Category: Recording

Playing Songs of Hildegard von Bingen in Modern Times

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Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was born in Germany during the Middle Ages, at a time when education and literacy were controlled by the Catholic Church. She was an abbess, visionary, prophetess, herbalist, philosopher, healer, writer, politician, poet, and composer.

Despite her claim of lacking formal training in either the Latin language or music, Hildegard produced songs that were equal to those written by the most admired men of the Middle Ages. A woman of letters, she often communicated directly with clergy of the church, including Pope Eugene III, who encouraged her to continue writing music and poetry. She went on to write several books about religion, art, politics, philosophy, science, medicine, and herbs.

Hildegard had visions that she called “reflections of the living light,” and she painted what she saw. She suffered from headaches and some scholars of her writing suspect that she may have She had many visitors at the abbey who claimed that she was able to heal them though touch and with her knowledge of herbal medicine. In time, she had so many visitors, that a larger venue was needed. The church relocated her to an abbey of her own, in Bingen, where she was able to attend to more people. She died there at the age of 81.

How does Hildegard’s music sound on harp?

Originally composed monophonically (or single line melody), Hildegard’s music is usually found as sung choral music. As Latin was written language of the day, her songs reveal a devotional poems. Scales of these songs are modal (most often in Dorian, Phrygian, and Mixolydian modes), the earliest of Western music keys.

I was first introduced to Hildegard’s music as a teenager, and then later in college. When I studied to become a Certified Clinical Musician, I found her music inherent therapeutic. There simple nature was beautiful to me, but I had trouble finding harp arrangements of her songs. So, I set out to arrange some of the tunes myself.

I didn’t seek to make harp arrangements of Hildegard von Bingen’s music overly complex. Because I had the therapeutic musician in mind, I knew these harpists 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, they could do that with the harp size available to them.

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Harp Escape vol. 9 (The Dorian Suite)

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The Dorian Suite is a song I wrote in honor of my young son. Born in 2017, he was just a toddler when the Pandemic hit, and I wrote this song. At the time I was an artist-in-residence at Nalanda West in Seattle, a Buddhist retreat center. There, I spent hours in quietude composing, meditating, and writing in my journal. (Months before wrote a poem inspired by my new baby, later published in Literary Mama.)

When the world was experiencing early signs of the virus, before lockdown, I was at the Nalanda West a couple days a week. It was a place for me to find peace with the unknown. Any parent with young children can tell you, finding time to oneself is a precious commodity. There are many shifts throughout the day, hour by hour, minute by minute. Music and writing have always been a tool for me to get to a happy place and connect with myself and my place in the world. Through searching, through writing music and words, I was able to find an expression for the time and space of 2020, personally and globally. That is a lot of what this song is about.

This piece has several shifts: from Dorian mode to a relative minor (B minor). The meter, or rhythm, changes back and forth from 4/4 to 3/4 time. This is a musical metaphor for how I felt pulled to and fro, as mom, as musician, as person comfortable in the world, as a person uncomfortable in the world.

Harp Escape vol. 9 (The Dorian Suite)

Sheet music for The Dorian Suite, available now at Sheetmusicdirect.com!

How to Play Songs of Hildegard von Bingen

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Recently I taught a an online workshop with Atrium Health Foundation called “Improvising with Hildegard von Bingen.” The music is in conjunction with my forthcoming book by Mel Bay Publications, “Songs of Hildegard von Bingen for Harp.” Atrium Health host Kathleen Blackwell-Plank has been curating a valuable workshop series for therapeutic musicians for the past few years. I was asked to teach the class rather last minute as a substitute and was so glad to have participated. After a show of hands, I realized that even in the musical community only half of people know who Hildegard von Bingen is.

So… Who was Hildegard von Bingen?

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was born in Germany during the Middle Ages, at a time when education and literacy were controlled by the Catholic Church. The tenth child in her family, Hildegard was “given” as a tithing to the church, not an uncommon practice of the time.  When she was 14, she was sent to live a life of religious devotion in Disibodenberg. At the convent, she prayed, wrote, and only had access to the outside world through the view of a single window.

When her main caretaker, Jutta, died in 1136, Hildegard was appointed prioress of the abbey. It was during that time that she began writing music. Despite her claim of lacking formal training in either the Latin language or music, Hildegard produced songs that were equal to those written by the most admired men of the Middle Ages. A woman of letters, she often communicated directly with clergy of the church, including Pope Eugene III, who encouraged her to continue writing music and poetry. She went on to write several books about religion, art, politics, philosophy, science, medicine, and herbs.

