The
Historical Harp Society

The 25^th Annual  Historical Harp Society

Conference and Workshop: June 4 - 7, 2008
Berkeley, CA

Wednesday June 4^th – Saturday June 5^th, 2008

Schedule and Class Descriptions

Workshops: June 4–5

Wednesday, June 4

Check-in: 9:00–9:30, First Congregational Church

Room A

1: 9:30–10:30. Bill Taylor: Medieval Scottish Harp Music from the St. Andrews Music Book (13th Century)

2: 10:45–12:30. Therese Honey: Performing at a Renaissance Festival

Lunch break

3: 1:30–3:00. Bill Taylor: Medieval Welsh Harp Music from the Robert ap Huw Manuscript (14th–15th Century)

4: 3:15–5:00. Nancy Thym and Thilo Viehrig: Historical Dances, Session One—Renaissance Branles and English Country Dances

Room B

5: 9:30–10:30. Mike Parker: Harp Technique Class—Phrasing with the Hand

6: 10:45–12:30. Ron Cook: Performing Medieval Narrative with the Harp

Lunch break

7: 1:30–3:00. Mike Parker: Harp Ensemble Class—Making Each Part Count

8: 3:15–5:00. Christa Patton: Spanish Harp Music for Historical and Lever Harpists

Thursday, June 5

Check-in: 9:00–9:15, First Congregational Church

Room A

9: 9:15–10:30. Bill Taylor: Renaissance Scottish Harp Music from the Robert Edwards Commonplace Book (16th Century)

10: 10:45–12:30. Therese Honey: Arranging Renaissance Dances for Harp

Lunch break

11: 1:30–3:00. Nancy Thym and Thilo Viehrig: Historical Dances, Session Two—Renaissance and Baroque Dance

12: 3:15–5:00. Egberto Bermudez: History of the Harp: An Introduction

Room B

13: 9:15–10:30. Judy Kadar: Drone Away

14: 10:45–12:30. Mike Parker: Child of Pure Harmony, Session One—The Instrument

Lunch break

15: 1:30–3:30. Mike Parker: Child of Pure Harmony, Session Two—Practical Application

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS

Room A

Workshop 1, 9:30–10:30. Bill Taylor: Medieval Scottish Harp Music from the St. Andrews Music Book (13th Century). One of the most important collections of polyphony from Europe before 1300 contains a substantial section of pieces by Scottish composers at the cathedral of St. Andrews on the Fife coast. Originally vocal works intended for votive masses to the Virgin, they sit beautifully on the medieval harp. Primarily intended for wire-strung players, but gut-strung players are invited as well. Intermediate and advanced players; all harps.

Workshop 2, 10:45–12:30. Therese Honey: Performing at a Renaissance Festival. If you enjoy playing the harp outdoors in Renaissance costume and talking to folks, learn about performing at RenFairs at this class. We will discuss harps, music, costumes, money matters, and surviving the festival. All levels. Historical, lever, and pedal harps welcome.

Workshop 3, 1:30–3:00. Bill Taylor: Medieval Welsh Harp Music from the Robert ap Huw Manuscript (14th–15th Century). The earliest body of harp music from anywhere in Europe is found in this collection of instrumental pieces composed by medieval Welsh bardic harp players. Using a unique tablature and a repertoire of decorative gestures, the pieces are astonishingly different from the now-familiar medieval Continental chansons and dances. The pieces were originally performed on bray harp, but the class is open to all gut and wire players interested in using fingernails and damping techniques. Intermediate and advanced players; all harps.

Workshop 4, 3:15–5:00. Nancy Thym and Thilo Viehrig: Historical Dances, Session One—Renaissance Branles and English Country Dances. Harpists will learn to dance the dances as well as play the music so that they can play at the proper speed and with the appropriate articulation. Those who do not play the harp but who wish to dance are also welcome. Dance music is very versatile and can be made more or less complex to fit the needs of the participants, so all levels are welcome. We start with early French “branles” or circle dances from Thoinot Arbeau (1519–1595) and proceed through some English Country Dances of John Playford (17th–18th centuries). All levels of players; all harps.

Room B

Workshop 5, 9:30–10:30. Mike Parker: Harp Technique Class—Phrasing with the Hand. This workshop will include discussion of rhythmic and tonal phrasing, coupled with experimentation with the timbral prospects afforded by the individual fingers and the application of the results to performance. We will explore how the harpist’s hands can have a flexibility and subtlety that can allow deeper exploration of line and character within music of many styles and periods. All levels of players; all harps.

