Category: Harp

Sing Back Into the Places You Love

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I was listening to Ada Limon, our nation’s former poet laureate, being interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air. My ear caught a phrase she said, “sing back into the places you love.” By chance, I have been reading her book, You Are Here, which is a culmination of a larger project, a collection of poems on picnic tables around the America’s treasured national parks. Limon said that she thinks these times we are living in could define humanity forever. She collected some 50 poet’s responses to that idea in, You Are Here, inviting readers to take a closer look at the present moment.

I love this phrase! Singing into the things that bring us most joy, that we find most beautiful, will get us through these turbulent times.  When the DMV, passport office, SNAP benefit, and air traffic control are not working as they once reliably did, remembering to hold space in the day for what we love can get us through. The word “back,” singing back to, is not backwards. But rather, I think of remembering back to who we truly are, remembering what we love to do with our lives. I have been working hard at this, especially this year. It is a challenge borne not out of nostalgia, but one out of remembering.

The great Sufi poet, Rumi wrote: all beings stream at night / or during the day / into some absorptive work / into the loving nowhere.

I have long been a fan of this verse because it’s the original streaming platform! What he is saying is that we can connect to the Divine flow anytime we sleep, love, or work on the things we lose ourselves into with joy. (Getting into this streaming zone is a brain wave pattern.) When we get there, time does not exist. It becomes expansive. After this experience, we feel happier and renewed. And the most beautiful thing of it all – is free! And its right inside of us!

This season, I sing back into the places I love by walking in the forest, listening to one of my children read to me, and improvising / playing music. I feel both renewed and relaxed (or as my son pronounced it when he was 4 years old, rah-wax), which makes me think of waxing like the moon, ebbing and flowing. Either way, so at peace, it hardly matters to speak.

Sing Back Into the Places You Love

If we were to all practice that which we most love, I think the world would feel more renewal than heartbreak. If we all could just tap into that which sings our heart awake just a little bit more, then I think we as a collective would be more untouchable by that which does not awaken us. And let’s be honest: there’s a lot of activity in the outer world of what can harm us.

By singing into the places we love, there isn’t anyone or anything that can take that experience away from us. Its non-material. It doesn’t require a transaction. It is something that each individual and only each of us can create ourselves. It is not given. It is within.

Being given the idea to sing into a place you love unlocks the human spirit more than a news headline, more than what government legislature says it is or is not accomplishing. Or, in the words of William Carols Williams:

it is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack of what is found there

As for me, one of the things that lights me up is poetry. What places would you like to sing into?

Special Request Wedding Ceremony Songs

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I like learning new songs. Many brides request special wedding ceremony songs for their day and I’m always happy to accommodate. Thankfully, the sheet music to the song is often available online. I’ll usually purchase the sheet music intended for piano, because piano translates so well to harp.

Help Selecting Wedding Ceremony Songs

That said, I have a pretty large repertoire already, with songs that are tested and true. You can read my most popularly played wedding songs here: Music Songlist. Its a good place to start from if you’re not sure what kind of music you’d like to have at your wedding.

Monica Schley, wedding harpist and a bride who requested unique wedding ceremony music

In general, I would say that a wedding ceremony songs fall into approximately three kinds of programs, in addition to prelude and postlude music. Here are some variations:

#1
– Processional
– Interlude (optional)
– Recessional

#2
– Processional
– Bridal Entrance
– Interlude (optional)
– Recessional

…and for the very simple event:
#3
– Processional
– Recessional

How Special Request Songs Work Best

If a couple has special requests for wedding ceremony songs, I do my best to make that happen. Here’s an example of some songs I’ve learned for particular situations, like themed weddings and holiday parties:

Some Specially Requested Wedding Ceremony Songs

harp and violin duets for weddings

I Can Also Provide Wedding Music in Duet and Trio Formats

At this time of writing this, I have been performing professionally for 30 years. In that time, especially from my years as a Seattle harpist, I have met a lot of amazing musicians. I have developed great friendships because of playing songs together with these talented musicians. Performing together often started in clubs with larger ensembles when I was in my 20s, and turned into long term friendships.

Janet Utterbach, violinist, and I play weddings when asked for wedding music Duets. She has performing experience playing in the Yakima Symphony, Bellevue Symphony, Northwest Symphony, and Tacoma Symphony (2nd violin and 1st violin.) Janet has been teaching violin with the Community Music Department at the University of Puget Sound since 1991.

Nate Omdal, bassist, was in my band, the Daphnes, and now we occasionally play weddings together. Bassist, Composer, Producer, Nate Omdal is one of the Northwest’s most dependable producers and his work can be heard all over the city of Seattle. Nate has provided arrangements or worked as musical director for The Seattle International Film Festival, million dollar fundraisers, as well as the Seattle Art Museum, and Bumbershoot.

