Bill Taylor
“Gosteg Dafydd Athro”
From MUSICA Welsh Medieval Harp Music from the Robert ap Huw manuscript
(Taith) 2010

During lockdown, I enrolled on an online course (via the Wire Branch of the Clarsach Society) with the harpist Bill Taylor on how to play music from the Robert ap Huw manuscript. The music contained in this manuscript is the earliest surviving body of European harp music and comes from the 14th–16th centuries. It was a lifeline for me – to clock in with many other harpists from around the world to learn two pieces from the manuscript: Kaniad Hun Wenllian and Gosteg yr Halen. The music requires the harpist to pluck the strings with their fingernails as well as damp others according to a guide called ‘the principles to learn the pricking’ (notation). Some of these ancient harp techniques can be considered extended techniques in a contemporary classical context. These lessons were a portal into mind-blowing ancient music.

Jack Teagarden and Orchestra featuring Casper Reardon
“Junk Man”
From Brunswick Modern Rhythm Series No 284
(78rpm record transferred by John R T Davies) 1999

Since I was a teenager, I have been on the hunt for a recording of a piece by Jack Teagarden called “Junk Man” (1934). It features Casper Reardon, who was considered at the time the first to use the harp as a solo jazz instrument. Prior to this, the harp had been used in dance music for incidental embellishments, but this was a new development. Casper was a master of modulating with his pedals, and he was preparing to write a textbook on the subject, but sadly died in 1941, at the age of 33.

In 1999, I tracked down John R T Davies, an audio engineer, who specialised in restoring and transferring jazz and blues records from shellac 78s. I asked Davies to go through his huge collection and transfer anything that had harp on it. He transferred music that featured Mario Lorenzi, Adele Girard with Joe Marsala, Harpo Marx and the Paul Tremaine Orchestra. Most importantly, he included “Junk Man” featuring Reardon.

The entire John R T Davies Collection is housed at the Borthwick Archive, York University where an audio transfer suite is available.

Temusewo Mukasa
“Okwagala Omulungi Kwesengereza”
From Royal Court Music From Uganda
(SWP/International Library Of African Music) 1998

Years ago, Andy Moor (from The Ex) introduced me to the harp playing of Temusewo Mukasa. Mukasa was the last royal harpist of the Ganda people, and played the ennanga. The eight strings of the ennanga are tuned to a pentatonic scale and played alternately with the thumb and index fingers of the two hands. The instrumental part is completed by a vocal part, okuyimba, sung by the harpist. His harp playing combined with his singing is of a staggering virtuosity, with mind-scrambling speeds of articulation.

Hugh Tracey made two trips to Uganda in 1950 and 1952, where he recorded the material on this album as well as music found on the CD Secular Music From Uganda (SWP 024).

Héloïse Russell-Fergusson
“Dance Of The Drops”
From An Treisamh
(Clarsach) 1966

Héloïse Russell-Fergusson (1896–1970) was born in Glasgow and spent much of her early years in Argyll. She was a clarsach player who reflected her passion for the sea through her compositions. She toured the world with a repertoire of traditional Gaelic songs on her harp. In the 1960s Heloise released four EPs that moved beyond her earlier traditional style and embellished her playing with wordless singing. In 1966 she released An Treisamh, the third in the series of EPs which saw a more abstract development, which can be evidenced on this piece “Dance Of The Drops”, for harp and mbira. Héloïse confounded the expectations we might have from a traditional clarsach player, and her music reflects the natural sounds of sea, lochs and sea rain that surround her.

Maung That Win
“Htoo Machana Thichinn Khant Et An Taw Kyo (Hommage To Buddha)”
From BIRMANIE: Musique d’Art Vol 1 & 2
(Ocora) 1981

The saung gauk angular harp, is regarded as the Myanmar national musical instrument and dates back to the 9th Century. This harp has thirteen strings, the soundboard is made of deerskin and it is tuned pentatonically. Maung That Win, is the soloist on harp and is supported by the hsi (cymbals) and wa (bones). This piece is in the thanyu mode, which is the mystical and sacred mode. This mode is used as an introduction in the case of a concert, where the players invoke the spirits or divinities in the hope of calling forth their protection. In this case, they are invocations to the Buddha, asking for happiness and prosperity. The playing has the poise and exploratory feel of taking a melody for a walk.

Tôn-Thất Tiết
“CHU KY III”
From Hélène Breschand: Harpiste
(In Situ) 1999

Tôn-Thất Tiết is a Vietnamese born French composer and also a researcher of Vietnamese traditional music. This piece composed in 1977 belongs to the Chu Ky (Cycle) series of seven instrumental pieces. Most of his works are inspired by Asian philosophy, the I Ching, Buddhism and Hinduism and some of his works aim to revive the spirit of the traditional sacred and court music of Vietnam.

I was delighted to find this piece on my friend Hélène Breschand’s CD when I first met her in the late 1990s. I have loved this piece ever since I heard Hugh Webb, my harp teacher at the time, play it. Listening to the piece now it still sounds fresh and I often return to it.

Max Eastley
“2 Aeolian Harps Pt 1 (1980)”
From Installation Recordings (1973-2008)
(Paradigm Discs) 2010

Inspired by the work of Mieko Shiomi, in 2006, I started building aeolian harps. There are a whole host of artists who have worked with aeolian harps of one kind or another: Wolf-Dieter Trüstedt, Henry David Thoreau, Roger Winfield, Alan Lamb, Lee Patterson and Mario Bertonicci. This track features Max Eastley’s mesmerising aeolian harps. Since the 1960s, he has explored the relationship between chance music and art alongside environmental forces such as wind and water. The motion of the wind across a string is called the ‘Kármán vortex street effect’. Sometimes when the wind takes hold of a harp string and causes it to vibrate, it creates intense overtones – the wind won’t let go of the tone and it bores into the brain.

Alain Bancquart
“Etrennes”
From Catherine Michel en Recital – Anthologie de la Musique pour Harpe
(Quantum) 1994

When I was studying at Sheffield in the early 1990s, I travelled to Manchester to hear Catherine Michel play. She played “Etrennes” (1990), which was written for her, and I was excited by the piece’s rhythmic complexity and microtonality. I was particularly impressed by her performance and that she uttered “merde” under her breath during a particularly difficult section. Cutting through all the niceties of the harp in a glorious moment. Michel gave me a heavily annotated copy of her score which became a prized possession. I would listen to her CD while studying the score. “Etrennes” is virtually unknown, undervalued and unplayed as far as I can tell. I took my cue from this piece when I started improvising and my playing was heavily inspired and influenced by this piece.

Read Clive Bell's reviews of Rhodri Davies's Telyn Wrachïod and Various Creiriau Y Delyn Rawn/Relics Of The Horsehair Harp in The Wire 484. Wire subscribers can also access the review online via the digital library of back issues.