Workshop 6, 10:45–12:30. Ron Cook: Performing Medieval Narrative with the Harp. This class will explore the performance of medieval prose and poetry to the accompaniment of the harp. The class will review historical evidence for five possible uses of the harp in accompanying narrative. The principal works considered will be the lais and fables of Marie de France. The content of the class will accommodate harpists with varied playing proficiency and experience. Folk harpers interested in exploring medieval repertoire and performance practices are welcome. All levels of players; all harps.

Workshop 7, 1:30–3:00. Mike Parker: Harp Ensemble Class—Making Each Part Count. A practical examination of ensemble composition and structuring. Although this class will feature some newly composed ensemble pieces, the philosophies of interpretation and structure will be applicable to any period of harp and from duo to large harp ensembles or mixed consorts. We will experiment with line, rhythm, and structure to understand how balance and intent interact within performance. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the relationship between parts, and learning to “adjust the mix” from within. The specimen pieces, in a traditional West-Coast Scottish style, are resolutely diatonic, so all types of harps are suitable. All levels except absolute beginners.

Workshop 8, 3:15–5:00. Christa Patton: Spanish Harp Music for Historical and Lever Harpists. Enrich your collection of tunes with popular melodies originally written for the Spanish harp of the 17th century. This spicy yet elegant repertoire with its soave dance rhythms, sumptuous harmonies, and ornamental effects such as the arpeado, or the Spanish arpeggio, and Spanish trilli give the music its period-specific sound. Pieces for both the chromatic and single-row harp will be taken primarily from the music of Luis de Ribayaz (1677) and Fernando de Huete (1702) whose retrospective collections give us some of the clearest indications about harp music and its execution that exist from the 17^th century. Skills in reading Spanish harp tablature and Spanish fingerings will also be covered. Intermediate and advanced players; Renaissance and Baroque historical harps, lever harps.

Room A

Workshop 9, 9:15–10:30. Bill Taylor: Renaissance Scottish Harp Music from the Robert Edwards Commonplace Book (16^th Century). This remarkable book, compiled by a Dundee merchant between 1635 and 1670, provides us with a fascinating collection of songs, psalms, notes, and instrumental items, of which some go back to the early 16^th century. We will look at several pieces in tablature for cittern, which are charming tunes that work extremely well on the wire-strung clarsach. Primarily intended for wire-strung players, but gut-strung players are invited as well. Intermediate and advanced players; all harps.

Workshop 10, 10:45–12:30. Therese Honey: Arranging Renaissance Dances for Harp. What do you do with that Renaissance dance music arranged for six recorders? Learn how to make your arrangement danceable, with variations that you create. Discover Renaissance ground basses and the opportunities for improvisation with them. This music can be played solo on the harp or with an ensemble of other instruments. We will discuss practical ideas for performing Renaissance music with other instruments and where to find music. All levels. Historical, lever, and pedal harps welcome.

Workshop 11, 1:30–3:00. Nancy Thym and Thilo Viehrig: Historical Dances, Session Two—Renaissance and Baroque Dance. Harpists will learn to dance the dances as well as play the music so that they can play at the proper speed and with the appropriate articulation. Those who do not play the harp but who wish to dance are also welcome. Dance music is very versatile and can be made more or less complex to fit the needs of the participants, so all levels are welcome. We will include the Pavane and Galliard and finish with Baroque dances and songs from the German harp manuscript Musicalische Rüstkammer auff der Harfe from 1719. Intermediate and advanced players; all harps.

Workshop 12, 3:15–5:00. Egberto Bermudez: History of the Harp: An Introduction. The focus of this class will be to discuss the main issues concerning the history of the non-pedal European harp during the period between the 15th and 18th centuries. It will include discussion of original sources, surviving instrument specimens, historical documentation, and their relationship to existent harp music. It will also touch on the specific contributions of the HHS and the role of the harp in the history of contemporary historical-performance practice of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque repertoires. This is a lecture class.

Room B

Workshop 13, 9:30–10:30. Judy Kadar: Drone Away. Collections of music that can be played on the lute, keyboard, or harp (for example, that of Fernando de Huete) contain some pieces that imitate the sustained drones produced by the unstopped strings of the hurdy-gurdy or the unchanging notes of the bagpipe. We will play some of these works and use them to inspire our own improvisations upon the drones. All levels of players; all harps.

