Dear all
Hello there, and thanks to the moderator for letting me on.
A short bit about me: I'm a musician, with background in classical piano, folk flute and jazz sax - I make my living partly from playing, but mostly from teaching woodwind. I recently took up harp. I'm currently playing on nylon, but I'm interested in early harp music and techniques, and this seems to be the place to be. And I recently had the chance to play on an Ardival wire harp and bray harp, both of which were wonderful instruments; I guess it depends how soon the money turns up...
Apart from that, I wondered if I could ask a couple of questions.
The first is about Ann Heymann's books - Secrets of the Gaelic Harp is now hard to get hold of, and very expensive (and the one cheaper copy on the net is in the States, and they won't ship to the U.K.!) I've already got A Gaelic Harper's First Tunes (thankyou Simon - very prompt too). Is there much in Secrets which is not also in her Coupled Hands book?
My other question is about Carolan's variations on Cock Up Your Beaver. It's a nice piece, which I want to work up. But the variations follow a different harmonic pattern from the tune given in my copy - the first eight bars of the variation fit I : I : I : II : I : I : IV, I : II :: where the tune has the two bar half phrases exchanged - I : II : I : I : (IV), I : II : I (V) : I ::
I've
checked Playford and all the net sources I could find, and they all give the same structure for the air, so I don't think that can be in doubt; and the variations do have phrases in common with the air.
What's the solution? - did Carolan know a different version of the tune? And, does it bother you in performance that the structure of the variations is different ( especially when the structure of the surviving Scottish sets (e.g. An Coineadh Rioghal) follow the tune structure so closely?) Do you think the audience notice, or care? I have considered re-ordering the air to suit the variations - but then, it is the established version of the tune.
Anyway, I look forward to following the group's discusiions
Yours
Martin Robinson
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