Psappha Composing for Harp Scheme

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For the past few years the Manchester based contemporary music group, Psappha, has run a scheme for composers to write a new piece for a specific instrument or group of instruments which is workshopped with a performer from Psappha over a six month period and then recorded. Called "Composing for..." the 2019 scheme has involved new works for Eastern European Clarinets, Piano and Percussion, Solo Bassoon and Solo Harp.

Six composers, who are all at an early stage of their careers are selected for each scheme by Psappha and the overall project is supported by the Arts Council England; Garfield Weston Foundation; Idlewild Trust; PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner scheme; Radcliffe Trust; and RVW Trust

Prepared harp using card, aluminium foil, plastic coils and paper clips. My Aurora harp is affectionally known as my "stunt harp" and I use it regularly for playing contemporary music. It is 32 years old and has had quite a few adventures over the years being played at all sort of venues from H.M.S Invincible to the Royal Albert Hall. However, it's never been quite so 'prepared' as this before now!!

​​I've written about the project before on this blog HERE. The first of the workshops with the composers started in September 2018 and the pieces have evolved over the whole workshop period. The final pieces have now been completed and the recordings are all finished.

It's been a very interesting project to be involved with and has taken a huge amount of personal commitment as the pieces were all challenging. There was also the practicalities of getting them all ready to record in a very short period of time. Preparing one piece up to recording level standard is hard work never mind preparing six pieces which are then recorded back to back on the same day in one session! 

​​The results are six stylistically very different pieces for solo harp. Two of the pieces are tonal, one utilises quarter tones, one uses a prepared harp, one is for lever harp and effect pedals, and the final one is for lever harp and live electronics. There were lots of technical challenges involved in learning to play these pieces. Apart from what would be considered normal harp techniques, there were many extended technical challenges to overcome, not least learning how to master using plectrums for one of the pieces without them slipping out of my fingers.

​It has been a great experience to have been involved with this project and I've very much enjoyed the journey working with the composers on all of these six new pieces for solo harp.

Getting everything packed for the recording session including 3 harps, various effects pedals, my amp, lever harp stand, spare strings for 3 harps (only 1 string broke in the session), card, coils & paperclips for the prepared harp piece, assorted plectrums, iPad and page turning pedal, lots of different cables and then (most importantly) industrial quantities of fresh coffee and chocolate!

The recordings were all produced by Psappha's Artistic Director, Tim Williams. Psappha regularly produces fantastic quality videos of it's live performances as well as these special projects which are all available on their YouTube channel.

Not being used to pedalling with quarter tones I had to write myself a reminder of what the pedal markings should be...

Fortunately I wasn't put off by the rather daunting array of cameras and microphones as once we started recording I had to really fully engage and focus on the music I was playing. Brilliant sound recording by Rob Kelledy and filming by Iain Cash.

I found colour-coding the music invaluable for quickly recognising different techniques. Here I used yellow for PDLT, green for harmonics, purple for nail and then red & blue for dynamics

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Psappha - Composing for Harp Videos

tangible/intimate/half-life by Joss Smith 
PREPARED PEDAL HARP  More about Joss HERE

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Harp-Tronics by Daniel Ehrlich 
LEVER HARP WITH EFFECTS PEDALS  More about Daniel HERE

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Glass Cathedrals by Grace-Evangeline Mason 
PEDAL HARP  More about Grace-Evangeline HERE

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retina by David Nunn 
PEDAL HARP (utilising quarter tones)  More about David HERE

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Distant Dances by Joseph Howard 
PEDAL HARP  More about Joseph HERE

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Splitting Paint by Carmel Smickersgill 
LEVER HARP WITH LIVE ELECTRONICS  More about Carmel HERE