Workshop 14, 10:45–12:30. Mike Parker: Child of Pure Harmony, Session One—The Instrument. History of the single-action pedal harp. Based on Mike Parker’s book, this class is a rare opportunity to learn about the history of the pedal harp and practical applications from one of the world’s leading scholars in the field. We speak of “the” single-action harp, but this generalized term covers a period of approximately 150 years and some very different forms of the instrument. The morphology and construction of the instrument will be examined and illustrated with photographs and video footage of surviving instruments and their mechanisms. String tension, inherent temperaments, and changes in construction will be discussed and related to composition style and contemporary musical developments, leading to a clearer understanding of the forms, natures, and terminologies of the early pedal harp. Although not essential, this lecture class will be useful for those planning to attend Session Two.

Workshop 15, 1:30–3:30. Mike Parker: Child of Pure Harmony, Session Two—Practical Application. An exploration of techniques applied to the various forms of the instrument. The single-action harp is unique among the historical harps in having a well-documented technique, held in the many contemporary méthodes published, but as the double-action achieved superiority, we gradually lost touch with some of the subtleties and principles that were once a general part of playing. In this class we will explore the similarities and differences contained within these instructions, meet some colorful characters, and experiment with approaches to playing, ornamentation, and application from basic position to the delights of the Cadence de Casimir. Specimens for experimentation will be provided, but players with repertoire pieces from approximately 1690 to 1820 are invited to bring them to work on. All levels of players; all harps.

Workshop Faculty Biographies

Egberto Bermudez studied early music performance practice and musicology at the Guildhall School of Music and King’s College, University of London. Currently he is a Professor (tenured) of the Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas of the National University in Bogota, Colombia. He has published a number of works on Latin American and Colombian music history, traditional and popular musics, and musical instruments. In 1984 he founded, and has since then directed, CANTO, an ensemble specializing in Spanish and Latin American Renaissance and Baroque repertoire. In 1992 with Juan Luis Restrepo he established the Fundacion de Musica, an institution dedicated to disseminating the products of research on the Latin American musical past, both among the scholarly community and the general public. He served as President of the Historical Harp Society from 1998 to 2001.

Ron Cook has performed on historical harps throughout the United States and has taught historical harp at and directed the national Historical Harp Workshop. He is a frequent speaker and writer on early music topics, with an emphasis on the historical harp. Areas of special interest include the history of the use of bray pins on the harp; the construction of and performance practices associated with the harp in the 12^th and 13^th centuries; the use of the harp in the performance of the lais of Marie de France; the history of the English dump; and the various ornamentation and improvisation practices used in the 12^th through 16^th centuries. His reconstruction of the performance of two medieval lais can be seen on New York University’s “Performing Medieval Narrative” website. He is also the director of The Early Interval, an early music ensemble based in Columbus, Ohio, that has performed throughout Ohio and beyond since 1977. He is president of Early Music America, a past officer and trustee of The American Recorder Society, and past president of the Historical Harp Society.

Therese Honey fell in love with early music at age 16 while entertaining at Renaissance festivals. She attended her first Historical Harp Society Conference in the ‘80s and heard early music played on reproductions of ancient harps, which inspired her to specialize in medieval and Renaissance music. She draws her repertoire from many sources, including the music of Hildegard von Bingen, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, and Renaissance vocal and dance music. She also plays continuo with Baroque ensembles. Her performances utilize historical harps appropriate to the music.

Therese Honey performs and teaches throughout the United States. In 1997 she performed at the 20^th Annual Carolan Festival in Keadue, Co. Roscommon, Ireland. She is a two time first-place winner of the Gulf Coast Celtic Harp Competition and recently performed with The Chieftains. Performing early music in the Houston area and with Austin’s Texas Early Music Project, Therese presents concerts of medieval and Renaissance music on reproductions of historical harps as well as traditional Celtic harp music. She performs with several groups in Houston, including Istanpitta, Collegium Mysterium, and Wyndnwyre.

She has an active teaching studio in the Houston area and tours throughout the United States as a clinician and adjudicator. In addition to her private studio, Therese teaches workshops on medieval, Renaissance, and Celtic repertoire, arranging and style, and harp ensemble. In other workshops she includes harp purchase and maintenance, technique and posture, and performance attitude and preparation. She is a dynamic teacher who inspires and motivates her students to learn more about the harp and its technique, repertoire, and history.

