Thursday 30 September 2010

two harps nearly ready

'Cautiously optimistic' ... It's cool being an inventor, albeit, only of harps. The quad 'traditional' harp (Mystic-Al) is sounding absolutely phenomenal. I can't wait to play it. I am busy cutting trim and staining the last few bits of wood. The other harp is Hand-Al. This harp was the first harp Philippa took to Oxford. I believe she played for the Bruch Concerto on it. It was one of my first harps so I decided to re-make it and improve it. I once played Hand-Al in one of those huge optigan things at Towneley Hall. I cannot remember what they call them now but they were all the rage a few years back - they looked cool from a distance, huge plastic bubbles which you could walk round - when you play in one for a few hours you realise how much duck tape is used to plug the holes! One day disaster struck and one flew up in the air.

The harp is strung up with wire strings on the right and standard nylon on the left. I have made the bass strings by twisting up very long lengths of nylon together. It has worked well though and the bass has a punchy woody sound. All this on a 3' high frame - not bad eh?!!!

Friday 24 September 2010

Harp Concertos

I have been asked to play an arrangement of Mozart's Harp Concerto - 2nd movement for the entrance of the Bride. The last time I played the 1st movement it was very difficult - The venue looked stunning. They had strung fishing line across the ceiling in a grid and threaded daisies upsidedown from it. They were all at different heights and filled the entire ceiling.

The room was as packed as the ceiling and I was squashed between Grandma and her stick and bridesmaids in huge ballerina net dresses. Trying to play Mozart without elbow room was limiting - matters were made massively worse though when 'Grandma' decided to adjust her stick and it fell into the harp ... arghhhhhhh!!! Split second decision to take the left hand off to catch the stick but the right hand didn't drop a note - ha ha!!

It often gets quite hazardous when playing for the drinks receptions inside. Brides never expect it to rain and often we are all squashed in. I have had drinks spilt on the harp too many times but the worst is when people steady their balance by holding onto the top of the forepillar. Luckily every time this has happenned I have managed to stop playing and grab the harp and pull it back but one of these days disaster might take over and harp and person will crash headlong to the floor ...

Monday 20 September 2010

The Barearts

When Dave and I need cheering up we treck across the moors to Todmorden to The Barearts. Trevor brews his own beer (on a massive scale) and Kathy paints pictures (nudes actually and incredibly clever) - hence The Barearts. I love the way that they both welcome everyone through the door, no-one is ever left alone and they always introduce people. I always try to introduce people as well - it seems to be falling out of fashion in 'real life' but I am always pretty useless when it comes to Facebook!

We keep meaning to give Kathy a 'bare-harp' to paint. It would probably be pink and we would probably call it 'Virgin-Al'. Everything is painted bright pink - it shows off the paintings well and the serious beer drinkers don't seem to mind. Beer is served in jugs (posh-like).

Well I got a telephone call today wanting the harper who had been on Woman's Hour a couple of weeks back - big surprise to me as ever! It was recorded quite a few years ago when I made my first-ever harp. On the way back from recording in Manchester I got stuck on the M62 for 2 hours in scorching weather and the harp exploded in the back of the car ... Couldn't be mended so had to start all over again (now you know why so many trips to The Barearts are needed ...)

Sunday 19 September 2010

rings on her fingers and bells on her toes

You know you've made it when someone writes a song about you - thank you Eddie (Lawler)! I had heard it before but it was lovely to hear it sung last night at Saltaire Festival. Eddie is the 'Bard of Saltaire' and wrote Saltairey Tales. I like his song about the Lord of Frizing Hall as well.

Today we were supposed to be having a day out. I packed a picnic and we set off hopefully in the rain (in the car). We got as far as 'Salt and Pepper' above Cross Hills and thought we would climb the tower. Dave got to the top and his hat blew off! It blew over the cliff and landed back near the car again. By this time the rain was blowing sideways and we gave up on the idea of a walk, ate the sandwiches in the car and went shopping in Colne!

