Harp Course by Eleanor Turner CANCELLED

Eleanor Turner's Advanced Harp Course, 21-28 July 2012
Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK.

Sadly, I am no longer running this course this year. I am sure I will be back with it, or something similar, in future years. If you would like a private lesson at my home, which is under 2 hours from London and only 1.5 hours from Stansted and Luton airports, please email me at info@eleanorturner.com

Thank you! Sorry I have had to cancel the course.

Masterclass with Murray Schafer and Judy Loman, July 25th 2011

In the summer I had the rare privilege of meeting and playing for two musicians that I hold in the highest possible regard - the visionary composer Raymond Murray Schafer and the supreme harpist Judy Loman. Both of these musicians are Canadian and famous worldwide. They were full of energy and passion for the music and obviously for life, too!

I had the most wonderful day - Day 3 of the World Harp Congress in Vancouver, which I have been lucky enough to attend thanks to the generous support of the Wingate Scholarship that I won in 2010, for this very purpose. Here is a clip from the masterclass on youtube:

Here is a photo of me with the composer, perusing the score after the masterclass was finished:

and here's another fun picture that my friend (the harpist and photographer!) Candace LiVolsi took:

I'm recording the wonderful complete 'Crown of Ariadne' in November this year (2011) and now have a new addition to my percussion collection - a sizzle cymbal, as requested by Mr Schafer!

World Harp Congress coming right up!

On Friday we fly out to Vancouver for the Eleventh World Harp Congress, thanks to my fabulous Wingate Scholarship 2010 and the generosity of my sister, Annabel. I won't lie, it's an expensive trip! However, I am excited to be going and am looking forward to hearing a variety of the best harpists from all around the World - I'm hoping that I'll see some really unique and innovative performances too - I shall report back here afterwards!

I am preparing for meeting one of my harp heroes - Judy Loman - in person, at the masterclass I am participating in. With the wonderful, inspiring composer Raymond Murray Schafer, I can't wait to play his own composition to him and get a real insight of the man behind the music. I get absorbed in the character of Ariadne as I play and perform 'The Crown of Ariadne' so I'm curious to know how he envisages the performance and what the masculine take on it may be. Basically, I just can't wait - I'm on tentahooks!

That's on Monday 25th July and on the following day, Tuesday 26th, I will be performing some jazz, classical and 'Baroque Flamenco' by Deborah Henson-Conant at the Salvi showroom which I believe will be somewhere in the beautiful Sheraton Wall Centre where the congress is being held. This concert is going to be on the new Salvi Echo electroacoustic (mark 2! - some wonderful improvements have been made since the first Echo came out!) at about 9.25am I think..trying not to think about that aspect of it!

I now own my own Salvi Echo - since about 2 weeks ago - and am still getting to know the instrument, but it's gorgeous and so 'playable' in the way that a really delicious wine is so 'drinkable' that you could engage in both activities for hours without noticing how much you had played/drunk...until you tried to stand up!

I was in London the other day, creating street music and dance with my colleague Lizzie Gough - primarily a hiphop dancer but skilled in many genres. Here's a short video of us improvising with my friend Chris Brice on drums:

I made the doll wigs and we put together the outfits as the first part of our act was clockwork dolls....but as the day went on the weather got worse and we got a bit funky to keep the rain away.

Enjoy!

Alfred Brendel at Cambridge Uni, 17 May 2011

Yesterday I attended an Open Rehearsal with Alfred Brendel and the Szymanowski Quartet at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge. It was part of Brendel's visiting professorship at Cambridge Uni and they were playing Beethoven's Quartet in A minor op 132

I am ashamed to say that I didn't already know the quartet - Beethoven didn't exactly favour the harp in his writings so he is left off my Christmas card list every year. I used to love playing some of his sonatas on the piano - in particular the Pathetique in C minor - but I can't say I love ALL his music so I have never rushed out to buy discs of his string quartets. Anyway, on hearing the piece for the first time, there were parts that were incredibly beautiful, parts that were rousing and dramatic, but a lot of it I found a bit dull, and I think that was because of the stuffy concert hall, the dry acoustic and the slightly tense situation of an open rehearsal with a very famous musician!

At 80 years of age, Alfred Brendel's energy and passion for the music totally eclipsed the quartet's, I'm afraid. He took the class seriously, not playing for laughs with the large and respectful audience, although there were some laughs - often at the expense of the quartet when they couldn't quite pull off Brendel's desires. Brendel even gave up on one point when the quartet just couldn't respond as well as he hoped. I shouldn't make judgements here because I can understand the tension of the situation and everyone plays their instruments worse in lessons! If I was having a lesson with Alfred Brendel, I can only imagine the sweaty palms and many mistakes. However, it wasn't mistakes that were occuring within the Szymanowski Quartet - it was a slight lack of trust and unity.