Judy Kadar is a pioneer in the field of historical harp. In 1984 she founded the Historical Harp Conference and Workshop in conjunction with the Amherst Early Music Festival. She is also a founding member of the International Historical Harp Society. She studied pedal harp with Lucile Lawrence at Mannes College and she holds an MFA in the Performance of Medieval and Renaissance Music from Sarah Lawrence College. In Germany, where she now resides, she is co-director, together with Klaus Sonnemann, of the ensemble “COLLAGE—forum für frühe musik berlin” (forum for early music) and also performs with the duos “Jiddisches and Jüdisches” and “duo cithariste.” In addition to concertizing throughout Europe, she has had extended theater engagements with renowned German directors Peter Zadek and Rheinhild Hoffmann. She co-produced and served as musical co-director of a successful theater production of the “Roman de Fauvel.” For the fourth season running, she is co-director of the COLLAGE concert series, “Historical Music at a Historical Site,” in the 14^th-century Spandau Citadel in Berlin. Amherst Early Music, Madison Early Music, and Gotisches House are among the festivals where she has taught and performed. This year she is teaching a Master Class at Longy School of Music. In Berlin, she teaches harp, historical harp, and performance courses in medieval and Renaissance music at various music schools.

Mike Parker is a London-based harpist, harp maker, and musicologist. He studied instrument building at the London College of Furniture, where he specialized in early harps, and this has allowed him to build up a collection of 23 harps and to explore the repertoire and techniques of the European frame harp in its many forms. His work on the use of the harp in the Celtic nations gained him the award of O.S. (doctorate) from the Institute of Traditional Celtic Music (sadly now defunct) and a solo recording, “A twist of the rope,” featuring five types of harp: horsehair strung, wire strung, triple, Erard Grecian, and modern neo-Celtic. More recently, his field of study has been the single-action harp (c. 1689 to 1830) and its technique and application. This gained him an MMus in performance from Goldsmiths University, London, and enabled him to publish a sourcebook, “Child of pure harmony.” He has three recordings in preparation featuring the single-action and its development. Mike teaches harp and ‘cello at the London College of Music, is musical director of the ensembles “Musica Domestica” and “The league of harmony,” and also directs the 18^th‑century social dance group “The Tyburn Minuet Company.”

Christa Patton has performed as a Baroque harpist with Apollo’s Fire, The King’s Noyse, The Toronto Consort, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and Artek as well as productions of Monteverdi’s “Ulisse,” “Poppea,” and “L’Orfeo” with the New York City Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Tafelmusik, and Opera Atelier. She is a member of Piffaro the Renaissance Band and has also been a guest with Ex Umbris. She can be heard with Piffaro and Ex Umbris on the Dorian label. Christa has also toured the United States, Europe, and Japan with New York’s Ensemble for Early Music, with whom she has recorded “Istampitta” on the Lyrachord label. As an early harp clinician Christa has led workshops at the Madison Early Music Festival, Pinewoods Early Music Camp, and the Medieval Summer Institute at the Longy School of Music. A former Fulbright scholar, Christa studied the Italian baroque harp at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan, Italy, with historical harp specialist Mara Galassi. She is currently working on a Doctorate at SUNY Stony Brook with early keyboard specialist Arthur Haas.

Bill Taylor is a specialist in the performance of ancient harp music from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and is one of very few players investigating these repertoires on medieval gut-strung harps, wire-strung clarsachs, and Renaissance harps with buzzing bray pins.

He is a teacher-in-residence for Ardival Harps in Strathpeffer, Scotland. He teaches music classes in the Scottish Highlands through Fèis Rois and is a guest lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. As a teacher of historical harps, he is frequently invited to lead workshops in the UK, Europe, and USA, including regular appearances at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival. He is a contributor to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and publishes articles relating to aspects of playing the wire-strung clarsach and music from the Robert ap Huw manuscript. He founded the Wire Branch of the Clarsach Society and is its convener.

Bill Taylor performs and records as a soloist and as a member of several groups. In Scotland he plays with singer and early wind player James Ross in the duo The Art of Musick, with the Highland vocal and instrumental ensembles Musick Fyne and Coronach, and also with the medieval vocal quartet Canty. In Belgium he plays with the late medieval ensembles Quadrivium and Graindelavoix. Numerous radio and television broadcasts have featured his work with ancient Irish, Scottish, and Welsh harp traditions, including live BBC Radio 3 broadcasts with the Taverner Consort.

