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Post by Blackbird on Nov 28, 2005 17:27:03 GMT -1
Thought it would be good to have a thread on Brythonic-flavoured music.
Are there any musicians that inspire you - from past or present? Do you make music yourself?
I'm a great fan of the triple harpist Robin Huw Bowen. I love his harp arrangements and his playing. He has the gift of making his music sound so utterly simple and beautiful - yet I know for a fact that it's certainly not easy to play.
My current inspiration is the Robert Ap Huw manuscript (rock and roll, eh?! ;D ) which is a 17th century work containing notation of harp tunes. It's thought that the tunes preserved may be those of 15th century harpists, recorded by Ap Huw because he feared the bardic traditions were dying out. Sadly, he used his own bizarre system of notation, which still has scholars pulling their hair out. Anyhow, I have a book of music transcribed from the manuscript which makes interesting playing.
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Post by tenar on Nov 29, 2005 7:06:18 GMT -1
I'm not really musical, but I do like to play the didgeridoo. Not very Brythonic, I know , But they sound wonderfull and are very easy for anyone to play, even if you're not musically minded. Even the circular breathing comes naturally once you've got the hang of it. I must confess I've never heard any harp music- what's a 'triple harpist'?
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Post by Blackbird on Nov 29, 2005 14:22:10 GMT -1
Never heard any harp music! I almost envy you that - for the first time you hear it, you'll be blown away A triple harp is a traditional instrument that has survived in Wales, though it was once played throughout Britain in the (off the top of me head) 17th - 18th century. Instead of a single row of strings, you have three. The outside two are tuned the same, the inner row is like the black keys on a piano. So with all three sets of strings, you have a fully chromatic instrument. Other harps use different solutions to the problem - my harps, and most traditional harps, have levers which raise the pitch of each string by a semitone. Concert harps have pedals, each pedal shifts the entire instrument into various keys. I'm hopeless at the didgeridoo - had a brief go, but I could tell it wasn't going to be my forte
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