I loved the cheerfulness of the leader and his violin sound was positive and full of different colours - individually he responded brilliantly to what Brendel asked for. The second violinist was clearly passionate about every note of the music and I loved his style and tone - an excellent musician and communicator. When hearing the viola player in a few solos within the piece, it was clear he could play brilliantly - however, for the ensemble he was the weakest member, not bringing that vibrant viola colour and personality when it could have added so much. The cellist was adorable and had a beautiful sound with bags of personality to boot. When he relaxed from the tricky scene of the rehearsal he brought out the finest qualities of his own playing and really came up to Brendel's demands for change and a new sound. So, individually, there was a lot of great musicianship on show - it just left me a bit flat as a whole.

You will think I am being overly critical and having listened to a quartet of obviously great quality I feel like I must be being over critical. I am now going to look up the quartet and discover that they probably get brilliant reviews everywhere they go and are praised for the subtle communication where I completely missed the communication, but I wanted to give you the honest opinion of how I felt.

When I returned home from Cambridge yesterday I really enjoyed my practise and was able to apply Brendel's wise words about phrasing (he is the MASTER of phrasing, as you probably know) he "loves long notes" and made us love them too! Brendel was looking for absolute dedication to the composer's markings, but also reading well into the markings to find the character that was suggested by them. I loved this. He would not accept a 'pianissimo' sound where a 'piano' was marked and was not a fan of the quartet's transparent, glassy tone when playing soft.

There was palpable relief within the audience when a little 'fast but small' vibrato was applied to the violin tone in a 'piano' line, dramtically warming the melody. This gave us all the slightly odd feeling of being in on a joke that was rather at the violinist's expense, however he took it very cheerfully! Admirable attitude :) I imagine the glassy tone sounds extremely effective, mesmerising even, in a more giving acoustic, but in the dry concert hall it was lost on us.

Both the quartet and the audience were hanging off Brendel's every word, though, and this insight into his mind and methods was an inspiration and a rare privilege, made possible by CRASSH, the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities in Cambridge. Thank you very much to CRASSH for providing this event, completely for free to all who registered!

Trolls, Tapestry and Tsoupaki - a triplet of Tees.

This work I have been working on a programme of music for an interactive children's concert (an interactive concert I believe, rather than a concert for interactive children..if you see what I mean) at Canterbury's amazing 'Sounds New' festival.
I am performing with my flautist duo buddy, the effervescent, energetic, extremely talented...yet down-to-Earth Lisa Nelsen. We have the challenge of putting together a concert that could be enjoyed by primary age children as well as adults, be interactive yet remain a concert and to work with the 'Baltic' theme of this year's festival - our day, Tues 24th May, focusing on Denmark in particular.

So, I have done my research. Denmark is famous for:
Trolls
Beer
Beer-swilling trolls
Water spirits - good and evil
Cave-dwelling monsters, elves and all other magical things.

NOT harp and flute music (apart from some contemporary hand-written stuff that had both Lisa and I - both massive fans of the new - squinting in confusion at the spidery score with the occassional squashed fly ink blob or pedantic suggestion to 'sharpen this sharp and then sharpen it again')

Anyhow, Lisa and I decided to focus on the beer-swilling, bog dwelling, botty burping Baltic troll Trog, our new best friend. Trog is a very depressed troll who takes a stroll through the Danish woods and encounters a Carlsberg-loving nymph, a Gollibog happy-go-lucky bog beast and an arrogant, supercilious yet critically out-of-work Owl actor, Hedwig from the Harry Potter films. It turns out that both beer and botty-burping-in-bogs are not the answers, but Hedwig has the answer to a happy Troll existence (or indeed a happy human one).

Of course, if you too want to discover the secret to happiness in or out of a Danish bog, you can join Lisa and I at 11am at St. Stephen's Hall, Canterbury for a mere £1 donation. You may have to bob down to get in, we're not quite sure, but it will be worth it!
Here's the link for more info: All for One Interactive Concert

I have even written a new piece called 'Troll Dance' especially for Trog.

ALSO this week I have been working on a new project called 'Tapestry', getting ideas together for that with weaver and weave pattern designer Bonnie Kirkwood. More to follow on that soon!

FINALLY, the third T, an email delivery from the Netherlands Music Centre of Calliope Tsoupaki's beautiful composition 'Her Voice' from 1994, written for Ernestine Stoop. I am thoroughly looking forward to getting stuck in to that, but not just now as I'm rather busy with other concerts, composition and teaching.

I'll keep you posted!

Ellie
Highly Strung

Second Prize, Gaudeamus Comp 2011!

I am thrilled to report that I did myself proud in Amsterdam (April 10-17) at the Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition for contemporary music, winning the Second Prize of 2,250 euros and a lot of prestige, of course!

There is no doubt that without the help and support of musicians Alan Thomas, Di Xiao, Ruth Faber, Erika Waardenburg, Hugh Webb, Thomas Hewitt Jones and others, I would not have made it as far as I did. Everything I achieved during that week was the result of long and arduous preparations, a deep love for the inside of my harp room! and being open to receive criticism, new ideas and any advice that people were willing to offer me.