This week's job is to get Vand-Al back on track. I tried to string it up with triple rows of strings onto a quad-luted soundbox but it just won't take the stress. I had to try it though because you just never know! I have now to take all the strings off, re-do the soundbox and re-string it with 4 sets of strings .... Mystic-Al on the other hand is starting to sing - sounds wonderful and no signs of stress anywhere. It is holding its tuning quite well - I sneak it up a quarter of a tone in places everyother day - not bad at all.

Thursday 16 September 2010

'famous' people

I was asked to do a radio interview for Radio Leeds but this one was different. They emailed me the questions beforehand so that I could prepare the answers. Ha ha! - me!! Words are not my thing - they tumble out completely unorganised, often making no sense, and, even though I had elocution lessons for years as a child, the stutter comes back ...

Imagine my surprise when a 'famous' person knocks on the door to do the interview. Ian Clayton apologised and said that he had 2 more interviews and miles to travel so he had to leave in an hour. I can't quite remember when it was but certainly much more than an hour later Ian set off to Leyburn.

I had yet another reporter here yesterday. We were supposed to be up on the moor tops taking pics. It was 'wuthering' - majorily wuthering actually. Luckily Dave is quite an up-and-coming photographer so we have a 'bank' of pics of me-plus-harps on rocks (Yorkshire rocks). Well, it turned out that Roy and Ian live in the same area and go to the same pub on Friday nights!

I got a hug goodbye from both men to which Dave chuntered under his breath 'don't they have women in Castleford or something' !

The Square Chapel, Halifax, tomorrow night - 8 pm - see you there?

Monday 13 September 2010

and pretty maids on all a row ...

Three weddings in three days - and they all got the sun! I sat next to two ancient (absolutely huge) coffers in the Church, iron bars strapped round the edges, black split oak - absolutely gorgeous.

I have never seen a vicar blush so deeply for so long. I can't actually remember him saying 'you can now kiss the bride'. The Groom grabbed his Bride and launched straight into a very long, very passionate snog! I could see the panic on the Vicar's face as he tried to look above them as it passed the 2 minute mark and there was no sign of it ending. The Congragation was doubled over laughing egging them on!

Two weddings before I had loads of young fascinated bridesmaids and pageboys. 'But HOW do you do it?' they kept asking. Short answers inbetween sets were not enough alas. Eventually I abandoned the set list given by the Bride and entertained them with jigs and reels. The bells were hidden under my long dress but they had spotted them. They were dancing around but suddenly ended up in a long row - like line dancers - all stamping their right foot in time and slapping their thighs. I started drumming on the soundboard. Slight puzzlement, then one of them turned and drummed on the back facing her, so they all did the same!

The Square Chapel this Friday - 8 pm - thanks to everyone who has bought tickets - (Wow!!) :)

Friday 10 September 2010

Valour

My Mum says that people are behaving so badly because they are not scared of the 'devil'. It used to be drummed into everyone every Sunday morning and if they didn't come to Church the likes of Haworth's Grimshaw would round them up in the pubs! There is literally nothing to be frightened of anymore.

I love researching history and spend a lot of time playing to specific groups of people/children. The Celts used to take music therapy very seriously and laid down the rules very early on ...

'bring about an atmosphere of repose and slumber, bring them through to valour and tears but, always, always, leave them with the foot atapping ... '

I am in need of my own therapy today! After the ripple of nastiness has upset and affected people's lives the only thing we can do for them is pray ...

Bring back good old fashioned valour ...

still smiling :)

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Near Calamity

The worst thing you can hear on a harp is the sound of wood creaking - like an old boat. Sometimes it is barely audible to me but I sense it first. The design of Mystic-Al is very radical. I have succeeded in making a modern quad harp but had never tried making a traditional sound - ie more 'sweet' but involves more stress. I am no joiner so the first few weeks of tuning up are quite stressful. You are loading over 2 tons of stress onto a frame which could 'explode' at any time.

