Tag: Celtic harp

JenliSisters – “Celtic Ballad”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Another female folk duo I discovered very recently. JenliSisters are Mathilde and Heloise de Jenlis. I don’t know very much about them yet, but as far as I know they are originally from France and it looks like they’re either based in Belgium or Ireland, or used to live in one country but moved to the other. Mathilde plays the violin and Heloise plays the harp. I think it’s a beautiful piece. 

 

Triona Marshall – “The Marquis of Huntley’s Old Snuff Mill”.

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For today I chose a traditional tune, originally coming from Scotland. Triona Marshall who plays it is an Irish harpist hailing from Port Laoise. Aside from being a solo harpist, she has also performed with The Chieftains. 

 

Song of the day (31st March) – Marianne Gubri – “Il Reame” (The Realm).

Hi hi hi people! 🙂 

 

I hope you’ve had a really happy Easter! I haven’t posted here in quite a while, but now with Lent being over, the song of the day series will appear more regularly again, not just on Sundays. This is a song I picked for yesterday, but didn’t get to post it on time, as I had quite a busy Easter Sunday. It’s a piece from a harpist whose music I came across only fairly recently. Marianne Gubri studied the Celtic harp in Brittany, but as far as I’m aware, she is based in Italy and aside from being a harpist, she is also a musicologist and a music therapist, among other things. This very interesting-sounding, multi-part composition appears to be her original. 

 

Norland Wind – “Storm in a Teacup”.

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Let’s listen to this lively piece by Norland Wind today. I introduced Norland Wind on here last year, which was also when I myself became acquainted with this interesting collective, but for those who don’t know them, it’s a project initiated by German harpist Thomas Loefke, a group of musicians from all over northwestern Europe who play Celtic music with a strong Nordic influence. Storm in a Teacup is the title track of an album they released in 2013, and was composed by Danish composer Henning Flintholm. Aside from aforementioned Thomas Loefke, other people we can hear in this piece are Norwegian guitarist Kerstin Blodig (who’s also into Scandinavian languages), Scottish multi-instrumentalist Ian Melrose (who used to be a guitarist in Clannad, among other things) and English/Scottish multi-instrumentalist Hal Parfitt-Murray (who also has a connection to Denmark). 

 

Loreena McKennitt – “Cymbeline”.

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My today’s song of the day choice is Shakespearean, as you can gather from the title. It is William Shakespeare’s poem that appears in his play Cymbeline, sung by Cymbeline’s sons – Guiderius and Arviragus – and concerning death. Loreena McKennitt set it to music. It appears on Loreena’s album The Visit. She was exposed to a lot of Shakespeare’s works while working at the Stratford Shakespearean Theatre for a couple of years in the ‘80s, and she was looking for some work of Shakespeare’s that would have a Celtic connection to it. That is how she came across this poem. 

 

Susan Scott – “O’Carolan’s Draft / Planxty Mrs. Judge”.

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For today I picked a set of two pieces, composed by the famous blind Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan, and played by American harpist Susan Scott. I shared one other piece two years ago on here played by Susan Scott – Debussy’s Clair de Lune. The first of the two tunes in this set is better known as O’Carolan’s Draught, and as such I shared it played by another American harpist – Margie Butler. – The second tune, as its name says, is dedicated to one Mrs Judge, who might have been one of O’Carolan’s patrons, but sadly I don’t know anything about her, but the tune is lovely in my opinion and I’d never heard it before coming across Susan Scott’s rendition. 

 

Rachel newton – “For Love”.

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For today I picked a song from Rachel Newton’s album West. Rachel Newton’s music has been featured quite a lot on my blog already, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with her, she is a Scottish folk singer and harpist, who performs both traditional Scottish songs and her original material, and aside from her solo career she is also part of various other projects and plays with many British folk artists. This is a traditional Scottish love song. 

 

Aryeh Frankfurter – “Captain O’Kane”.

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For today I chose a harp tune played by Aryeh Frankfurter. I really like his arrangement of it, although it’s generally a very nice piece. Most likely, it was composed by Turlough O’Carolan – a blind Irish harper, a lot of whose other compositions, played by many different artists, I’ve already shared on here before. – 

 

Clannad – “Skellig”.

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For today I chose this really powerful-sounding song by Clannad, inspired by the two rocky Skellig islands in county Kerry, which were a popular pilgrimage destination, specifically the larger one called Skellig Michael, where an early Christian monastery was founded that is now a Unesco heritage site. This island was also a refuge for Irish Catholic during the time of penal laws in Ireland. 

 

Cynthia A. Boener – “Southwind”.