During the first few days of my 10day stay in Amsterdam I wrote several illuminating postcards to my son, my parents and my boyfriend, mostly expressing a desperate wish to go home! I became ill with sinisitis on day 2 (this is basically a blocked head!) and by the 4th day of me being there, when I finally got to perform my first round programme, I had adjusted to the loneliness, the constant physical and mental practise every day (great for polishing off the memory of a few of my pieces!) and the idea that I WAS good enough and I DID belong.

Competitions are as much about mental stamina, visualisation and endurance as they are about the music - having said that, the music should and must come first, always. I thoroughly enjoyed ditching my princess garb for some trousers and a top in round 1, and a Whistles jump suit that I found in a charity shop for one of my round 2 programmes (the 15 semi-finalists had to play twice on consecutive days) - however, for the Grand Final in the beautiful main hall of the Muziekgebouw Aant Ij, I admit that I donned a dress at last!

So, from performance number 1 on the Wednesday, when the jury chose to hear 'Whizzer' (c.2 mins) from Childsplay by Gareth Glyn and Reminiscences of Tranquillity by Yinam Leef (c.8 mins) I was really living the experience of being there, in the thick of it! I felt a huge weight had lifted after I finally got to perform and from then on, the focus came with purpose and utter determination. The postcards of doom stopped and were replaced by phone calls of positivity after a good day's prep or performing.

The semi-finalists (15 went through from around 100 first round competitors - soloists and ensembles) were in two stages, each 15 minutes of music in a twenty minute time slot. We were allowed to choose the first of our programmes and I selected 'Tratti' by Ig Henneman, 'Water Wheel' from Childsplay by Gareth Glyn as a linking piece then 'Dance of the Night Insects' by Raymond Murray Schafer.
There is a photo of me performing this on flickr but I don't know how to link to that yet!

On the second day of round 2 I had to play some more movements from The Crown of Ariadne by Schafer, in a VERY dry room - that was hard work! Even the crotales (tuned antique brass cymbals), lent to me by renowned percussionist Owen Gunnel didn't resonate much in that room. There's a video on youtube of clips from a few of the performances, including mine, from this day:

For the final in the Muziekgebouw, the five finalists were each allowed twenty minutes. The jury chose our progammes from pieces they had already heard us perform, which was great - we all felt they chose pieces that would give us the best possible chance. I played Tratti again and lots of Schafer. It felt FABULOUS to be up on a raised platform in the Muziekgebouw (all my kit was on a riser that was rolled forward - exciting!) but the riser wobbled and vibrated and I had to use a felt food pad (as my feet were so boomy in the ankle bell dance) that I was literally stitching together in my dressing room (remember the needle and thread I always pack - essential!). So, a mixed experience but in general a great one. Afterwards, I was thrilled to hear the jury telling me that my performance of Tratti was 'electrifying' and held them all the way through!

This was in no small part due to meeting Ig Henneman on the Sunday when I arrived in Amsterdam. That was one of the highlights of the trip for me! What an inspiring session we had on Tratti - it gave me a tremendous boost for the week and completely transformed my playing of her music. Ig was lovely but incredibly focused and knew exactly what she wanted from her music. I loved working with her. I also got to play for Edward Mebius, whose beautiful 'Mirror' I sadly never got to play in the competition! Again, playing for Edward and hearing his reaction to my interpretation was invaluable - so many subtle changes were induced that transformed the piece!! Another highlight for my week and inspiration for months to come, I know.

One more composer that I got to meet during my trip was the capricious Carlos Michans - Argentinean born composer who settled in the Netherlands many years ago. We had such a fun meeting and I didn't have to play a note. It was like Christmas when he opened his bag and presented me with various scores...I shall say no more until performing this music is a reality, but that was a pretty dreamy moment, poring over freshly printed scores of great new music. I left that meeting buzzing and enthused, also!

Well, I cannot linger longer on the computer when I have a harp that is waiting to be plucked - plucked, and struck and maybe scraped! For tonight, Matthew, my harp IS......a flamenco guitar! For those of you who don't get the 'Stars in your Eyes' reference, sorry, but I am excited because this morning I am practising Baroque Flamenco by Deborah Henson-Conant.

Thanks for reading!

Eleanor Turner

one more week til Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Amsterdam!

Hi there,

This will be my last post before I go to Amsterdam for the competition and I'm afraid I won't be adding anything until  return. I am not one of these people who can do things like that 'on the go'...even if I had the technology - I document my activities after doing them, as a way of drawing a line under things or creating a little piece of history. Anyone who is unfortunate enough to 'follow' me on twitter must be sorely disappointed as the only time I'd be on twitter would be in the most bored, exhausted moment of my day or week and I'd probably write 'bored' or 'exhausted' - yes, that mundane! Having said that, do people read stuff on twitter anyway? Now I'm tainting my own blog with my tired out rambling nonsense!

