Exploring the Joy of Making Music Together
I have a motto at my Teaching Studio that reads “experience the joy of making music together!” Easy in “Real Life”, but as I’m sure you’ve all discovered, a little more challenging “Virtually”, amid these times. On the positive side - learning, teaching and performing on-line, has afforded us opportunities for new adventures and ways to experience the joy of making music together remotely, that we might never have otherwise imagined!
I would like to share with you one of my first “explorations”. In “going around the world, to see how others were “harping on”, I came across the 2020 Edinburgh International Harp Festival, that had to very quickly jump to a virtual platform, in early April. There, I discovered a beautiful harp composition by the Scottish Harpist & Composer, Isobel Meiras. The piece is “Farewell to St. Kilda”, the final movement in her St. Kilda Suite, that was premiered in a video performance as part of this years’ Festival.
In her program notes, Isobel writes about how she came to compose this piece:
“St Kilda is a group of islands which rise dramatically out of the Atlantic 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides. The largest island, Hirta, was inhabited for thousands of years by folk who created their own unique way of life, fishing and harvesting both the small amount of fertile land and the huge colonies of seabirds on nearby Stay and Boreray. Their way of life and culture came to an end in 1930, when the last remaining 36 islanders left. Today, the islands are in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. I was fortunate enough to visit this amazing place in June last year. Hearing its poignant history and experiencing its dramatic seas, landscapes and unique atmosphere led me to compose “The St. Kilda Suite”.
In my video recording of this piece, arranged for “ocean drum” and two harp parts (with two me’s), there is an introductory glissando over a bass part, followed by the air, “Farewell to St. Kilda”. Please click on this link to view my video recording
Attached is a lead sheet of the main melody of this air, for you to create an arrangement for your own harp solo.
The “introduction” can be freely improvised on any pattern of notes using the notes of the G pentatonic scale: G A B D and E. If using a pedal harp, you can set your pedals to G A B Cflat D E and Fflat.
Start with a small 5 note pattern of your choosing, playing with one hand or two, and gradually “building” - to extend to the full register of your harp, exploring other means of expression through repetition, changing octaves, dynamics and tempo.
Keep it free and smooth and non-rhythmical - imitating the feel of the wind and the sea, and the emotion of “leaving” St. Kilda.
For the air itself, the melody has suggested RH melodic fingering, and chord symbols for you to improvise a bass and harmonic LH accompaniment. Keep it simple!
Start with slow moving bass notes, then gradually explore LH arpeggiated chord patterns, based on the root and fifth of the chord, then root, fifth and octave, and sometimes adding passing notes from one chord tone to another - as in using the root, fifth, octave, ninth, and tenth. Avoiding the third of the chord in the LH, especially when it is already in the melody of the RH, keeps the sound more “Celtic”.
You can practise one of these parts, and then play along following the lead sheet while listening to the recording(s). Just put one earbud from your device in one ear and listen to yourself play, with the other!
To quickly go to the Edinburgh Harp Festival; click here.
I hope you enjoy this tune, as well as your trip to Scotland!
Happy Harping! Ann