The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #31794 Message #419632
Posted By: Margaret V
16-Mar-01 - 09:55 PM
Thread Name: Celtic Harp info, please....
Subject: RE: Celtic Harp info, please....
Hey, Bearheart, the thing that got me into harps in the first place was playing the gothic harp while I was a student at Oberlin. I sang in the early music ensemble, which at the time was directed by a real visionary named L. Dean Nuernberger. He was a true humanist and approached every piece of music and every concert with musical passion and intellectual fervor. The funny thing about going to Oberlin, which has both a college and a music conservatory, is that you sometimes found yourself shut out of musical opportunities (classes, private lessons) if you were in the college and not the conservatory. Mr. Nuernberger intentionally integrated his ensemble to ensure a variety of perspectives, and he was just not the least bit snobbish. Anyway, he needed somebody to play the harp for some troubadour song and decided I'd be fine (despite no previous knowledge of harp playing), and handed over to me a beautiful gothic harp to bring home to my dorm room and have a go at it... well, I wasn't exactly a natural, but I did well enough plinking away, and I will never forget that harp (made by Lynne Lewandowski, of Chicago I believe) or the trust Mr. Nuernberger placed in me without a second thought, or the careful crafting of thematic concerts, or even how he sort of foamed at the mouth and clutched at his chest while conducting and we all worried he was going to have a stroke... I've only recently taken up the Irish harp, and am playing an old Clark "B" model. I don't have much advice to offer anyone looking for a harp because my exposure's been pretty limited and I've never had to buy one. Just some good advice that dw ditty gave me recently when I was guitar shopping: "it helps to love it." Margaret