I'm a few days late but Happy Australia Day to you all! (The big day was 26th January). A day for the best this fine country has to offer- the cricket, and a barbie.
And music!
So it seemed fitting to have a YouTube day with Australian harpist Marshall McGuire playing music by Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Her Sonata from 1952 is standard fare in these parts but I gather is lesser know in the wider harping world.
It is a great piece to play, by and large falling nicely under the fingers. Each movement has a distinctive character which keeps you listening to the end.
Special thanks to Stephen for sharing this one with us on YouTube. Click here to purchase a copy of Marshall's CD 'Awakening' (TP071) which features the Sonata and other fantastic Australian music.
I saw a documentary last week about Queen which was just fantastic. Apart from all the obvious hits I don't actually know too much about their songs and so it was a good chance to learn some more. I came across this gorgeous one- Love of my Life.
It's a great example of lyric song writing and and shows off Freddie Mercury's voice to perfection. And it was originally recorded with harp! You can hear in the YouTube clip of the 1975 track how the harp just adds highlights, but it could easily have done so much more of the accompaniment.
Either way, I'm looking forward to adding it to my (ever growing) music collection. Enjoy!
A very Happy New Year to you all! I hope your Christmas was a very special time- ours was unexpectedly somber with my father-in-law collapsing completely unexpectedly on the Thursday before Christmas. We thought he wouldn't survive the Friday, but, after much prayer and many tears, he did. It's still a tough road ahead, but better than we thought at the time.
Once we knew he was stable we made a last minute call to go on our long planned camping trip with a group of church friends. We headed north of Melbourne up the coast to Tathra, in central New South Wales, a favourite holiday destination of ours. It was good to be back!
Here's some pics to give you an idea, and to help those Northern Hemisphere readers remember what summer is like! (And maybe encourage some of you down our way!)
In that last one you can see the historic Tathra Wharf in the background.
And, yep, all the beaches are like that!
To keep the harp theme going somehow here's a fantastic arrangement of Gershwin's 'Summertime' by the UK group 4 Girls 4 Harps:
Well, it's definitely that time of year again. I don't know about you, but I'm really enjoying the Christmas season this year! Though for those of you out-of-towners I do have to tell you about our crazy Melbourne weather with 17C one day and then up to 41C a few days later. That's been a little hard to live with, and particularly hard for the harps to live with! (Broken strings, anyone?)
I've been tucking into a healthy smattering of traditional Christmas music, and am busy getting my fingers around the Waltz of the Flowers cadenza for a concert next week. I have an enormous folder of Christmas music, which includes some fantastic Australian carols.
The most enduring Australian Christmas carols were written by William James. A boy from Ballarat (north of Melbourne), James studied in London around the time of the First World War. He returned to Australia after the war and became involved in the beginnings of radio (being the first music director for the fledgling Australian Broadcasting Company) and in the establishment of the state orchestras, regularly travelling OS to convince artists to make the long trip down under.
He wrote his 6 Australian Christmas Carols in collaboration with John Wheeler and published them in the early 1960s. The ABC Shop has CD's of the songs available.
Otherwise check out these YouTube vids for a preview. 'The Silver Stars are in the Sky' is one of my all time favourites- so beautiful!
While 'Christmas Day' opens with the north wind tossing the leaves- just right for our hot Australian Christmas where the north wind comes from the desert centre of the continent.
Keep an eye on my Facebook page where I'll be posting some more Australian carols in the lead up to Christmas.
How to destroy dissect a concert harp in 4'35. What can I say?- some people have all the fun.
Many thanks to Mike at harptech.com for agreeing to share this one.
It does remind me in part of a concert two friends of mine gave for the Melbourne Fringe Festival which premiered a new work for piano, sledge hammer and wire cutters. It's the only concert I've ever attended where the performers wore protective eye wear and the audience had to sit behind a screen. And yes, I'm afraid the piano died...