He has recorded for ASV, CMF, Dorian, Glossa, Greentrax, Maggie’s Music, Rhiannon, Rota, and Temple. His solo CD “Two Worlds of the Welsh Harp” is on the Dorian label.

Nancy Thym transforms her extensive research on historical harp into programs that are both entertaining and educational, combining harp music, song, and dance with medieval stories or portraying harpists of the past in one-woman theater pieces. She has received awards and grants for her research on the Bohemian hook harp and the Siberian and Norwegian harps and has served as president of the International Historical Harp Society. Her research and harp collection have also provided the basis for the “Museum and Archive for Harp History” in Germany.

Nancy and Thilo met while working on a project to examine, conserve, and reconstruct the collection of over 30 original Renaissance musical instruments discovered in the Freiberg Cathedral near Dresden. Thilo built copies of the harps and violins, while Nancy experimented with playing techniques and stringing.

They are restoring a Gothic House from 1493 near Naumburg in the former East Germany that is being converted into a center for early music. Together they perform under the name Cantefable, a medieval term for a story that is partly spoken and partly sung or accompanied by instrumental music. Their programs interweave stories, music, song, and dance.

Thursday June 5^th – Saturday June 7^th, 2008

Thursday evening, June 5

5:30–8:00              HHS Board of Trustees meeting #1

Friday, June 6

9:00–9:15              Check-in

9:15–9:30              Cheryl Ann Fulton, HHS President: Welcome

9:30–10:00            Judy Kadar: Harp Players at the Berlin Court (1542–1678)

10:00–10:30           Christa Patton: Clarity or Confusion, Mistakes or Magic?

10:30–10:45           Break

10:45–11:30           Egberto Bermudez: Musical Structures in Latin American Harp Music

11:30–12:00           Donna Youngblood: Historical Harps in Northern California

12:00–12:30           Papers TBA

12:30–2:00            Lunch break

2:00–3:30               Papers TBA

3:45–5:00               HHS Board of Trustees meeting #2

6:30                       Historical Harp Concert     (Click on link to view program.)

Saturday, June 7

9:00–9:15                Check-in

9:15–9:30                Cheryl Ann Fulton, HHS President: Welcome

9:30–10:00              Mike Parker: The Partial-Action Harp

10:00–10:30            Paul Knoke and Paula Fagerberg: The Mildred Dilling Harp Collection

10:30–10:45            Break

10:45–11:30            Anne Draffkorn Kilmer: Sounds from the Past: Music in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean Worlds: Revisiting the Jerusalem Conference of January 2008

11:30–12:00            Bill Taylor: Sounds from the Land of Gilgamesh: Reconstructing the Gold Lyre from Ur

12:00–12:30            Nancy Thym and Thilo Viehrig: The Lyre-Like Gusli of Novgorod

12:30–2:00             Lunch break

2:00–2:30                Chris Waltham: Acoustics of Harp Soundboards

2:30–3:30                 Papers TBA

3:45–5:00                 HHS Annual Membership Meeting

6:30                         Historical Harp Concert and Reception    (Click on link to view program.)

NOTE:  Concert Program information will be posted as it becomes available.

Conference Abstracts

Note:  Updates and additional abstracts will be listed here until a week before the Conference.

Egberto Bermudez: Musical Structures in Latin American Harp Music

Within a general –and loose- stylistic unity, Latin American harp music, from Arizona (southwest USA) to the North of Argentina and the Central valley of Chile, show a great diversity of musical (harmonic, rhythmic and melodic) structures. There we can find the presence of different layers of influences of various stages of European and other (African and Amerindian) musics from the XVI to the XIX centuries. This paper explores –in a general overview- these different music structures and their historical references.

Judy Kadar: Harp Players at the Berlin Court (1542–1678)

There were eight harpists affiliated with the Court in Berlin from 1542 through 1678. These included the Irish harper Dempsey and the two English harpists (father and son) Edward and David Adams. There is no information available about the actual instruments that they played, but there are various instruments from this period at the Musical Instrument Museum in Berlin. Curt Sachs, the father of modern organology and the director of the museum from 1919 until 1933, described these instruments in some detail. Unfortunately, most of these instruments were lost in World War II.