The only reason I haven't pressed and held the back arrow on that bit is that in this little part of history, one week before a major competition, both this time and every time before, I feel like I'm losing my marbles. I couldn't be more immersed in the programme of music that I'm preparing. In fact, I'm now worrying about the days after the competition is over, how strange it is going to feel practising and performing other music again. I shall feel as if I'm deserting my closest friends, which is what these pieces have been to me for the past six to twelve months!

So, I'm thinking about packing bags....in the picture below is my percussion bag, currently housing a little collection of items I need:

1. list of music that I am playing (complete with advice on any particular tuning needed for each piece)

2. spare batteries for tuning machine

3. tool for tightening (tuning) my beloved bongos!

4. marker pens for marking the strings for the 'rocket' effect in Dance of the Night Insects :)

5. TIPPEX - I am yet to find anything this is not useful for....marking strings, covering dodgy old pedal markings in music, rewriting bits, naming music stands etc etc. lets hope it doesn't spill all over the bag or I shall have the world's first percussion ZEBRA bag!

6. spare music stand...not sure about this one. Does anyone else have an assortment of music stands, each with their own quirks?

7. Germolene new skin....used only today underneath a fingernail to prevent a sore patch. Super glue also fab but produces the most horrendous tone!

8. Duster (mainly for removing flecks of dried, manky, flaky Germolene from all over the harp!)

9. Spare felt for use with percussion instruments, padding bag etc

10. Needle and thread for sewing any stray bells back on to the ankle bells!

 

Below is what I have on my left hand percussion table:

Bongos and sticks, wood blocks and stick (I tried several sticks on every instrument before finding the perfect marriage!), block of wood for scraping up the strings/hitting them, finger cymbal for scraping strings in Dance of the Bull, choicy triangle beater (again, I tried loads and always keep many spares to hand).

Just visible in this picture is the percussion pocket invention of mine, suggested by my percussionist friend Emma Williams, tuned percussion expert and fellow teacher at Oakham School. Nice suggestion, Emma!!

 

Below shows the extra shelf I sellotaped on to the table - it catches any sticks that may go astray in the heat of the moment whilst performing - once I overshot the table when replacing a stick and I learnt a valuable lesson from that misdemeanour!

 

Below: another view of my noisy pals and yet another view showing more stuff :)

When I perform The Crown of Ariadne, I feel as though I am Ariadne awakening, then with my ankle bells on I am dancing round the labyrinth, leaning the way out by memorising it in a dance form. I transform into the minotaur for the Dance of the Bull and I'm rustling around with the night insects.....all of this got me thinking about one of my favourite childhood superheros, so I thought I'd share it. SHE-RA!!!! Maybe I've always wanted to be a transforming warrior princess with my own horse that can become a unicorn. This is the stuff that dreams are made of....just how I feel about The Crown of Ariadne.

 

 Sorry about this next one being on its side...this is my right hand table, complete with Copthill School Chime Bars (they shall magically transform into beautiful antique cymbals called 'crotales' thanks to my Fairy Godmother, aka percussion LEGEND Owen Gunnel, one half of my favourite percussion team....O Duo!)

  

Below: latest adaptation to the ankle bells for a bit more tone and volume:

 

So, I have done my preview performances at Stamford High School, Wells Cathedral School and Oakham School. I have learnt valuable lessons from each performance, got increasingly devoted to all of the pieces and have received wonderful feedback and even some BRILLIANT tips from audience members!

I am learning so, so much all the time and once again I'm addicted to the harp, addicted to music, addicted to learning and loving every second of it.

I have had some wonderful moments of revelation about all the pieces I'm playing, and through studying the music and the composers I have discovered a WONDERFUL dissertation on Hindemith's Harp Sonata by

Barbara Poeschl-Edrich (I highly recommend buying and downloading this vast, thorough and utterly illuminating study of this exceptional harp composition - there's a link to it on Barbara's website: http://www.bpeharps.com/academic_work.html)

I have also discovered the poetry of Israeli poet Rivka Miriam - I would also recommend her poetry book 'These Mountains' - I just love reading them. They have helped me to find a different way into Yinam Leef's 'Reminiscences of Tranquillity'.

I have gone on so many trips down Memory Lane and fallen in love all over again with other Israeli harp music (Natra's Sonatina, Jan Freidlin's 'Strophes of Sappho' and so many others) and remembered some of the first contemporary works that captivated me and inspired me to play and compose new music: Lex van Delden's 'Notturno', Britten's 'Suite', Kelly-Marie Murphy's 'Illumination', chamber music by Boulez, Sally Beamish, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Sofia Gubaidulina, plus harp concertos by Ginastera and something I saw Deborah Henson-Conant and Mercedes Gomez do in the Prague World Harp Congress many years ago. Oh, and all of Shostakovich's music, becoming a member of the DSCH Shostakovich Society in the days when the internet was brand new! (I used it to find out about the society but all the magazines were sent in the post from Russia....EXCITING!!!!!) and listening to amazing music by Penderecki (Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima), Mahler symphonies and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms. 

