Harp Escape, the therapeutic harp series of meditative audio and video, will be having a make-over this winter. For the past 20 months, I have made recordings and sheet music for patrons (available on Patreon). During this time, I’ve recorded nearly 200 audio tracks and done over 60 posts of writing, video and sheet music arrangements! That is a lot for me to feel good about, as far as general productivity goes. Now, I feel that a cycle of creation has been completed.
The project will be shifting to a broader audience with a simpler format. New format for Harp Escape will first be editing down audio recordings, and then choosing just ONE tune per month to focus on. That one tune will be either re-recorded, mastered or enhanced somehow. In 2022, I will be releasing these focused songs as singles on the various streaming platforms (iTunes, Spotify, et al).
Looking Ahead to the next phase of Harp Escape
It was a lot of work to make these monthly audio recordings at 20-50 minutes each time. The call to change started this fall when I felt like I was just going through the motions of setting up the recording equipment, picking the tunes, etc. I know the Harp Escape collection has some good pieces in there (but I also know they aren’t all great!), so the plan is to select a few gems and make them sound even better. Also, I don’t necessarily want to stick to instrumentals only, or even to one style of Therapeutic Music at 60-80 bpm. Since the pandemic, I’ve been missing out on in person Therapeutic Music visits for my clients in the clinical health setting. When I started Harp Escape, the intention was to replace that calming, healing modality that TM can bring, and bring it online. I did. It has.
Harp Escape vol. 6 video is a song I composed called, “Slowly, Falls the Snow.” This song is about difficult good-byes. About seasons changing, and seasons of life changing.
I wrote this song while working as a Certified Clinical Musician. One morning when I was playing therapy harp at the bedside for a client, this song came to me. I had visited this person a few days earlier. They were on hospice, and after two weeks, they were still holding onto life, even though they were very near death. I wasn’t even sure my patient would be alive when I arrived. Loved ones and caregivers of this person said they appeared to be struggling with letting go.
It was the end of winter, and the very last cold days were hanging on. We had a rare snow that reached the lowlands, and it would certainly be the last snow before spring. Outside the window were evergreen hedges with bright, white snow glistening on them. Under the sun, slowly, the snow fell melting.
So much has changed in the world in just a few short weeks. As a performing artist and a Certified Clinical Musician working in hospice, 2/3rds of my work came to a screeching halt starting on February 24th. Here in Seattle, we were sort of a canary in the coal mine for rest of North America, but that still didn’t prepare me for the severity of the situation we are now in. With restrictions to large gatherings and health care organizations looking to be in solid place for the foreseeable future, I’m being honest with myself. I’m not expecting much harp related work for the rest of the year, perhaps into next year. In the meantime, in addition being with my children, I’m also looking to drum up work through digital media streams, virtual teaching, and new collaborations.
Like many people during this COVID quarantine, I am contemplating my life, my career, and broader still, humanity. Voices of inspiring writers, musicians, poets, philosophers, and scientists throughout history are giving me comfort. The world has seen hard times before, and troubled people look to artists during rough days for entertainment, distraction, and wisdom.
Allen Ginsberg wrote, “The weight of the world is love under the burden of solitude.”
Is our solitude a burden to us now? Or is a comfort? Or both? I have gone through waves of feeling both extremes.
Under weight of solitude and a view of the Olympic Mountains – April 2020 (Discovery Park, Seattle WA)
Side projects that I had been working on or just thinking about are actually now front and center for me, so that is interesting. Harp Escape is one of my projects that is now a main focus.
Harp Escape is an audio/video series that I started last year in response to what I found to be an ever mounting stress. As a working mother of two, as an urban dweller, as a musician commuting to gigs, teaching, and therapy sessions, I found that my city of Seattle was getting more and more congested, loud, and exhausting to drive in and be in. Scheduling was almost just as tight and restrictive. So, as an artist and sound healer, I created an online place for a get away. I wanted to create more breathing space. Harp Escape now seems more relevant than ever, as millions of people lose their jobs, feel anxiety about the virus, and waver in their general trust of each other. Within our lifetimes, we have never lived in a more uncertain age.
Harp Escape presents feel-good relaxing music ideal for quarantine time. It is a love salve. I encourage you to put on some good headphones and escape the world of troubles and take care of your inner world. Here is a Harp Escape Playlist.
Harp Escape Vol. 3 Erik Satie – First Gymnopedie
To take the Harp Escape idea yet further, in response to the pandemic and our global quarantine, I have begun a weekly virtual Harp Escape Concert Series on Facebook. You can find me live streaming @harpescape at 6:30pm Pacific Standard Time every Saturday.