Anne Draffkorn Kilmer: Sounds from the Past: Music in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean Worlds: Revisiting the Jerusalem Conference of January 2008

Having attended and profited from the highly successful ancient music conference and special exhibit in the Bible Lands Museum of Jerusalem, Anne Draffkorn Kilmer will give an account of those proceedings. The exhibit catalogue and the abstracts of papers presented will be available for consultation as well as a sample of new CDs that were available for purchase at the conference.

Paul Knoke and Paula Fagerberg: The Mildred Dilling Harp Collection

We will trace the history of the Mildred Dilling collection of historical harps and how it was prepared for permanent display at the Cook Music Library of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. This multimedia presentation will include slides with sound clips of some of the different harps in the collection, detailed descriptions of the harps and will feature a rare film, made in 1940, of Miss Dilling performing.

Christa Patton: Clarity or Confusion, Mistakes or Magic?

It is quite possible, given historical records, that the harpist who played the harp ritornello in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Gonzaga Palace in 1607 created the piece him- or herself. That composition was then published along as part of the score and libretto in 1609. After the opera was performed again in 1611, it was republished in 1615, and in that publication changes relative to the 1609 publication can be found throughout the work. In much of the opera these changes are corrections of the 1609 version; however, in the harp ritornello there are in addition what could be seen as new choices. Not only are there changes in the contour of the melody, there are also more colorful chromatics employed as well as new choices in rhythms. Are these discrepancies errors in clef and note placements, or actual choices that the composer or harpist/composer made to enrich the ritornello in the later version? We will explore the question of error verses choice in interpreting this singular composition written for the early 17^th-century Italian harp.

Mike Parker: The Partial-Action Harp

Harp history relates that the pedal harp dates from 1720, and was originally fitted with five pedals, but soon perfected to seven. Examination of literature and surviving examples indicate that this may be a gross oversimplification that has hidden a strand of harp evolution. We will examine the nature of the partial-action harp, the practicalities and tunings of an incomplete mechanism row, and the place of some surviving examples in the line of harp development.

Bill Taylor: Sounds from the Land of Gilgamesh: Reconstructing the Gold Lyre from Ur

In 2003, Andy Lowings in England formed an international group to reconstruct an authentic and playable version of the Gold Lyre from Ur, which had been recently damaged during the Iraq war. As the oldest stringed instrument, it has important implications for players of historical harps. Bill Taylor presents an illustrated talk on the context of the original instrument, the circumstances regarding the reconstruction and his experiences performing on it.

Nancy Thym and Thilo Viehrig: The Lyre-Like Gusli of Novgorod

The city of Novgorod, located 150 miles south of St. Petersburg, was founded in the 9^th century on the Volkhov River. The original Slavic population invited a Viking prince to be its ruler. Novgorod became an important trading center and a member of the Hanseatic League with merchants from all over Europe settling and trading there. Novgorod was built on an impervious layer of clay and the constant waterlogged condition of the soil preserved objects of wood, bone, and leather in an astounding manner. Among the wooden artifacts from the 11^th through 15^th centuries there are over 60 stringed musical instruments and fragments thereof, consisting mainly of instruments resembling lyres and psalteries (gusli) and rebecs (gudok). Because of the international nature of the city of Novgorod, there is much controversy as to the origin of these instruments. Should they be considered Baltic, Slavic, or Scandinavian? The instruments were played by the skomorokhi, a class of professional itinerate musicians, but also by upper class merchants (boyars). There are many Russian legends about gusli players.

In February 2007, Nancy Thym and Thilo Viehrig visited Novgorod, viewed the instruments, spoke with experts, and then began experimenting with reconstruction. Their presentation will discuss the history, lore, and playing techniques of the instruments termed gusli and gudok and include photos and a demonstrations of the reconstruction.

Chris Waltham: Acoustics of Harp Soundboards

The harp soundboard is of central importance to the musical quality of the instrument. Over the past several centuries its construction has evolved from the carving of a single piece of hardwood to today's examples made from many pieces of softwood bonded together. I will discuss the reasons for these changes and how they have affected the sound of the harp. I will also demonstrate some techniques for analyzing the vibrational characteristics of soundboards, and how these determine the quality of the sound produced.

Donna Youngblood:  Angelo Yeago: Little Slave of the Harp

After being sold by his father, Italian harpist Angelo Yeago was taken to America where he was required to turn a profit performing on the streets of New York. In this lecture I will share Angelo’s story and present an overview of the 19th century practice of trafficking Italian child street musicians. My overview will include the historical setting, the children’s experience, the Italian perspective, and the American response.

