Day 31 - Midi harp and mini harp

The performance of Graham Fitkin's midi-harp concerto with Sioned Williams and the BBC Symphony Orchestra was broadcast yesterday and I listened to it while driving home. It was a fascinating work which started in a brooding and mysterious way with electric harp in the foreground. Gradually fragments of speech were introduced which were muddled at first but became clearer as the piece went on. It was incredibly rhythmic and pulsing which I liked. The theme itself was political and a composer's view of the Iraq war with the words of several influential politicians being manipulated through the piece. I would rather keep my music and politics separate but there have been many composers who have used their music to make a political statement, and some who have been forced into exile for their anti-establishment views. Shostakovich is one that springs to mind so this is nothing new in music. I do hope that Sioned's venture continues and I am sure she will be responsible for more repertoire in the future. In the meantime my own project on the mini-harp continues and my half hour today was for myself as I have had no new sponsors today. I chose to work on two note chords and picked some pieces that require the plucking of several strings at once with either hand. This was slow going and I probably did too much on quantity rather than quality, moving to a different piece before I had spent too long on the first. My plan is to be able to work out the size of an interval without having to look. I can sometimes do this although usually it is the right interval but the wrong strings so I need to think more about that. A good half hour managed and it's off to swing band. We're starting a new piece today called The Chicken. Apparently it's a bit of a roast…