A couple of the people at my church have been organizing free Sunday evening “mini-concerts”…45 minutes or so of music with some light snacks…a nice way to spend a bit of the evening, and a way of helping people see the church as a part of Santa Cruz’s downtown culture. I volunteered to play a couple of tunes tomorrow night. I just got the program and oh my…it’s me and my little cláirseach playing Carolan’s Welcome and Brian Boru’s March along with people doing Scarlatti and Beethoven! Gulp!
I keep having to repeat to myself “You are not a poser. You are not a poser. You and your harp and this music belong here.” Now if I could just start to believe it…
If you’re of the praying kind, I sure could use it!
I was just at a concert for homeschool students this afternoon. Along with the middle school kids on squeaky violins and the little girls in tutus, there was a sister duo playing harp and hammered dulcimer. It was the most amazing, mysterious, ethereal sound-- it brought tears to my eyes. I talked to the girls afterwards and told them how moved I’d been by their music. They were gracious enough, but didn’t see what all the fuss was about.
Then I realized, they listen to harp music every day-- it doesn’t sound ethereal and mysterious to them!
Redwolf, if the people in your audience are like me, it’s been a long time since they’ve heard live harp-playing, and the sound of the instrument itself will be very moving for them.
I am sure you will do fine. The program sounds fine too. The bad thing would be if you and the other performers were going to do the same or very similar work.
I’ve been on stage before and after some accomplished professionals, and I am what some would term a poser. For casual crowds the amateurs get plenty of leeway.
Harp music is usually well received and you have played for plenty of audiences. It is a casual get together, not a judged competition. Have a good time and enjoy. Sharing music can be a magical experience.
I think people will love you on your harp. I used to play mu dulcimer at the occasional college pub or folk club open-mic night. Even the college kids were captivated by the weird instrument – it beat the hell out of another duo on acoustic guitars playing more Dead or Simon and Garfunkel. They’ll love the harp, especially since most of them probably have never seen a lever harp.
And I assume there won’t be a harpsichord – Scarlatti just doesn’t sound right on the piano. I never saw what the big deal about him was in the 70’s and 80’s, till I heard someone play his music on the harpsichord – it’s a totally different experience.
I think my biggest fear is not doing this tradition and my instrument justice. I know intellectually that that fear is all between my ears…that I can play with passion and beauty and conviction, and that the people I’m playing for AND the other performers are fully capable of appreciating music from a different tradition. I know that this music is wonderful. I just need to believe in myself.
One thing I’m carrying with me tonight: Back in September, when I was at the Deireadh Seachtaine na Gaeltachta in San Francisco, I managed to find a little time off in a back room, by myself, to play my lap harp. I was working on Boru, to get it ready for the Highland Games in October, so that’s what I was playing. I was all by myself (I thought), so I really let myself get into the music and the story it tells. I played the last chord, and I heard a sigh. I looked up, and there was one of my fellow students, who happens to be from Ireland. She smiled and said “you took me right along with you.”
If I can do that tonight, I’ll have no complaints.
Well, it went OK. I made a couple of flubs…nothing too huge, and I recovered. I would have felt a bit more comfortable if I hadn’t been the only folk musician there.
There was a fellow there who is very proud of his Irish heritage, and he appreciated the bit of Irish I threw in (just a “tá fáilte romhaibh” at the beginning, since I had the lead-off set) and my description of the battle of Clontarf as a set up for Boru. The way I play that particular tune, it’s not a straight march. It tells a story…starting out quietly, but very martial (the beginning of the battle), rising to fortissimo (well, as fortissimo as a harp can get!) with strong chords as the battle reaches its climax, then stopping suddenly and continuing to a rather sad, hesitant interlude (where the army realizes the king is dead), and finishing as a funeral march, gradually fading to nothing. I did make one major misplacing that threw me for a few measures (embarrassing, because I’ve performed that tune so often I almost never make big mistakes in it), but such is life.
Carolan’s Welcome came off well, I think. I try to play that one rather wistfully…I think the tune has a sorrowful quality that most musicians seem to want to gloss over. People seem to like to play it as a waltz, but I play it as an air…slowly, but freely, with distinct dynamic changes. I’ve recently added a little coda that I like very much…just a single pass through the A part, very slowly, on my highest strings, ending on a very slow rolled chord that just kind of hangs there. It’s my “party piece,” if you will, and I think I generally carry it off pretty well. It’s always hard to judge reactions, especially when you’re playing for a crowd who doesn’t normally listen to this kind of music, but I THINK people liked it.
Wish I could have been there Red. There are few things I enjoy more than harp music. I have two harps myself and use them in the family band a bit but don’t begin to do them justice.
cool!