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For today I chose a lovely traditional Irish tune, played by a harpist from Indiana. Cynthia A. Boener sounds like a very versatile person with lots of different interests, as besides playing the harp, she can also play the piano and organ and plays the latter during church services. It sounds like she must be Catholic, because her website says that she is an oblate of St. Meinrad Monastery, which, being Catholic myself, of course I think is really cool! Aside from being a musician, she is also a pharmacist, and has worked in a few other fields over the years. As for Southwind, as I said it is an Irish air, going back to the 18th century and collected by Edward Bunting from a harper in County Clare. I read that there is an interesting legend which tells how Clare musicians learned this tune. It involves a ghost ship which brought back home the souls of Irish expatriates. The ship was driven up the west coast of Clare by a southern wind, and musicians who witnessed this event could hear the ghosts of those people singing this tune. While I’m sharing an instrumental version, there are words that have been written to this tune by one Freckled Donal MacNamara, and these in turn are connected to County Mayo – MacNamara’s homeland which he was homesick for. – It is a conversation between the poet and the south wind about his longing. I only discovered Cynthia’s music quite recently, and her arrangement of this tune is also the first one I’ve ever heard. 

 

Ardyth & Jennifer – “Dream Angus”.

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Over a year ago, I shared with you a really beautiful rendition of the Scottish traditional lullaby Dream Angus, sung by English folk singer and fiddle player Jackie Oates. Recently, I found out about another rendition of Dream Angus that I really like. I think it’ll always be Jackie’s version which will speak to me the most, but this one by Ardyth & Jennifer is also really lovely. Ardyth & Jennifer are a duo from Nova Scotia, who perform both traditional Celtic songs and their own music and play the harp. If you’d like to learn more about this song, and who Angus is, or hear more verses of it, you can click the link above and read my post about Jackie’s version and listen to it as well. 

 

Chloe Matharu – “Catching a Free Ride”.

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Today I’d like to share a song from a very interesting artist I discovered recently, despite that she has released her debut album over a year ago. Chloe Matharu is a Celtic harpist and a singer songwriter who lives on the west coast of Scotland. She is of mixed Scottish, Indian and Welsh origin and sings in English as well as in Scots and Welsh. She used to work as a Navigational Officer in the Merchant Navy, and a lot of her songs draw inspiration from the sea. It seems like this year she has also started experimenting with a more electronic sound. And since I love the harp (especially Celtic harp, and Celtic music in general), sensitive songwriting, all of the languages that she sings in, sea themes in music, and folk tinged with various shades of electronic music, it’s hardly surprising that I liked Chloe’s music right away. This song that I’m sharing today is not sea-themed though. Chloe wrote it as a love song for her daughter, after she developed a serious neurological condition at one and a half year old. Naturally, Chloe was in quite low spirits at the time, as any loving mother would be, but her daughter’s sweet cheerfulness and child-like wisdom was the thing that kept her going. This is the second single from her aforementioned debut album – Small Voyages. – 

 

Gráinne Hambly – “Inis Oirr”.

And for today I picked another harp piece, but a traditional one, from a great Irish harpist called Gráinne Hambly. I shared two other pieces by her before. THis one is also known in English spelling as Inisheer, and is named after one of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay. This tune doesn’t seem to be on YouTube so I’m sharing it on SongWhip and Spotify below. 

 

Song of the day (7th January) – Aryeh Frankfurter – “Women of Ireland”.

For yesterday’s song, I chose this absolutely beautiful arrangement of a popular Irish tune played by Aryeh Frankfurter, a talented multi-instrumentalist whose music (both solo and, more often, together with Lisa Lynne) I’e shared on here quite often. I have already shared one other rendition of this song on my blog before, sung in Irish by Celtic Woman, and I shared more about the song itself in that post. 

 

Song of the day (5th January) – Catriona McKay – “Maureen’s Waltz”.

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For Friday’s overdue song of the day, I chose this very interesting-sounding piece by Catriona McKay, from her amazing album Harponium. As the name of the album suggests, while Catriona’s harp takes centre stage here, it is also accompanied by harmonium. Its in a way that sounds almost as if they were indeed one instrument. It’s a really cool, unexpected combination and aside from this album I really don’t think I’ve ever heard these two instruments playing together. As far as I’m aware, all tracks on this album are Catriona’s own compositions, this one definitely is. I like how it sounds very traditional but kind of different at the same time. The only other piece by Catriona McKay 

That I shared on here before was Munelicht with Alistair MacDonald, so if you otherwise haven’t listened to her music, even just listening to these two pieces proves that Catriona is quite an adventurous harpist, while at the same time staying true to the roots of her instrument.

Margie Butler – “Swans Among the Rushes”.

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Today I’d like to share with you this beautiful piece played on the harp by Margie Butler, who aside from being a solo harpist and singer is also well-known for being part of the Celtic folk group Golden Bough. This is her original composition and I really love the sound of this tune. 

 

Song of the day (18th December) – Kim Robertson – “By Love, And By Beauty”.

Hiya people! 🙂 

 

For Monday’s overdue song of the day, I’d like to share this really beautiful piece, played by American harpist Kim Robertson, who is a very accomplished Celtic harpist and renowned in the world of the Celtic harp. I don’t know anything about this piece really, it doesn’t seem to be traditional so I guess it may be Kim’s original tune. In any case, I find its overall sound very appealing. 

 

Song of the day (8th December) – Loreena McKennitt – La Serenissima”.

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Here’s yesterday’s overdue song! This really beautiful instrumental piece comes from Loreena’s 1997 album The Book of Secrets, which contains a lot of her songs that are quite popular. I believe that was actually the first album by her that I’d listened to, when my Celtic interests were just starting to emerge. 

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