All of these things are whirring round in my mind, mingled with fear and excitement about what is coming up for me in the next fortnight. THANK YOU for reading, for your interest and support. I look forward to reporting back after the competition and most of all I look forward to continuing my studies of contemporary harp music and continuing to learn, be inspired and to inspire others I hope!

Ellie

(Eleanor Turner)

Sounds and senses

Tonight I have my first performance of many pieces....Mirror by Edward Mebius, Reminiscences of Tranquillity by Yinam Leef and Tratti by Ig Henneman. My scores are still too low but I'm working so hard and trying my best - sounds obvious, but there it is!

Since my lesson the other day with Di Xiao, I have really committed myself to the interpretation of Leef's Reminiscences of Tranquillity, which is a really spiritual piece that requires a deep tranquillity to flow from within the performer. Tranquillity is not something that comes naturally to me, whilst running round like a headless chicken and feeling a bit panicky about a big competition, so finding my inner calm and allowing this music to flow through me has been immensely theraputic and beneficial to the rest of my practise, as well as my mental well-being!

I have also taken a lot from Di's inspiring advice on 'Mirror' by Edward Mebius, one of my two Dutch pieces. This piece is like a miniature play about a relationship that shifts through phases of peace, conflict and emotional numbness. It can quickly shift about ten gears and go from crystalline single harmonics...to rapid virtuosic feats where the hands seem to be trying to conquer opposing technical mountains!..and back to static, steady, semiquaver numbness. It's a really unusual piece. My son designs objects on Lego Digital Designer on the net, where you can build a model on the screen, watch it explode in 3D and then watch the pieces rebuild to form the model again. Mirror reminds me of this, in structure and meaning.

I have been emailing with Ig Henneman - the only female composer on my programme - about 'Tratti'. I should mention that I have a lot of music by female composers and I love playing music from the woman's point of view. However, when I was constructing my programme, there were certain pieces I had to include - for the requirements and for my personal passions about them - so it was a case of trying lots and lots of other pieces and finding the greatest possible variety of styles and expressions.

I am enjoying playing 'Tratti' for myself, and will find out in a mini preview of my programme for a few friends tonight, what it is like to perform it! 'Tratti' is Italian for 'features' and this piece has incredibly controlled, distinctive features - there is no room for interpretation here, I have to do exactly what the composer says!

Anyway, my practise beckons again, I was just taking a tiny break, and so back I go....

Ellie

Less than a month to go...things are hotting up!

I'm getting excited now about performing all this music. Just a few things to share with you today:

1. As promised, the scores so far:

I think there's now nothing lower than a 4, but obviously still a LOT more work to be done!

My new pride and joy, big orchestral bell tree:
and the new banana tree with three small 'bells' hanging from it.

My new ankle bells (vintage Indian dancing bells...they're already shedding bells left, right and centre and I shall need to get my needle and thread out very soon!)

 

Poster for first preview performance...only a week away now!

and last but certainly not least, a beautiful example of Practise Fuel, created by my lovely boyfriend Alex. 

PIE!

Coming up this week.....

Lots of practise

Lessons with Di Xiao and Alan Thomas, contemporary guitar hero who WON the Gaudeamus competition many years ago!I am so excited about these lessons :)

Also , a 4 Girls 4 Harps concert in Broxbourne on Wednesday 16th March (Hertfordshire, I think)

Bye for now!

Ellie

Long time no post!

Since my last post I have been practising....well, if I told you *HOW MUCH* I have been practising, you wouldn't believe me. I knew it would happen...it always does at some point....I hit the panic button. Not merely that, but my finger has been depressing said panic button continually since I last blogged. Here is a brief summary of recent events, including some milestones reached, some inspiration from friends, teachers and colleagues and (wait, what's that smell....ah yes, I know it well...) FEAR.

1.
'Real life' (inc housework, correspondance, dressing in the morning before taking son to school, etc etc) has been put firmly on hold. House is nurturing some odd smells and is essentially going to ruin, garden is threatened with deforestation, emails and phonecalls are being emailed and phoned to me umpteen times due to lack of response on my part.

2. Good news, I AM making ground with my preparation for Gaudeamus, I am loving my repertoire more and more every day and am feeling more inspired than ever to be performing this wonderful music.

3. Bad news, progress report (marks out of ten) fell a little by the way side but has now been firmly reinstated. I will capture the delights of this on camera asap for your amusement. Here's a taster from 2 weeks ago:

4. I went to the Netherlands and had an inspirational weekend with Erika Waardenburg. I won't pass on any of her tips via this blog as they are priceless, but do have a price, and I thoroughly recommend to any harpist a weekend with Erika or her Summer or Spring course. All details are on her website, www.erikawaardenburg.com

I was so motivated by this weekend with Erika that even after the long journey home, I went immediately to my harp on my return and practised for 2 hours before I had to cease fire for the neighbours. This motivation is absolutely keeping me going all the way through, now. THANK YOU, Erika!