Hildegard had visions that she called “reflections of the living light,” and she painted what she saw. She suffered from headaches and some scholars of her writing suspect that she may have She had many visitors at the abbey who claimed that she was able to heal them though touch and with her knowledge of herbal medicine. In time, she had so many visitors, that a larger venue was needed. The church relocated her to an abbey of her own, in Bingen, where she was able to attend to more people. She died there at the age of 81.

What did her music sound like?

Monophonic (single line melody), choral, sung in Latin, modal (most often in Dorian, Phrygian, and Mixolydian modes), natural minor keys, Gregorian Chant

How does this music translate to the harp?

Beautifully! Hildegard’s music is often in modes and have minimal lever changes.      

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Weather Report on Orange on the Radio

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I had the wonderful opportunity to read my poem, Weather Report on Orange, on the radio thanks to Vashon Island Poet Laureate Margaret Roncone. “Return to Light” features 10 island poets and will be broadcast at 12 o’clock noon on the Winter Solstice, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. I am grateful to Margaret, the other poets, and show host, Susan McCabe for this fun opportunity!

The winter solstice is a time for reflection and appreciation of the season, so give yourself a moment of quiet joy during this busy time and tune into KVSH. You can find it online at Voice of Vashon. The show will be available to listen to on the website for 2 weeks. After that, poof!

If you are reading this post after the timeframe has past, you can still read it here:

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Harp Escape vol. 7 (Banish Misfortune)

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Volume 7 of Harp Escape features two traditional Irish songs in a therapeutic harp style: Banish Misfortune and The Parting Glass. Therapeutic music is an art based on the science of sound. It it typically slow and simple, for easy listening. For the past decade, I’ve been focusing much of my time on soothing music of this nature. As a Certified Clinical Musician, I have played music at the bedside for over 500 patients in outpatient dialysis clinics; general hospital; skilled nursing facilities; and for hospice.

Harp Escape is a series of videos and recordings dedicated to relaxing music. Therapeutic music is preferably played in-person (to adjust to in-the-moment responses of patients and caregivers). However, remote harp therapy can still be enjoyable! The Harp Escape series is calming harp music stylized to: relieve pain, release anxiety, diminish nausea, and stabilize heart rate. Healing harp music has also been shown to improve sleep and calm the environment. 

In this volume, I’ve slowed down a traditional Irish jig, Banish Misfortune. (Jigs are typically an upbeat dance tune in 6/8.) Here, the song has been slowed down in the therapeutic style and partnered with another Irish tune, The Parting Glass. Fun fact (according to thesession.org): Banish Misfortune has other names: The Horse Under The Stairs, The Little Bag Of Meal, Mammy’s Horse Is Dying, The Mangled Badger, The Stoat That Ate Me Sandals, and my favorite: The Whore Amongst The Nettles Roaring.

Banishing misfortune with a little harper.

I was originally called to play this song because of its well-known name, rather than its melody. Though I had heard it before, I really got into playing Banish Misfortune during lockdown of the pandemic. I thought that by playing a song of this name I could dispel some of the negative things happening in the outer world. It gave me some personal power while playing it, and made me feel hopeful.

I invite you as well to meditate on good fortune as you listen to this version.

For the musician out there, this tune is in D Mixolydian mode. So, it is in the key of D with two sharps; however, the root is not on do (D). Instead, the root is on sol (G). Starting on the fifth of the scale (sol) would be called Mixolydian mode. The result is upbeat and refreshing sounding. I like to play Banish Misfortune syncopated, so it has a sort of Grateful Dead feel.

Goodwill in this recording extends into the second song, The Parting Glass, which has lyrics that reflect a night well-spent with friends. The first stanza is:

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Ways of Hearing in Modern Times

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In the summer of 2020, at the beginning of the Pandemic, one of the first things I noticed in the city, was how quiet things suddenly felt. Air traffic decreased greatly. My house, positioned in North Central Seattle, had been a major flight path to Sea-Tac Airport at particular times of day. I always noticed increased activity between 9-11pm, because that is when I liked to record! Many times, I would have to adjust my schedule, because it was too loud. But once the Pandemic hit, the nights became perfectly still, even in the middle of the city. During the mornings, sea planes would land on nearby Lake Union. This sound also decreased for some months. Suddenly, there was a lot less noise coming out of the sky, and subtle sounds stood out more: bird calls, neighbors walking by. A Pandemic way of hearing was appreciating the certain new quietude. However, with the noiseless nights came some discomfort, about what was going on in our world.

