Polish Lenten Hymns My Fourth Polish Language Collection So Far
The grey days of Lent are here and it’s time to have some appropriate music to play on our harps that reflect that somber essence of this season in the liturgical calendar. Polish hymnody offers a wealth of melodies and texts suitable to the mood. I’ve collected a number of them, again from the Polish American Liturgical Center at […]
Yкраїнська Великий Пісні Ukrainian Lenten Hymns
I’ve been playing Polish hymns on Sunday morning for quite a while now, as preludes and Communion offerings. For the past several years I’ve been studying my heritage language and more recently, Polish history, right up to the late 19th century when my ancestors left the rural countryside and arrived in Buffalo, NY from Ellis […]
About my harps St. Thomas & Grace Weekly Digest
Welcome to those of you who came here after clicking the link in our Weekly Digest! This is a WordPress blog I’ve been maintaining on and off and I hope to continue writing occasional material for our weekly church newsletter with a link to here if there’s interest. I’ve enjoyed playing my harps for you […]
King David’s Psalms What he might have actually played...
In my continuing research for interesting liturgical music to play on my three Irish wire-strung harps in church, I recently came across the work of the late French archaeomusicologist and organist Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura (1912-2000). She is best known for her book La Musique de la Bible revélée (1st ed.: 1976), a study in which the cantillation […]
Polish Liturgical Music on Wire Harp Roman Catholic Hymn Collection
In recent months I’ve become aware of a fantastic collection of kolady (Christmas carols) and hymns and service music for Mass on the website of the Polish American Liturgical Center at Orchard, Lake Michigan. Under Śpiewnik (hymnal) you will find a fabulous collection of Polish language hymns in PDF format to download! As I am […]
Truitt levers on Argent Fox Double Wire Harp
My new Argent Fox double strung wire harp has a full set of Truitt sharping levers with delrin fret pins. Here are some photos of them on my harp! A nice, brief article introducing the concept of levers: Types of Harp Sharping Levers
In time for Christmas services… my third wire harp! Argent Fox Double Strung Wire Harp
On November 16, 2022 George and I drove out to Hampton Beach, NH to meet Dan Speer of Argent Fox Harps and pick up my third wire-strung harp, a double strung with a full set of Truitt sharping levers. Dan packed her up and took her on the Amtrak train to NH, where he was […]
The Episcopal Hymnal(s) 1916 to 1982 arranged for wire harp
Currently I’m working on arranging selected hymns from the Episcopal Hymnals of 1916, 1940 and 1982 for my large Triplett Luna harp, for Sunday morning service use. Some hymns are in keys which are not friendly to my aging harp, which has been in the key of F (one flat) for as long as I […]
How to: Playing a Simple Melody Hymn tune: This is My Father's World
Here’s a brief recording of me playing the opening lines of “This is my Father’s World” (Terra Patris) on my Triplett Luna harp: For comparison, here is the original hymn in four parts. I transposed it to F so it would work better on my harp. Source: Hymnary.org As you can see, I took just […]
New to the Wire Harp? (non-historical wire-strung harp)
If you’ve just discovered the wire harp (or heard one being played), for starters it’s good to know that most folks in the overall world of harps (Classical, Celtic) tend to think of historical Irish wire-strung harp when this branch of the harp family comes up. That is, replica instruments of period harps made in […]