As an aside, Erika had a fun and ingenious selection of percussion instruments for me to sample...here's a taster of them:

'Bell tree', mini cymbals, beater...

'large triangle' (sort of understudy for large triangle!...aka Big Brass Bowl - well it does have a beautiful ting)

Bongos, woodblocks, beaters.


Having to ad lib with Erika's selection of instruments, instead of my utterly boring ones, was illuminating, great fun and rather liberating. It showed me that the music is far more important than having the exact selection of percussion instruments and that often the sound of an antique bell, or a big bowl, can be far more attractive and evocative than a specially bought percussion instrument. I was particularly inspired by Erika's ingenious use of a banana holder to hang bells off (photos of my copy-cat version in next post)









Between practise sessions I now find myself walking or driving along tapping out R.M. Schafer's insanely complex 13/8 rhythms on the steering wheel/umbrella/my nose whilst grinding my teeth as a rhythmical replacement of the insistent ankle bell motif....apologies to anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, all will be revealed when you hear me perform this fabulous piece! Which I did, for the first time, last night :) At least, half of it....but it's a start - a breakthrough in fact.

Here's a poster for another performance I have coming up of my whole Gaudeamus programme:

I am aware that I'm rambling on a bit, so I'll sign off now and endeavour to be back soon. However, with only a month to go til Gaudeamus, I'm using every available second to live, breathe and feel this music. That doesn't always leave time for a blog post but sometimes it's fun to be able to share a few bits and bobs with you and to draw a line under something that I may have achieved...this week, definitely Ariadne's Dance!

Til soon, thanks for reading,

Ellie

Lesson with Di Xiao, recording with Tommy and chicken pox strings!

Hello!

It's been another eventful fortnight of not enough practise, not enough sleep and....a puncture for my ill-fated car! Due to computer issues I've not been able to upload my latest practise schedule 'marks out of ten' but I promise to give you a full report at the end of THIS week (not long now!) when I'll be heading off to Holland for some lessons with the wonderful Erika Waardenburg!

The first important thing to report is a brilliant lesson I had with Di Xiao (Didi), a wonderful musician who I met at one of my concerts last year. I am so blessed that Didi came to hear me, with her husband Adrian, and introduced herself to me afterwards. I thought she was lovely (which she is!!) but had no idea of her immense talent and world-class status until I checked out her website, ordered her debut CD and then played it from start to finish, without being able to switch it off for a second. Of course, she's also incredible live in concert, but I was particularly impressed that even on a CD recording her charisma, immaculate phrasing and crystal clear tone shone out with such vibrance, when so often a recording is a poor substitute for the real thing.

To cut a long story short, Didi agreed to give me a lesson and it was a total inspiration. After hearing me play Tommy's 'Shades of Grief' only once, and it being absolutely new to her, Didi got an instant impression of the shape of the work, pointing out structural markers and phrasing that I had missed after two years of studying the piece. Particularly valuable to me was Didi's advice on staying physically still at a very transfixing moment of the piece - very high on the harp an eerie but beautiful version of the lament sounds - a sort of lullaby with slightly sinister harmonies. I had been overcomplicating a simple, melodic line (typical of me, I'm ashamed to say) and Didi showed me I could express it more plainly and clearly to the audience through a simple delivery, with no physical gestures or making it over-emotional when Tommy's music alone was so perfect and beautiful. Didi politely and subtly suggested (she could never be overtly critical!!) that I was doing the musical equivalent of putting make-up on a baby's face; not enhancing, but in fact spoiling the delicate features.

I went away from my lesson with a real skip in my step and hundreds of new ideas for the music and with renewed enthusiasm for the recording session with Tommy that happened a few days ago at Eastcote studios in West London. Here's a photo of Tommy and I next to my harp and studio owner Phil's fabulous vintage ribbon mic!

 Other news fresh in.....

Caught my boyfriend completely of his own accord nailing my woodblocks together for the Crown of Ariadne. Thank you, Alex, amazingly intuitive of you to know that I needed that doing ;)

Poorly harp! Has my harp aquired the cordine strain of chicken pox? Or have I been marking the strings ready for whizzing up and down with the metal bit of a lovely Camac tuning key (having hacked the sensible rubber coating off it with a stanley knife!) to create the 'rocket' effect in Crown of Ariadne?

Like staring down the barrel of a gun. Ironically, how I still feel when I open the score....
Here's the afore-mentioned stripped Camac tuning key!

Sadly, I've spent too long already on the faulty PC and must go and chain myself to the harp for a few more minutes before tonight's steady flow of students begins.