Listen Up! There are many ways of hearing.

Then, as the summer heated up, other sounds took prominence: frequent emergency vehicles and police sirens. I noticed increased helicopter activity and during BLM protests, and more than once I heard SPD fire flash bang grenades as I lay in bed, coming from across the hills from nearby Capitol Hill. There were stories in those sounds. I imagined the Pike/Pine corridor, city streets I knew so well in my old neighborhood, and I imagined the fighting. Later, in the morning, real images on the news joined the sounds I had heard. But as I lay in bed, I felt the whole city, and the whole country, listening to what those sounds meant. I felt many ears listening to the troubles around us, and I had difficultly sleeping.

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Best of Harping in 2021

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In no particular order, I’m sharing some 2021 highlights playing harp, teaching, and writing.

Centrum Artist Residency
I spent the month of March 2021, in Port Townsend, WA, on a truly regenerative and inspiring retreat. Through Centrum Foundation and Fort Worden, I was able to live in a cabin on the edge of the woods where the Straight of Juan de Fuca flows into Puget Sound, watch eagles and deer at my door every day, beachcomb, hike, and oh, yeah, squeeze in a little work! Focus of my work was on Harp Escape compositions and arrangements, as well as solo improvisations (like this one) and with my friend Josh Rawlings.

Harp Escape Make-Over
Since 2019, I have been working on Harp Escape, a therapeutic harp series of meditative audio and video. During this time, I’ve recorded nearly 200 audio tracks and done over 60 posts of writing, video and sheet music arrangements for Patrons! That is a lot for me to feel good about, as far as general productivity goes. Harp Escape is having a make-over this winter. In 2022, I’ll be moving forward with edits on individual tunes, then releasing singles on the various streaming platforms.

Making Music a Healing Process
This pandemic time continues to challenge all of us, so how can we include well-being in our daily work? I was asked to be guest speaker for Seattle Music Teacher’s Association in March of last year, talking about how to merge teaching with healing. It almost seems imperative to do so. As a Certified Clinical Musician, I thought about the mindset I put myself in, in order to play bedside music for people in physical pain or suffering from anxiety and grief. Much of that mindset can be applied to how I play music in general, so I like to share that with students. In this post, I wrote up 5 ways how to make playing music a healing process.

1st Live Concert in 20 months!
In December 2021, I played my first public concert since March 2020 lockdown.  Looking Glass Coffee, a sweet café in Snohomish, WA offered the perfect backdrop for an afternoon harp music: red velvet curtain stage, high vintage tin ceilings, and killer coffee. We were all so pleased, I’ll definitely be making another Sunday afternoon come back in the New Year. The pandemic continues to be a dicey time for performing live music, and I am thrilled to have a found a welcoming venue that matches harp music so well!

thru the Looking Glass

Poor Wayfaring Stranger
I wrote about the history of “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” a traditional American folk song, and arranged a lead sheet available at Puget Sound Folk Harp Society.

10 Tips on How to Improvise on Harp
I’ve been a fan of creative self-help inspirational books for years. From Natalie Goldberg to Stephen Nachmanovich, I’ve been studying prompts, quotes from the masters, and artist psychology for a long time. This Top 10 list for harpists helps unleash the timid player – many harpists are classically trained or play traditional Celtic tunes. Improvising for anyone can feel like uncertain territory. These tips take you back to “beginner’s mind.”

Circle of 5ths 2.0 Virtual Harp Course on Udemy
I pre-recorded a workshop for the first time! This is a major accomplishment for me, and I put many hours into creating a class on demystifying a tricky musical topic: The Circle of Fifths. The class is available on Udemy and is at advanced beginner – advanced intermediate level.

with some students from Let’s Harp Together! workshop in October 2021 at Dusty Strings

Harp Seattle Workshop – Let’s Harp Together
Another first: I taught my first in person group workshop in over 2 years! The theme of Let’s Harp Together, got everyone playing songs together – something none of us had done since the pandemic. It was wonderful hearing all the harps vibrating together (it was a few hundred strings!). Thanks go to Harp Seattle and Dusty Strings.