Josh Rawlings, pianist, has been my favorite musician to play weddings with because of his ability to play anything. He is a GRAMMY-Nominated and Platinum Album Award winning composer, studio musician and performer. He is the pianist featured on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ multi-GRAMMY winning album ‘The Heist’. Josh’s signature sound can be heard on ‘Same Love’ and ‘Downtown’ along with many other major albums.

Other musicians I play weddings with are violinist Julie Baldridge, and cellist Maria Scherer Wilson. With such a depth of resources, your special requested wedding ceremony songs can take on a whole new life when a trio or duo play them.

(Updated, originally published June, 2018)

Harp Escape vol. 11 (What the River Says / Aer Enim)

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For Harp Escape vol. 11, I played two songs: What the River Says and Aer Enim. Both of the songs have a river theme.

If you like this music, you can purchase an arrangement of this medley on my website here or at SheetMusicPlus.com

Monica Schley, Seattle Tacoma harp teacher therapy music What the River Says William Stafford
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Who Was Medieval Mystic, Hildegard von Bingen?

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We still hear Hildegard von Bingen’s music being played a millennium after her living on Earth. Most often, you can find her songs as the vocal motets she originally wrote them, meaning vocally. I wanted to play more of her songs, but I was surprised that sheet music for Hildegard’s music was not easy to find. I couldn’t even find a collection of Hildegard’s music as piano sheet music! This really astounded me because she was famous in her day! If she were alive today, she’d have an empire of healing herbs for sale, a retreat center, art, books, concerts, a YouTube channel, and more.

Transcribing Hildegard’s Music

I did some digging by visiting both Seattle Public Library and King County Public Library archives. I found a publishing house called simply: Hildegard Publishing. They put out transcriptions of Hildegard’s music in the 1980’s and 1990’s and helped make her songs more readable from the Medieval-written diamond-shaped neumes, to become lead sheet notation. They appeared as high vocal music: in treble clef with lyrics (in Latin). However, they still lacked meter, chord progressions, and harmonies. I decided to take a hand at what I thought was missing.

As I begin the project, several concepts in mind. First and foremost, I wanted to honor the work, inspiration, and format of the original compositions by Hildegard von Bingen. At her time, music was largely written as an antiphon, or single note voicing. Harmonies were either non-existent, or commonly heard as intervals of 4thsor 5ths. Therefore, the beginnings of all of these songs have this in mind.

Another element of these songs recognizes their inherent therapeutic nature. In keeping in line with that, I know that these songs work best in their simplest forms. Often therapeutic harpists who play at the bedside for someone unwell will have a small harp, or a folk harp. I wanted to make this music accessible for as many people as possible, so that if the goal was to play for people with physical, mental, or sleep ailments, the therapeutic harpist could do that with the harp size available to them. Lastly, I added what I thought were pleasing chord progressions.

Once I did a few of these pieces, I realized there was something there. I felt rather called to make these songs available to other musicians. In doing so, I found out that many of my students liked playing this music too, and audiences liked listening as well. I transcribed a few more songs (with the help of listening to recordings, finding other people’s arrangements, and experimenting with what I thought where pretty harmonies and melodies). Next, I reached out to Mel Bay Publications. My samples were approved and I had one year to complete the book, Songs of Hildegard von Bingen for Harp.

Disclaimer: I am not a Medieval scholar! I have never thought about going this route to writing historic music transcriptions before this project. It’s funny to me, because I just sort of learned as I was going along and the project kept going in a positive direction. So, I kept doing it!

Songs of Hildegard von Bingen for Harp

After a year of working for a year transcribing these songs, the book, Songs of Hildegard von Bingen for Harp, was published in December of 2024.

Seattle Harpist

Moving on with Hildegard von Bingen

I am happy to say that once I had the book in hand, I had several concerts, lectures, and workshops with Songs of Hildegard von Bingen. This spring, I was invited to join a conversation/panel at the National Nordic Museum called “Medieval Joy” moderated by a Seattle University history professor. Next, I led a workshop and played a concert at NW Folklife. In June, I performed at Folio, a library and cultural space in Pike Place Market. I pepper in her music at weddings and private events, and look forward to future concerts featuring Hildegard von Bingen’s songs.

One Summer’s Day As a Harpist

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This is one summer’s day as a harpist. I couldn’t ask for more perfection weather-wise. Blue on blue. Gentle waves and breeze. Seventy degrees. My ferry docks and so begins my work day.

The Arrival

Today’s wedding is in Issaquah at a mansion/estate/farm on a once mellow country road. Now, there are paragliders floating down the blue mountain foothills in the distance. Next to that, is a park and ride, full of RVs and cars, from tourists, commuters, and some probably camping out. The traffic is a non-stop flow of suburban stop and go.

On the drive there, I think to write a theme in B, calling it “Blue Cascade.” But I am looking for my exit, not a melody. Perhaps this will make a nice assignment for myself later.

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