Bye for now!

Ellie

Remembering inspiring concerts :)

I have just done a concert with Rowena Calvert , my cellist duo partner, and it was great to see some young faces in the audience. There were even a couple of harpists, one of whom even sent me a lovely email after the concert, which has prompted me to get on with another post....

There are many reasons for doing things, aren't there? I am often asking myself, at the moment, why I am yet again subjecting myself to the rigours of preparing for an international competition, whilst finding it very hard to make a living being a professional musician! There are so many great reasons but I'd like to share just three with you.

1. Learning about other cultures through music, with the competition as the incentive for doing the learning!
I am fascinated by our different cultures, attitudes towards music and what part it plays in our lives. To what extent does our classical music reflect our own society, our own personalities and our own passions? Within my Gaudeamus programme I am celebrating my own love of dance, theatre and Greek mythology (I used to be obsessed by my Myths and Legends book when I was about 12!), through Schafer's 'Crown of Ariadne'.

I am learning to understand some of the emotions experienced by Israelis throughout the awful uprooting and destroying effects of war, through Yinam Leef's 'Reminiscences of Tranquillity'.

Practising 'Tratti' by Ig Henneman is revealing to me some of the typical characteristics of Dutch classical music, presented in a very stark, obvious manner. I am learning to enjoy the solid-as-a-rock delivery of the striking rhythmic motives, the simple yet organic changes that Henneman masterfully crafts into the music  and the unemotional and sometimes ugly sounding patterns note patterns, or even just the blob-like notes that sound fat, round and heavy!
Somehow this music has its own honesty and the performer has to express that through an accurate, clinical rendering of the notes that are on the page...I suppose that sometimes, in life, the mundane events can amount to something meaningful and even beautiful over time.

2. The second great reason for doing this is that I get to learn more about myself and what music means for me; how it enables me to express things that I cannot express through any other means.
A great example of this is Thomas Hewitt Jones's 'Shades of Grief'. I will never forget the first time that I played it through after Tommy had emailed it to me. Despite stumbling through it stodgily, it was a momentous and really moving experience for me. The intensity of the chromaticism, the thickly woven threads of melody, countermelody and 'accompaniment' - far too intricate to be called accompaniment! - and the occassional sudden breaking through of lightness into the texture and the harmony...it touched me immediately upon playing it and working hard at it is still like therapy for me.
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 3. Inspiring other harpists (or other musicians) to carry on, to achieve great things and to play from the heart.
All I will say on this point is that when I was about 13 and on the Andover Harp Course (which used to be run by my teacher Daphne Boden and another harpist, Miriam Keogh - this course no longer exists, sadly!) Lucy Wakeford came to give a private recital for the harp students. The only piece that I remember specifically from the recital was Benjamin Britten's Suite for Harp, but her excellent and heartfelt interpretation of that piece alone was enough to inspire me for many more years. It is still a vivid memory and was a life-changing experience for me. It affirmed in my mind and my heart that the harp was a wonderful. powerful instrument that I really could fall in love with and use to touch other people in the way that Lucy's playing had touched me.

So, this week I shall be playing from my fingers and my feet....and my heart!

Thanks for reading!

Ellie

 

Malcolm Arnold Harp Fantasy

Last night, I 'discovered' the Malcolm Arnold Harp Fantasy!!!!
Thanks to a suggestion that annoyingly popped up when I ordered another piece of music on musicroom.com the other day (I think it was that site, anyway) I ended up ordering a piece that I didn't think I really wanted, but thought I should try......

And, lo and behold, it is the most wondrous piece and I heartily recommend it!
I am going to perform it for the first time during my recital on Ruth Faber's harp course for 14-18 year olds at Millfield School in Glastonbury. As soon as I got my fingers around the first set of chords (which, incidentally, were written for Osian Ellis and must have sounded fantastic under his fingers!) I was in love with the piece.

Arnold was born in Northampton, which is near where I live! Also, my excellent student Elizabeth Bass happens to live there and I cannot WAIT to hear what she thinks about this piece, too. It is beautifully written for the harp and composed so well, structurally, that it is really satisfying to play and listen to. I also love the 'March' section with the Shostakovichy staccato repeated chords.

I am not going to have Arnold's Fantasy too far from my music stand for a while :)

I also have the Prelude by Herbert Howells which is so beautiful, but really challenging, and what with the Britten Suite too....and my new piece by Tommy Hewitt Jones...

OUR BRITISH COMPOSERS ARE AWESOME!!!!

Ellie

Points out of ten!

Hi,

I've started the league table for my practice progress! Every piece will be given a score out of ten every week from now until the competition....the contest starts around April 10th.
Here is my very makeshift table of scores, ranging this week from a paltry couple of 1 out of 10s, to a rather confident 10 out of 10 for Thomas Hewitt Jones's recording-ready 'Shades of Grief'.

