harp therapy - bethan myfanwy hughes

[sebmelmoth2003]

can you hear the harps, fernando?

there was a welsh therapist on radio 4 at the weekend - saturday live - 6th march - audio online till next saturday - 8 minutes into programme onwards - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 6_03_2010/

Bethan Myfanwy Hughes is not only a musician but also a healer - a practitioner of harp therapy - and she is described as the 'Angel of the Battlefield' by the front line troops for whom she has played

http://www.bethanmyfanwy.com/index.htm

http://harprealm.com

[Diane]

Enjoyed that listen Sebmel, thanks. There was a harpist playing in the church at a wedding I went to late last year - very nice in such a setting. Bethan Myfanwy Hughes' utilisation of music for healing purposes with trauma victims and the dying is a truly marvellous use of her skills. Years ago I worked alongside music therapists who saw both traumatised and severely physically disabled children and the kids all seemed more content after their music therapy.

I think all music is healing, in the broadest sense of the word, because it restores you to the moment, and to the subtleties within that can only be mirrored in music (Schopenhauer I think was the first westerner to express this view). This is a huge plus in our linear-thinking, formal-language dominated culture. Music has a kinaesthetic as well as cerebral effect upon the body - it is holisitc. 'Music' can mean music alone, or music plus lyrics where the lyrics like good poetry have more depth and shades than their apparent or surface meaning. I like to quote Peter Wilberg:

"Music reminds us that the pre-verbal dimension of meaning is far from being undifferentiated. Art is received by the soul as meaningful speech quite independently of verbal knowledge."

and:

"As individuals our whole lives are nothing more or less than a journey in qualitative space in which we search for points of resonance . . . between the inner 'space' we find ourselves in...and our outer environment."

Every time we hear music that we enjoy, we are 'spoken for'. It feels like that doesn't it. We have a need to be mirrored or 'healed' in this way.

If these ideas have substance, it must be immensely satisfying to know somebody who shares a range of your musical tastes and with whom you therefore share some important internal landscape.

[Diane]

PS Speaking of harps - the kora, or African harp, expertly-played for example by Toumani Diabaté or Ba Cissoko, is an instrument with a lovely sound too, and may reach the parts other harps cannot reach! (as they say in the beer commercials), not being played in the western musical scale.

[margaret]

PS Speaking of harps - the kora, or African harp, expertly-played for example by Toumani Diabaté or Ba Cissoko, is an instrument with a lovely sound too, and may reach the parts other harps cannot reach! (as they say in the beer commercials), not being played in the western musical scale.

I saw a review recently of a new cd from T. Diabate and Ali Farka Toure, not sure of the spelling there. They did a lovely album together a few years ago and this new one is said to be as good or better. I believe the older guy has since died, so this new album is very special.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_ ... refix=Toum

[sebmelmoth2003]

you're probably right, Diane.

music is something lacking in my life - i've never owned any device for replaying music - no records, no CDs - nothing.

bbc `start the week`.

JOHN ADAMS

From 'On the Transmigration of Souls' to 'Nixon in China', John Adams is one of the most influential composers working today. He’s in London to conduct the UK premiere of his work 'City Noir' at the Barbican, part of their ‘Focus on Adams’ season which is running all year. John Adams talks about his work and his vision of bringing the grime and the glamour of 1940s LA and film noir to orchestral life.

John Adams will conduct 'City Noir' at the Barbican on 11 March.

John Adams

PHILIP BALL

From an indigenous tribesperson singing a ritual chant to a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, from a playground nursery rhyme to heavy metal gigs, music is ubiquitous in human society. While we know of some cultures which don’t have writing or visual art, every human society produces music. Science writer Philip Ball argues that making and enjoying music is a fundamental part of being human; not only is it too deeply embedded in our cultures to be eliminated, it is deeply embedded in our brains. In his new book, 'The Music Instinct', Philip Ball explores the neurology, psychology, mathematics and sociology that underlie our understanding of music.

'The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It' is published by The Bodley Head.

Philip Ball

audio online until monday 15th march, 09.00 hours.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r4tf8#synopsis
-------------
...Did you know that coffee has its own musical profile? According to Professor Charles Spence at the Oxford University Psychology Department, it is possible to match particular flavours to sounds of a specific pitch, tone and even instrument. The Professor’s experiments discovered that people tend to match rich, dark tastes and flavours, such as coffee, with low pitched, woodwind and brass instruments.

Using these recommendations, we’ve had a special piece of music composed, called VIA Alle Undici, which complements our new Starbucks VIATM Italian Roast. Why listen whilst you enjoy a nice, warm cup of Starbucks VIA™?