Return of the Wedding Cermony

Return of the Wedding Ceremony
My guess is that I’ve played music for about 500 weddings and counting. Most of my summers are booked out for months. 2020 was different. By the end, I had played a mere three weddings, which I suppose was good all considering. While 2020 ceremonies were very intimate and minimal, 2021 was a return to my usual full calendar, larger gatherings (though masked of course). I played for more than one couple who had re-booked their ceremony more than three times! Once more, it was such a pleasure to return to playing harp for another season of wedding of couples, including some really amazing natural scenery at the Treehouse Point, Leavenworth and at Mount Rainier. I feel so lucky!

Only the Shadows Know

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Umbra means shadow. In particular, it is the darkest part of a shadow. It also means a shadow cast by something that is opaque, not a solid state. I think about how even things we don’t see as being solid can take shape, like our thoughts becoming real. You know that phrase by Emerson, “You become what you think about all day long?” – I think that is true. Those shadows are thoughts, and those thoughts become beliefs.

We are all made up of light and dark, just like the equinox, a fine balance of sun and moon within. I find shadows so evocative. Perhaps that is why I have written more than one song about them.

The song Umbra comes on the return of a trip to see my family home for the first time in two years. This song had a dark feeling to it, it starts off minor but then ascends into a Major place. When I ask my students if they can hear the difference between minor and Major, we often describe feeling of minor as Halloween, sad, spooky, or lonely. Being in the shadows of not knowing can feel similar.

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Living “La Vie En Rose”

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One of my favorite wedding songs to play is Edith Piaf’s 1940’s opus to love, “La Vie en Rose.”

I don’t speak French, but I can tell by the way she sings, that it is a love song of the most high devotion. She is smitten and lovestruck to the core. As she sings, she idolizes her lover, seeing him through rose-colored glasses. This is why I love playing that tune at weddings and recommending it to people even if they say they don’t know the song. Once I start playing for them, they soon realize they’ve heard it in some movie or commercial. The thing is, “La Vie En Rose” is sort of timeless.

The song plays to our highest ideals, not just about love, but about life in general. “La Vie en Rose” is looking at life optimistically. It is living rosie dreams and seeing the beauty in every day life. It is stopping to smell the roses. It is embracing imperfections and loving despite them. La vie en rose is “live and let live.” It is having ideals. Dreaming big. Finding joy in one’s life and being in the present moment. In literal translation, la vie en rose means the “pink life.”

My Wedding May 3, 2008 (Seattle, WA)

Some say the meaning of the song is that of naïveté, that everything will be fine without paying attention to details. Assuming that situations will unfold in your favor doesn’t inherently mean that you are not paying attention, or working towards a positive outcome. In fact, I have found that the more I am invested in my situations, the better I feel through involvement.

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Poor Wayfaring Stranger, a Revived Pandemic Song

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A version of sheet music for “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” came into my possession in 2020 Lockdown, as I was taking yet another neighborhood stroll. (1/10/22 update: download your own sheet music of this song.) I stopped to look at a Little Free Library. I found an unassuming prayer book (whose name I have since forgotten because I’ve returned the book), and in the back of it were songs with notation, hymnal style. As I spent some time learning “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” I was intrigued by the somber lyrics and the story they told. The struggle of the character in the song felt very relatable (and still does) compared to what the world has been going through in Pandemic Times.

Hidden gems of the LFL

History of the tune “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” comes from Civil War Era American, folk and gospel. It is possible that the song may have traveled to America with a German immigrant and been adopted into early 19th Century American folk singing. It is also possible that, given the time frame and the gospel nature of this tune, that “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” morphed into a Negro Spiritual, as it has a strong Christian message and speaks of a troubled world.

My solo harp version of “Poor Wayfaring Stranger”

Melodically, this folk tune probably traveled by oral tradition, meaning the notation wasn’t written down. The first time words of the song officially show up in America, they were inscribed inside of Libby Prison by a dying Union soldier. For this reason, “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” was also known as “Libby Prison Hymn,” however that name didn’t stick. More commonly, the song is also known as “Wayfaring Stranger,” “The Wayfaring Stranger,” or “I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger.” In the 20th Century, this song was recorded by musicians Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Jack White, and Eva Cassidy.

“Poor Wayfaring Stranger” speaks to the trying times of the human spirit on the verge of death. The tune is part Christian hymn, part prayer, part woeful song, part ode to Everyman’s journey,

If we look at the lyrics (which also have nuances like the title), the 1st verse is:

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