Hey people! 🙂
Today I have another nice two-piece harp set for you, from the Irish harpist Lynn Saoirse who was already featured on this blog a couple times. While I don’t know who is the Morrison to whom the second piece pertains, for your information, in case you don’t know, Lisdoonvarna is a town in the west of Ireland, in co. Clare, famous for its music festivals.
Hey guys! 🙂
Today I’d like to share another song by Enya with you. I think if I were to make a ranking of my favourite songs by her, it could get into the top 10 or not far below. I really like the overall, reflective but at the same time light and soothing feel of this piece. Hope you’ll enjoy it too. 🙂
After some thinking, I decided to share this song by Lowri Evans that I mentioned in the previous post. I think her version is really good! Here’s my post where I shared this song performed by
where you can learn a bit more about it.
Hey people! 🙂
Today, I’d like to share with you a tune from another harpist whom I really love, and only learned about last year. She is from Ynys Mon (also known as Anglesey) in Wales, and plays triple harp. I learned about Llio Rhydderch and her music from my most recent faza subject – Gwilym Bowen Rhys – and instantly loved her music. It has such a very special atmosphere to it, it’s hard to describe, but it is there. This is just a lovely upbeat tune, as its title suggests, dedicated to Nansi. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 🙂
Hey people! 🙂
A very nature-themed piece I’d like to share with you today, and a bit summery, contrasting with the fact that it’s snowing lightly over here right now. 🙂 I shared a beautiful two-piece set by Gwenan Gibbard, and here’s another one. It feels very idyllic to me. The first piece in here is called “Yr Hafren”, Hafren being the original Welsh name for the river Severn. And the othet, summery piece is called “Heulwen Haf” which means Summer Sunrise. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. 🙂
Hey people! 🙂
For the last day of this weird year, I chose to share with you an interesting, atmospheric and quite modern-sounding harp composition of Italian harpist Floraleda Sacchi, which was released a little earlier this year. Floraleda Sacchi was featured on this blog before, but as far as I remember, not with her own music, while this, from what I know, is her own piece. I hope you enjoy. 🙂
Here is another very lovely harp piece, a waltz, this time from Scottish harpist Ailie Robertson, accompanied by cello. It was was composed by Stephen Jones for his son, before he was even born, and apparently inspired by Gustav’s Klimt painting of a pregnant woman.
Let’s listen to some more harp music! This great Irish Celtic harpist – Lynn Saoirse – has been featured on this blog before, I really love her music. And this is a piece from her that I listened to recently, so thought I’d share. I don’t know who lord Massereene is really, I guess there is a place in Ireland called Massereene…? or am I wrong? I think there is. And I know there was such an aristocratic title in Ireland as viscount Massereene, so it most likely refers to one of its bearers, but which one, and why it honours him, I have no clue. It is a beautiful harp piece though, and that’s what matters to me the most in this particular case. 🙂
Hey people! 🙂
So I was looking for something that would be in line with the current period and that I haven’t yet shared with you, and finally I did find something that I’m quite surprised I didn’t share with you before because I really love this piece, it’s so beautiful. I’m generally surprised that I’ve never shared anything from Anuna on here.
This is not necessarily a Christmas carol or anything like that, but it comes from one of Anuna’s Christmas albums and is like a contemporary Christian hymn, so I thought it still would be very suitable. It was composed and written by Michael Glynn – the musical director and founder of Anuna – and the soloist is Lynn Hilary who also used to be part of quite a popular Irish Celtic group Celtic Woman and has released some solo music as well.
Anuna is a very interesting project, they do choral music that is very much based on Celtic elements but also draws a lot from the Christian choral singing tradition. I am not a huge fan of choral singing but I like what they do.
