lady_kishiria: (Camilla)
First, a link to a video of Irish harpists for a cause:

http://kishiriadgr.livejournal.com/750909.html

And the sound of the French Gothic harp, which sounds very unique:

http://kishiriadgr.livejournal.com/813678.html

And this lady has a history of harps, with pictures:

http://www.alisonvardy.com/harp-info/early-harp-history.htm
lady_kishiria: (Camilla)
Some may say, why rock out now?

lady_kishiria: (Camilla)
The musician's name is Agatsuma Hiromitsu. I just heard his piece "Fun" on pagan radio and had to look him up. I like this sample better because it's just him and he's awesome:

lady_kishiria: (Default)
So I herd you liek Great Big Sea. Or Ashley MacIsaac. Or dare I say it, Squeeze of Scotch. Well then, doff your fisherman's cap before their ancestor, Figgy Duff! I saw this video exactly ONCE on MuchMusic in the late 80s and spent years and years trying to track them down via this one song. I eventually did and have two CDs by them. This is the video that started me on the quest, haunted as I was by the image of the late Noel Dinn playing bodhran. It was also years before someone got this video on YouTube:

lady_kishiria: (Camilla)
"Amoroso", played on a gothic harp:

http://www.asni.net/amoroso!.wav

To answer your question, yes, that is one single instrument. I've been mentioning bray strings; they're the vibrating strings providing the drone sound. The hurdy-gurdy gets its distinctive, bagpipe-like sound from them. The medievals thought it was great and so do I. During my abortive attempt to learn to play guitar, I found I liked the noise of strings buzzing against the frets, even though I later found out it was considered an "error" in playing.

Screw that! Bray strings have been described by musician Melissa the Loud (look her up) as the reason they didn't need electric guitars in the middle ages. Apparently even though gothic harps don't have loud voices due to their narrow soundboxes, they can be heard over other instruments because of the bray strings. Of course, if a harp's competition is a lute, that's not hard.
lady_kishiria: (Camilla)
They actually study medieval non-religious music and try to reproduce it based largely on the bitching of ecclesiastics about it. For example, if a cleric complained about horrible bray strings, they add bray strings. Their web site also describes the instruments they use and gives sound clips:

http://www.corvuscorax.de/start.php?lang=EN

Me, I think bray strings are the bomb, but I think everybody knows that about me by now.
lady_kishiria: (Camilla)
As some of you many know, the Irish government plans to build a motorway right across the hill of Tara. This is a largely unrehearsed demonstration against this archaeological and historical outrage, 30 harpers playing "Brian Boru's March". (Off topic, I am enchanted by the bright blue pedal harp.)



URLs are posted at the end of the video. Save Tara!
lady_kishiria: (Camilla)


A selection from a recitation of Gilgamesh, accompanied by a reproduction of the beautiful bulls-head "Lyre of Ur". As everyone knows, I'm obsessed with antique musical instruments and this is the great-grandmama of them all.

WRONG!

Jan. 6th, 2007 05:13 pm
lady_kishiria: (horrors!)
This just should not be. Since I'm in "obsessed with traditional instruments" mode, I was on YouTube looking for nyckelharpa players. I found this one Swedish fellow who is apparently very famous. So far so good. Then I found him singing "O Holy Night" in Swedish, accompanied by traditional instruments. Okay, could be nice but....



It isn't! No, not at all! Very not! I think maybe Dimmu Borgir could do this song more injustice but NOT BY MUCH. This is the musical version of a blood pudding: black, heavy and just plain UGH.
lady_kishiria: (Default)
http://www.recorderhomepage.net/crumhorn.html

Krumhorn pieces! They're actually classified as being in the woodwind family.
lady_kishiria: (Camilla)
I've been on a "medieval musical instruments" kick for a while now. Lutes, hurdy gurdys (which [community profile] glossolalia plays), obscure bagpipes and of course harps. This one, though, just scares the bejoobity out of me:

http://web.telia.com/~u15211290/moraharpa.html
lady_kishiria: (Camilla)
http://www.jaliscoharp.com

Free online mariachi harp lessons.

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lady_kishiria: (Default)
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