Me Your Hand, with chords and notes for lever harp. The second is a slow air based on The Bays of Harris, with lyrics modified from Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “Evensong” (also with chords).

Everything in the “Free Music” section of the Chubby Sparrow site is free to download, print and/or listen to (please remember to include all acknowledgements and copyrights when printing).  Feel free to photocopy and/or share any of the tunes (non-commercial use only please).

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend!

Early Music Concert (with Arianna Savall on period harp)

Top-notch performances by Jordi Savall, Rolf Lisevand, Perdo Estevan, and Arianna Savall. I instantly fell in love with the larger of Arianna’s two period replica harps. It’s not easy to find video of medieval harps in concert where the sound mix does them justice, but the balance is perfect in this one.