Here are the lyrics to this song in English:
He comes with the wind
He goes on the waves
He hears my prayer
When I call Him in the darkest moment of the night
Softly, softly, softly
I sleep softly, my Christ
Softly, softly, softly
I sleep softly in Your heart
Naked He stands at the dawn
In the new-born child
He is there at the end
As the soul parts from the body
Softly, softly, softly
I sleep softly, my Christ
Softly, softly, softly
I sleep softly in Your heart
There is no one so full of mercy and love
There is no way to understand Your goodness
You are my teacher and guide
I sleep softly in Your heart
Softly, softly, softly
I sleep softly, my Christ
Softly, softly, softly
I sleep softly in Your heart
It doesn’t seem to be on YouTube, so below are the links to Spotify and Songwhip, and on the latter you can find all the other streaming services where it is available:
Hey people! 🙂
I’d like to share with you my favourite piece of music from this Welsh artist. The Gentle Good is the name of a project by Gareth Bonello. As you may or may not figure out, its name comes from the etymology of both his name and his last name (the meaning of the name Gareth isn’t known for sure, but it’s supposed to come from the Welsh gwaredd meaning “gentleness, while Bonello apparently comes from the Latin bonum meaning “good”). This particular piece is instrumental, however he is also a singer.
I have no idea what was his inspiration behind this piece, but to me… it just makes my imagination work…! Since I heard it for the first time, whenever I listen to it I always have a pretty clear imagery, almost like some short story, or at least a material for one, a sort of picture that this piece makes me think of. When I hear it I imagine a house on or near a cliff, not too big one but quite impressive nevertheless and very stylish and with a kind of gothic look but inside of it it’s not scary at all. And I always imagine that there lives a big family, with lots of children, mostly teenage or thereabouts. They like to spend a lot of time together, they have a lot of nature around them and a huge garden. They are all very musical, and the mum of the family often reads books to everyone in the living room. It just shows that they’re having lots of fun with each other and love being in each others’ company and there’s such a friendly feel about this place. But one day something scary happens, I don’t know what, and they all die and their house is no longer there, there were just ruins as in the title. And people would come up there and look at this house and think about them, and remember they were like. I think this is a fun imagery and I like music which makes my brain creative like that and evokes some sort of ideas. Does this piece make you think of something in particular?
I’ve shared quite a few pieces by this duo this year on here, and here is another, beautiful, soothing and evocative. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 🙂
For today, I decided to share with you a deliciously long, beautiful and a bit melancholic solo harp piece performed by Scottish harpist Rachel Newton, whose music I’ve already shared with you before. I only recently heard this particular piece but I’m totally in love with it and I think many other people may find it very interesting and pleasant. 🙂
Hey people! 🙂
I think this is my favourite out of Enya’s more popular songs. I have so many positive feelings and associations related to it. This song was meant to be very daydream-y, and it feels right away, which is why I’ve always used it for some bigger daydreaming, relaxing visualisations and stuff. It has really helped me through so many situations and it is so relaxing and nourishing for the imagination.
As always in Enya’s case, when this song was created, the music came first, and then, when Enya’s lyricist – Roma Ryan – heard it, it made her think of the Caribbean, hence the title. It’s not as popular as Orinoco Flow, Only Time or May It Be, but people who aren’t Enya geeks yet at the same time know some more of her music than just these three songs, will typically remember hearing Caribbean Blue somewhere and able to tell that it’s Enya, or will even be well acquainted with it if they either have a bit of liking for Enya or generally 80’s music that is not necessarily disco. In Europe, it can also be heard in radio stations which play some light pop or a bit older stuff, here in Poland for example an oldies station called Radio Plus plays it regularly. So maybe you have also heard Caribbean Blue before, even if you are not a crazy Enya fan? In any case, if you are an escapist, I reckon you’ll like it even if you haven’t heard it before.
Hey people! 🙂
I shared one track from this great Irish harpist with you before, but I thought I’d love to share another one, when I was listening to her music last night. This is absolutely one of my most favourite pieces by her, and I think it’s very deep and moving. The harmony of this piece strongly reminds me of another, New England-based, Irish harpist – Aine Minogue – whom I love and whose music had helped me through a very difficult time.
