Where - Cotehele House, St Dominic, Nr Saltash, Cornwall,
Harp - as in lots of strings and not enough fingers
Music - Christmas Carols and a few medieval tunes
Type of Harp - well there was me on my Clarsach, made by Morleys, and the rest of the ensemble - Morrigan on her salvi Livia, Liz on a pedal harp, (cant remember the breed) Barbara on her salvi Livia (I think) Gail on her clarsach - not sure of breed! Anne on her Cammac, Honour on her lever harp (not sure of breed) and Pam on her lever harp (again not sure of make)
We play as an ensemble called Harpers Bizarre.
You want more?
Well I have only been playing 18 months, so it was a big deal for me, (if you are THE Bonnie Shaljean, I have a long way to go to get to your standard, just passed Grade 1 with distinction!) but other members of the ensemble have been playing for much longer, we all play parts from the more simple to the very clever tinkly bits.which when played as a group does sound lovely (when we get it right). We are all students of Sarah Deere Jones who runs tutor weekends at Cornwall Harp Centre, which I wholeheartedly recomend, to anyone interested in learning to play the harp, as she has harps for you to try, before you go laying out lots of cash on a harp. We all dressed in medieval style clothing to fit in with the setting.
The Great Garland is a special feature to Cotehele house, each Christmas it is made from flowers grown there over the year and takes about a week to make. It was a real honour to play in the Great hall below the garland, and We all throughly enjoyed the occasion.
I am Glad you enjoyed it Cats, I have piccies of the garland and harpies, Ill try & get then posted, e-mail me and I'll send a link to anyone interested.
Cheers, Lucy.