Click here to play VIA Alle Undici...

http://www.starbuckscoffee.co.uk/coffee ... own-sound/

[Diane]

That's very laid back of you, sebmel, listening only to the radio and live music (supposedly) - taking it as it comes. Will give that radio prog. on the 'music instinct' a listen later, ta.

"The Professor’s experiments discovered that people tend to match rich, dark tastes and flavours, such as coffee, with low pitched, woodwind and brass instruments." - Sounds like more "research" into the bleedin' obvious:-)

Margaret thanks for the alert about that new Diabate/AFT album. I have Mande Variations though (am listening as we speak) and this new album sounds similar. I'm away next week but when I return I must tape you some samples of Ba Cissoko - koras plus an afro-beat/latin sound.

I highly recommend WOMAD btw, which I attended for the first time last year - it is quite amazing, you are in England and the world comes to you. http://womad.org/festivals/charlton-park.

[sebmelmoth2003]

...In the future it may be considerably easier for orchestras to tour. Jeannine Han, who is in the second year of her master's program in textiles and fashion design at the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås, Sweden, working together with technician Dan Riley, has developed clothing that plays music when touched...
---------------------
...The results were quite amazing. Instead of generating the sound using bulky analog electronics on the chip, we generated MIDI commands (musical command signals that inform an instrument when to start and stop notes) to a

very small music generator that actually produced the tones. We were able to create harp sounds...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 083840.htm

http://unibrow.scientificsciences.com/

[Diane]

Jeannine Han, who is in the second year of her master's program in textiles and fashion design at the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås . . . has developed... clothing that plays music when touched...

Well, in my garden I have grown big clumps of bamboo that sound like clothes when touched: When the wind blows it sounds like someone walking in a rustling ball gown.

PS Speaking of harps - the kora, or African harp, expertly-played for example by Toumani Diabaté or Ba Cissoko, is an instrument with a lovely sound too, and may reach the parts other harps cannot reach! (as they say in the beer commercials), not being played in the western musical scale.

I saw a review recently of a new cd from T. Diabate and Ali Farka Toure, not sure of the spelling there. They did a lovely album together a few years ago and this new one is said to be as good or better. I believe the older guy has since died, so this new album is very special.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_ ... refix=Toum

This year,Toumani Diabaté is playing at the Hay Festival (as is Christy Moore and tix for CM are already onsale).
http://www.hayfestival.com/m-23-hay-fes ... ctedevents
Think I should get a ticket, and So Do I:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u50h9thpJSE

[Diane]

Lunchtime I was listening to Classic fm when a sublime piece of piano music reminiscent of Michael Nyman came on. I find it was "I Giorni" by Ludovico Einaudi (who wrote the score for Dr Zhivago tv series): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhuGfmoIv_M Anyhow, I just read that the inspiration for this piece was a 12th-century folk song from Mali about the death of a hippopotamus, that Einaudi heard whilst driving in Mali with . . . Toumani Diabaté:-)

[sebmelmoth2003]

lucinda belle - jazz harpist - on radio 4's woman's hour : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p007xbh1
-------------
if audio disappears - edited version can be heard on weekend woman's hour which should be online until saturday.

lucinda can be found from 49 minutes onwards at iplayer.

[sebmelmoth2003]

revolutionary MIDI concert harp played on woman's hour - 15 minutes and 48 seconds into programme.

scroll down to `chapter 3` at bottom of bbc page for direct link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xhftd

http://www.sionedwilliams.com

[sebmelmoth2003]

p.j harvey plays an auto-harp on her new album

http://www.twentyfourbit.com/post/91635 ... rder-video

[sebmelmoth2003]

at the london jazz festival - ronnie scott's - on friday 5th august.

http://www.thelbo.com

[Diane]

Sounds good, Sebmel.

Toumani Diabaté (mentioned above) was on at Womad last weekend in a new Cuban/Malain collaboration, AfroCubism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDe47kNWsYE

"When those accustomed to hearing Cuban music, hear the fusion with African music, they will become aware of the beauty that is inherent in both." Eliades Ochoa.

[sebmelmoth2003]

harpophiles may like this concert at st martin in the fields.

Trinity Laban Conservatoire Lunchtime Concert

1:00pm - Tuesday 4 September 2012

Lunchtime Concert - Tamara Young

Harpist Tamara Young graduated in 2010 with First Class Honours from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she won the John Marson prize for 'most outstanding and creative young musician'...

http://enterprise.smitf.org/jserv/conce ... nd=concert