Hey people! 🙂
Today I have another Celtic harp piece for you! It is performed by great Celtic harpist from Wisconsin – Kim Robertson – who was actually classically trained in orchestral harp but decided to focus on Celtic harp and has really released a lot of albums. Glenlivet is a place in Scotland, which may be known to some because of the whisky distillery that is there and produced The Glenlivet whisky. Here’s the beautiful piece.
Hi guys! 🙂
Today I’d like to show you another piece from the beautiful project which was a result of collaboration of two, seemingly very distinct, Welsh band – alt-folk/psychedelic folk Plu (which consists of my most recent faza object Gwilym Bowen Rhys and his two sisters, Marged and Elan), and Carwyn Ellis from indie Colorama. – I wrote about that earlier because I shared with you two pieces from their collective album already. The project is called Bendith (which means blessing in Welsh) and this is also the title of the album. The album is very strongly inspired by Carwyn Ellis’ (who initiated the whole idea) fond childhood memories.
I love how this particular piece is so very atmospheric and evocative, and so rich and simply incredibly beautiful. It’s definitely one of my favourites from this album and I think there’s something totally captivating about it.
Hey people! 🙂
Not long ago, I shared with you a harp piece performed by Sue Richards and composed by Irish national bard and composer who was also a harper – Turlough O’Carolan. – Today, I’m sharing another tune that was composed by him and that is one of his most popular compositions, very frequently played by harpers and harpists. The version I chose to share with you is by Celia Briar, whose music I’ve also shared with you quite a few times before. From what I’ve read, it used to be a song with Irish Gaelic lyrics, which are now unknown. O’Carolan wrote this song in praise of Eleanor Plunkett from Robertstown in co. Meath.
Hi guys! 🙂
Today I’d like to introduce to you a singer and harpist who is very new to me. I only heard her for the first time on Blas Folk Radio Cymru a couple days ago and I really liked her. For now, I don’t know any more of her music, but I am definitely going to check it out. I think both her vocals and harp play are really nice. I didn’t know what cowrie meant when first hearing this song, so just in case you don’t either, that’s how sea snails are called.
Just a couple days ago, I shared with you guys a very interesting piece by this group called Cadair Idris. Later I thought that actually, this whole project is so quirky (and obviously I’m all for quirky on here) and there’s so much to like about their music that I’d like to share something else from them, especially that I’ve been sharing a lot of harp music lately and catching up on that I hadn’t done that a lot in the previous years of this bllog. So the piece I chose now is called Kitchen Devils. It is much more experimental than jazzy, and I really do like experimental music. It’s so fun and quirky and there’s no boundaries. Here, you really see it. Well, I do. I’ve never heard something similar I guess. It’s such a genuine blend of folk and electronica, it tastes really good to my synaesthetic, auditory-gustatory brain. More exactly it tastes a bit minty and lemony (or maybe limey?) at the same time. The dance beat made me think how cool it would be if harp was used in some kinds of club music. Instead of vocals or keyboards? It wouldn’t need to be folksy at all. I’ll have to look around if someone has ever come up with such an idea and did it. 😀 Or maybe the final result wouldn’t be cool at all and very different to what I imagine, and instead it would turn out to be a total harp profanity. For now, let’s enjoy this quirky piece. 🙂
Here’s another lovely harp-driven tune for you guys, from a harpist whose music I shared with you before. This composition sounds contemporary to me, and turns out that that’s what it is. It was composed by Scottish folk singer songwriter Dougie MacLean, and the Craigie Dhu in the title was a place (property) where he lived. I think moving houses, especially such that are dear enough to you that you feel like capturing them in music, is a very stressful and unsettling thing but this farewell doesn’t sound all that sad at all, it sounds very hopeful, don’t you think? So if you need a bit of hope for the future in your life, maybe you can find it in here.
