fwd: Re: minstrel: Looking for/ Many harps

[yarrowp at mscd.edu]

Sorry - sent this to the wrong address.  Please insert into the discussion 
somewhere before Mistress Tangwystyl's post.
Vivien
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Original Text
From: Patricia Yarrow at HSP@MSCD-SCOPS, on 4/13/99 12:41 PM:
To: Incognito_SMTP at InfoTech@MSCD[<owner-minstrel at rt.com>]

Tibicen wrote:
>So, Vivien, you're the expert, 
Debatable, but I suppose after 15 years of playing I can't claim total 
ignorance ;-)
>you tell me: how critical is wire to
>"the celtic sound"?  Should folks with nylon stick to repertoires
>which would have been played on gut?  What is the role of nylon?

To the "Celtic sound"?  As I stated in the earlier post, the nylon/gut is 
probably more appropriate for Lowland Scottish or for Welsh.  (Actually, 
for Welsh you really want a bray harp, but those are just about impossible 
to obtain unless you're willing to pay for a professional-level harp.)  
What the wire is essential for is the "Gaelic sound."  If not P-Celt, then 
Q-Celt.  (ducking and running)  And I'd much rather hear the pieces on any 
kind of harp (or lute) than not at all.

It's entirely possible to play a nylon strung harp with wire technique.  
What doesn't work so well is the reverse.  In point of fact, the ap Huw 
material, which was written for bray harp, includes specific nail and 
damping techniques.  Using nails and damping with nylon or gut will give 
you a more precise sound, and more control over the after-ring that both 
types of harp have.  (The ring is simply much more pronounced with wire.)

The reason that wire is so different from nylon is the amount of sustain of 
the strings, which was mentioned by, among others, Giraldus Cambrensis.  
Imagine playing a piano with the damper pedal stuck down.  The sound gets 
pretty muddy after a while.  Now imagine that you can still individual 
notes *of your choice* at the precise moment of your choice.  You can 
create a whole harmonic fabric by *stilling* the notes that don't belong 
and letting the others ring.  That's the particular character of the wire.

Incidentally, when I looked over the Music from Smarmore Slate in Ann 
Heymann's book, I noticed that there are actually *four* surviving 15th 
century slates with music on them.  I hope we can track down the rest!

>I'm willing to use later music with evidence of prior existence
>for performance, but I really prefer not to do that for composition.
>I'm willing to go out on a limb, but not erect an edifice there.

Some of the pieces in the Scottish lute manuscripts do have pre-1600 
references.  As Master Gregory mentioned a few weeks ago, Grey Steel exists 
as a ballad (sans tune) well before that date.  Alison Kinnaird's list in 
_Tree of Strings_ is probably your best bet for the hard and fast rule.

On the webpage question, I'll certainly consider it.  (I need a final 
project for my Internet document design class.)  There are already a couple 
of good sites out there on the Celtic harp.  What particular areas do 
people feel haven't been sufficiently covered?

Harpily,
Vivien


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