For some time now, both Talis Kimberley and Annie Walker have been bringing harps to filk events and playing them. I've always liked listening to harp music, and I wondered what it would be like to play one. Finally, back at Decadence, I asked if I could have a go... and found out.

There were (at least) three harps there, and I found myself sitting at reception with Talis and Rika the Bardling (from Germany), playing the melody for an old Irish song "Brian Boru" with the two ladies doing an accompanyment. If you've ever played a harp, particularly in a group, you can probably guess what that was like; if not... suffice to say it was the highlight of a good convention.

I knew then that I wanted to play more - after all, I'd only had the chance to spend two hours. I wrote a song specifically for the harp complete with accompanyment, and started saving up. At the start of June, I went with Annie and Lissa Allcock to Hobgoblin Music in London, and bought one.

Her name in Enwyn, and she is a Stoney End "Eve" harp with 22 strings, small enough to manage on the train - or on the London underground - but with a rich sound. I don't (yet) have a picture of her, but here's a picture of a harp of the same type. And she's just as nice to play as I remembered.

Of course, it takes practice to be good on any instrument, but this hasn't been a problem for me (eating, sleeping... they've been the problem) so far. There's a recording of me playing my first song written specially for the harp below (marked by ) as well as one chorus and verse from Zander Nyrond's beautiful Sam's Song; the first time I played this in public, the entire room was humming along in harmony... Both of these are now in RealAudio format (Sam's song is also available as a 5mb wav file).

Annie's harp page

Talis' harp FAQ

Family of the Bard (200 Kb)

Sam's Song (250 Kb)

Back to Grand Fleet Operations

Page maintained by Mike Richards