The lowest score this week is 1/10...I have only just started work on Reminiscences of Tranquillity by Yinam Leef and The Crown of Ariadne by Schafer. Here are a couple of pics of what my percussion set-up looks like so far!

Left table - the CD player is to play my pre-recorded backing track for the Labyrinth Dance. I recorded the backing track ('Recorded Harp' rather than 'Live Harp' in Schafer's score) last year, when I hadn't really had a chance to get to grips with the percussion set up at all! I had to hire a set of crotales (large, heavy, circular antique cymbals - thick ones that are 'ting-ed' with a beater, not crashed together!) mounted on a special stand. They cost about £300 to hire for a couple of days...to buy them would cost well over £1000 so I am making do with my son's glockenspiel and a few chime bars for now. However, for the pre-recording, it HAD to be the real thing and they do sound magical!

This is a really bad view of just a few of the things that are on the right hand side of the harp....including said glockenspiel! Also, my electric tuner, lots of pencils in a pot and several different triangle beaters. So far, I have discovered that one triagle or finger cymbal has as many different tones and personalities as you have triangle beaters/wooden sticks/fingers to 'ting' it with!

So, off I go for some rest. In my next post I hope to share with you some progress about Ariadne's Dance - coordinating the 7/8 and 6/8 alternate bars of the feet tapping away (with their ankle bells attached) in one repeated rhythm, while the fingers of both hands do other complex rhythms is NOT easy!

I am now going to bed to seek some inspiration for Dance of the Night Insects...in my dreams only, NOT in my bed, I hope!!!

Ellie

Progress with Gaudeamus Programme

Hi! Progress has been made :)

I have been working on my Gaudeamus programme a lot recently - pretty much any spare moment. Squeeeezing in minutes between students, getting in that last half hour before 10.30pm (this is the moment when I relieve my neighbours of the cacophony of sounds that are my current practice line-up!)

I'm looking forward to recording Thomas Hewitt Jones's 'Shades of Grief' with Tommy, in London, in about a week. We've had a couple of sessions pencilled in before now, but poor Tommy has had a virus. I admit that I was grateful when we had to postpone the first session, as I still had some way to go before a recording session would have gone smoothly! Then, when we had to put it back for the second time, I was really raring to go, so I was a little disappointed. However, after a few days not playing that piece, it has really settled and I'm about to get to work on it again today, feeling much fresher :)

I've made a bit of a practise schedule and so far have two run-through type performances of my competition programme to look forward to. First of all on Tuesday 22nd March at 4.15pm I am going to perform at my old school, Stamford High School. Then, on Thursday 31st March at 7.30pm I shall perform in public at Oakham Chapel.

I am looking forward to another trip to the Netherlands in February to study with Erika Waardenburg again. Also, a lesson with Hugh Webb in England, pianist Di Xiao and another lesson with Ernestine in the Netherlands if I can manage it....so much to look forward to - so much inspiration! Yes, THIS is why I subject myself to competitions!

So, off I go to the harp - I plan on putting up some photos soon of my percussion layout for The Crown of Ariadne by Schafer, as I find it really fascinating. Also, GREAT news - I have been accepted onto the masterclass with Judy Loman and the composer himself, R.M. Schafer, in Vancouver this July. This will be an absolute once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am so grateful to have been accepted. I am going to meet Judy, one of my harp idols, and receive the composer's own input on his wonderful music. Lucky me :)

Thanks again to Wingate Scholarship for the opportunity and the motivation!

Ellie

Lesson with Ernestine Stoop in December

Hi again,

I've not been blogging due to my poor old PC giving up on me. Its computer brain was overheating to about 150 degrees...having now started learning and practising the repertoire for the Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition (I'm happy to say I have been accepted to compete)....I know how my computer must have been feeling!

However, thanks to a greatly inspiring lesson in Amsterdam with Ernestine Stoop, shortly before Christmas, I have got the confidence and enthusiasm to move forward with this challenging programme.

Ernestine helped me with Tratti by Ig Henneman, completely bringing the rhythm and the style of the music to life as well as sharing many practical solutions with me for the technical challenges. We also looked at Mirror by Edward Mebius, which does indeed sound a little bit Shostakovich-esque in places, only endearing it more to me! I'd recommend this piece to any harpist looking for a short, emotional and sincere piece that is brand new but fondly remembers the 20th century!

The way the composer makes the harp sound remind the listener of an actual mirror, is striking - little shards of light, sparking off here and there. Unusually for the harp, many repeated notes used deliberately by Mebius create a drier, clearer sound, more like the piano in places. The structure of the piece makes the music reflect back on itself, and the nature of the music is as introspective as Tratti is exuberant and outgoing.

I look forward to having another lesson with Ernestine: She's a truly warm person, a great harpist and teacher, and her incredible passion and fearless approach to new music really sets me alight! Inspiring stuff...oh, and grrrrrrrreat coffee too!


Thanks for reading!


Eleanor