My husband, Stephen Schildbach, illustrated a contemplative piece for the times using me (and some of our house plants) and as model. You can find more of Stephen’s work on Instagram at Schildbach Illustration
We as a family of four are trying the best way that we can to see through the darkness of this time. There are so many unknowns, but it is in trusting my inner knowledge that is getting me through this, and probably priming me for the uncertain future that is to come.
Contemplating Coronavirus by Stephen Schidbach
The COVID19 epidemic is helping us find out who we really are, and what we are truly made of.
I am Harpist-in-Residence at Nalanda West for the month of March. What does that mean?
Well, I have been invited to be artist-in-residence, or in this case, Harpist-in-Residence at Nalanda West, a contemplative resources center located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle (3902 Woodland Park Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103). Mostly, I have been keeping hours Monday mornings. That means, if you are coming in to use the space for meditation, I will be there making music. Being a Harpist-in-Residence means I will be hanging about the venue using my time to focus on my artistic craft.
Harp Escape is my YouTube series of instrumental harp songs played in a relaxing and slow manner. The intention behind these video recordings is to give listeners an online place where one can escape from the stresses of modern life and enter a more peaceful place through listening awareness. Here, one will be able to breath deeply and work or relax to calming background music that is at the same time artful and based in a place of technique. These are intentionally curated songs presented in a skillful and stylized manner.
In
our stressful age, meaningful music can calm the nerves and encourage
us to breath deeply. So many sounds of the modern world are actually
static noise, and have a way of draining our energy, positive work
flow, and happiness. A combination of contemplative listening and
deep breath can bring us clarity and a healthier sense of being.
During my artist residency, I’m writing and arranging new songs, and will also record new videos (to be released on my YouTube channel). Eventually, I’ll compile these songs into audio only format, so that I can release some of the songs as a collection.
Dates and times of artist residency at Nalanda West (3902 Woodland Park Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103):
I will be in residence at Nalanda West with harp music on Mondays 9, 16, 23, 30 at 9:30am-12:30pm and for open meditation Tues March 24 18 7-8pm.
I will also be playing in the concert Interconnecting for Good with Lori Goldston (cello) and Danny Godinez (guitar) March 14 at Nalanda West at 7pm. The money raised will be used for a new building roof.
Culminating
my residency time, I will perform a solo harp concert on Friday,
April 17, 2020 at 7pm at Nalanda West.
Harp Escape is an online place to relax. I began my monthly video series, Harp Escape, this Spring. Each video includes tunes intended to relax the listener, and bring a breath of calm into their environment. Because of the chronic stress, relentless noise and dousing of bad news our modern world exposes us to, life can be downright hopeless feeling some days. Therefore, it is essential for us to take breaks throughout the day and, as I like to say, floss your ears.
Happy Apple – The Daphnes Harp Escape vol. 1
It is vital for our individual health to stay balanced, so that our communities and Earth can be healthy too. When we feel stress all the time, that stress becomes a homeostasis, or the state of normal being. Without any stress reducers, our bodies take on a “fight or flight” state, and we may never get out of that feeling of constant stress and overwhelm. Music is the oldest form of human communication, and sound is also one of the most basic forms of healing. It is with these sentiments that I bring you Harp Escape.
The original Happy Apple
Volume 1 of Harp Escape is a song called Happy Apple. Originally, the inspiration for the piece came from a childhood toy of mine that my mother sent to me when I had my own child. The Fisher Price Happy Apple was a very popular chiming wobbly toddler thing of the 1970’s. Its sound was still pleasing to me decades later, so I wrote a song about it. In vol. 1 of Harp Escape, I slow the composition down and change it to an instrumental version. You can listen to The Daphnes recording of Happy Apple on our album Braids of Kabuya.
As a Certified Clinical Musician, I have studied how certain intervals, musical modes, and tempos can have a particularly soothing effect. I merge this ancient healing knowledge with my skills as a life-long musician and harpist of 25 years. As a songwriter and improviser, I bring relaxing arrangements of a variety of songs and styles for the intent of healing with Harp Escape. If you have any song requests, let me know!
Foggy Dew – trad. Irish Harp Escape vol. 2
As a harpist, it is impossible to avoid playing Irish tunes! A harp is the national symbol of Ireland, after all. Vol. 2 of Harp Escape is Foggy Dew, the song of choice to teach my students this March for St. Patrick’s Day. Many of these old ballads can be short. So, I expanded Foggy Dew and wrote an additional melody in the relative major key of G. Interested in an arrangement? Just send me a message.
