Join us ONLINE, Sunday 15 June, 4–6 pm, Irish time for our Harpers' Gathering community social time, hosted by HHSI volunteer, Barbara Karlik. Come and enjoy harp-related talk, share your projects and progress, and try out tunes you want to play in front of a small, very supportive audience.
From 5 pm, enjoy a presentation on Horsehair Harp Strings, given by Dr Karen Loomis. Karen began making horsehair strings in 2007, and will share her insights and their unique sound in her presentation.
Harps have long had a place of importance in Welsh music, and a significant historical source of notated bardic harp music, the 'Robert ap Huw' manuscript, comes to us from Wales. Its music predates the Welsh triple harp, usually associated with Wales. Earlier Welsh harps had a single rank of strings, and in the 15th – 17th centuries, these would be equipped with bray pins to produce a buzzing sound. Gut would have been a typical string material, but Welsh sources particularly mention harps with strings of horsehair.
Dr Karen Loomis is an organologist specialising in scientific analysis and study of early Irish harps. Since 2021, she has been Assistant Director of The Historical Harp Society of Ireland (HHSI), after serving on the governing body from 2016–2020. She has helped create, and administrate, the HHSI’s online and hybrid festivals, as well as developing Acadamh na gCláirseach–Academy of Early Irish Harp, its online tuition programme. Karen is also a member of the editorial board of The Galpin Society Journal. She earned an MMus in musical instrument research and a PhD in music at the University of Edinburgh.
Follow this link to register for this FREE event:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/72VONlJvQFCpW43yb1Z7Rw
When you register, you will receive a personalized Zoom link to join.