Paul Knoke is a native of Rochester, New York. While majoring in History at the University of Rochester, he spent a semester in London on an internship at the Victoria and Albert Museum, working with the collection of musical instruments. While in London, he studied harp with Marie Goossens, O. B. E. After returning to the U. S. Paul purchased his first harp, a Domeny single action, still in his collection. Paul continued his formal study of the harp with Nan Gullo Richmond at the Eastman Community Music School. He is a harp and piano technician, as well as principal harpist with the Brighton Symphony Orchestra.

Bo Lawergren (born in Sweden) is a Professor Emeritus at Hunter College and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.  He received his undergraduate degree from University of Uppsala, Sweden, and PhD from The Australian National University in Canberra.  He became a Professor of Physics at Hunter College in 1970, and held the position until retirement in 2003. During the 1960s and 70s he was also active as a composer.  Beginning in the mid-1980s, Lawergren began publishing articles in the field of Music Archaeology, which focuses on musical artifacts and their societal role during a long period (3000 BCE to 1500 CE) and across a vast geographical expanse (from Italy to Japan).  Lawergren's research, which draws upon studies in Archaeology, Music, Acoustics, and Iconography, has yielded about 70 scholarly articles. The articles "Harfe" and "Harp" in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (1996) and in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001) introduced his analysis of angular harps, and he continued these studies in 2005.  But he has worked on a variety of issues such as a revised history of the ancient Chinese qin, a type of zither popular already at the time of Confucius.  He has examined why and how Buddhist and Sogdian musical ensembles penetrated from Central Asia into China and Japan along the Silk Road.  Earlier he worked on the musical instruments excavated at Ur, Mesopotamia, by Leonard Woolley in the late 1920s.  He will teach a course on Music Archaeology at Columbia University during the 2009-10 academic year.  He is a recipient of the Mellon Foundation Emeritus Fellowship (2006�2008).

Tomoko Sugawara (born in Tokyo, Japan) began playing the Irish harp at age thirteen and took up the pedal harp at sixteen.  Ms. Sugawara graduated from Tokyo University of Fine Arts where she was a student of Ms. Sumire Kuwajima.  Since 1991 she also plays reconstructions of angular harps, a type of harp which flourished in Asia until 1700 CE.  She has given numerous solo recitals on both the pedal harp and the kugo in major international venues, including the World Harp Congress (Prague, 1999), Indiana University (2004), Meiji University (2005), the Fifth Symposium for Music Archaeology, (Berlin, 2006), Columbia University, Harvard University, and University of Pennsylvania (all in 2007).  This year she will perform at Princeton University, the World Harp Congress (Amsterdam), the University of Pittsburgh, and the Society of Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University.  Ms. Sugawara plays with a number of orchestras in Japan.  She has recorded a solo recital on a CD called "Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (1996), and duo improvisations with a saxophone on a CD called "East Meets West" (1998).  She has a Fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council (2007-8) and a grant from the Rohm Foundation (2007).  With Bo Lawergren she has recorded two YouTube videos.  (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frqV3m8vSOc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grSH2-7jPpY ). The first presents a modern piece and the second an ancient piece.  The history of the piece and the instrument are explained in the videos.

Chris Waltham is Professor of Physics & Astronomy at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC.  His interests include astrophysics, musical acoustics, and he is an amateur harp builder. www.phas.ubc.ca/~waltham

Donna Youngblood first became intrigued with the harp as a young girl after catching a glimpse of one in the window of a neighborhood home. Years later she was drawn to its sound while working at the Renaissance Fairs and has pursued her interest in the harp ever since. She has spent the last several years researching historic harps in Northern California including a rare single row chromatic harp. Her area of special interest is the trafficking of Italian child street musicians, specifically harpists, in the late 1800s. Donna is currently working to get one such harpist�s instrument out of museum storage and on display. Having received a degree in music from Sonoma State University, she enjoys presenting demonstrations on the harp and its history at local area schools. Donna is a founding member of the Redding Chapter of the American Harp Society serving on the board for the past eleven years. She is working toward certification as a music practitioner and is eager to take her harp into hospital settings. In addition to these activities Donna joins four other harpists in the ensemble Circle of Grace offering music spanning seven centuries.