Wire harp tunes-Robin Ward.m4v

Two Irish harp airs played on the Clarsach, or the wire-strung harp. Lady Iveah by Thomas Connellan followed by The Hawke of Ballyshannon by Turlough O'Carolan. These are both Robin's own arrangements.

The harp is three months old and was built utilising offcuts from other projects. The harp is not a copy of any particular harp. If anything, its a stretched Queen Mary that's been to weight-watchers, and has a B type sound box rather than the A type of the QM. Also too, because I predominantly play gut strung harps with the finger tips, I don't play the clarsach with nails.


Robin's CD can be purchased as a download from:

CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/robinward
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/no-pedals-attached/id372091781
Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Pedals-Attached/dp/B003MIX676/ref=dm_ap_alb2

To read more about Robin visit his website; http://www.robin-ward.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Clarsach
• harp
• Robin Ward
• Carolan
• O'Carolan
• Connellan
• Lady Iveah
• Hawke of Ballyshannon

[lindenblock]

Hi! What do mean by "B type soundbox"? Just curious;-) Offcuts rule!

[seb25arpa]

@lindenblock I can't remember where the exact terminology arose from, but "A type" sound boxes are like the sound box of the Queen Mary where the depth of the sides of the sound box is basically parallel over its length, where as the "B type" sound boxes tend to taper in depth being deeper at the treble end than at the bass end of the soundbox.

[lindenblock]

@seb25arpa  Thanks! Your take on the benefits of the B box?

[seb25arpa]

@lindenblock I guess I'd need to build the same harp again with an A type box to see. Because my interest is really with the 17th and 18th C I figured building the B type of box was slightly more appropriate.

Given this is my first wire harp, I still have plenty to figure out both in the playing and making of them... just need a few more offcuts :-)

[amarilli59]

This is simply beautiful.

[MichelleMScullion]

Yeehah!!!! - Michelle S