Mystic-Al was holding its tuning - usually a good sign - but I suddenly noticed that the forepillar didn't look quite right. It is made up of 3 pieces of wood and the point where all the stress 'hits' is about a foot up from the floor. One of the pieces of wood - mahogany - had started to warp along the grain. Astounding - the wood is about 4 inches wide and 1 inch deep and it was bending along its length not across the inch depth!

I stood transfixed and fascinated by the sound and then leapt into action. I had to loosen all the strings below middle C - being careful not to create a see-saw action by taking the stress off un-evenly. Getting clamps onto a triangular shape is not easy so I have an old margarine tub full of off-cuts. I had to find the right size and angle of wood and hold it onto the forepillar with my teeth whilst I tightened the clamp under the base of the harp using both hands! It took 3 clamps before I could persuade the wood to straighten again.

Dave came in at this stage from glazing my greenhouse and took one look and got his drill! It takes him half the time to drill holes and then drill the screws in - a knack I have never managed to master so do it laboriously by hand!

As I write this blog the harp has come back up to pitch and is holding its tune well - phew!!!
I have 3 weddings this week but am back on stage next Friday at The Square Chapel, Halifax.

Sunday 5 September 2010

Pick of the Week

I was on Pick of the Week on Radio 4 today - huge surprise!! This is the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qpdd

Saturday 4 September 2010

The Weasal Dance

Dave has a new hobby. The superb weather has brought about a spate of chinese lanterns. We can sit at the kitchen table and watch them appear over the horizon and float up the valley and can work out where they might crash land. Dave then sends me out to rescue them and tapes another night-light in and sends them off again!

Had a fun gig at Cobbles and Clay in Haworth last night. It is so nice to play near home! I used to be terrified of playing infront of friends or family but this crowd was a blast, or was it the wine? It is quite an experience to hear a crowd of people joining in singing Italian Neapolitan at the top of their voices!

Had to repair Mystic-Al this morning. A screw had popped out with all the pressure on the soundboard so stuck a few more in. Eventually it will have wooden trim over the top of the screws but it is one of the last jobs. We are repairing a harp that was left in the sun (apparantly Dad had cut a tree down in the garden and they didn't notice that the harp wasn't in shade anymore). The whole soundboard has popped off all the way up. Luckily a clean break so have taken all the strings off, then: re-glue, re-string and tune up again ...

Dave at present working on downloading a new video taken at Limetree - The Weasal Dance - its good!

Thursday 2 September 2010

stonehenge

Our neighbour next door is having a new garage built ... Whilst digging the foundations the builders have hit rocks - loads of them - so many in fact that they were desperate to get rid of them. Luckily they bumped into Dave ...

The first dumper-full arrived two nights ago and my son, Albert, Dave and friend all strained with crow bars and scaffold pole to move them. They came up with quite a nice 'feature' of rocks interspersed with all the hedging bushes I planted last year (most of which died in the drought but are still there stuck up like little bare twigs cos I haven't the heart to pull them out - and they 'MIGHT' come back to life, mightn't they?) Then the builders saw it and said it would look much better if it was a solid wall of rocks. This time we arrived back from shopping to find a huge pile. If grassed over it would have actually made quite a good ski slope.

This time help was not forthcoming - just Albert and Dave. They came up with quite a good system of dragging them off with the tractor and tow strap from the other side of the fence. Now the 'car park' (don't think posh) is surrounded with a solid wall of rocks, sadly not rounded and artistic but nonetheless quite impressive.

On the harp front - Mystic-Al got through the night without breaking a string and stayed almost at concert pitch. This is like the feeling of waking up after a good nights sleep and finding your newborn baby has slept through as well - fantastic! Dave is absolutely amazed at the hours of work that has gone into tuning it already - and it will be another 6 months before it will be steady and start to 'sing'.

Thanks for the message re concerts - much appreciated. Tomorrow night at Cobbles and Clay, Haworth with Baritone, James Hutton. Think they may still be able to squeeze a couple more in. The Square Chapel Concert is on Friday 17th. More to come so hopefully will be able to see you there!