Everything: Harp Solo: Instrumental Work

A brilliant beginners' DVD that teaches the rudimentary and fundimental skills and techniques needed to play the Autoharp - one of the most beautiful (and easiest)traditional instruments. Step-by-step instruction of everything you need to know from proper use of the chord buttons strumming and fingerpicking techniques and how to pick out melodies and play instrumentals in the styles of the great traditional players. John Sebastian of Lovin' Spoonful presents his detailed but easy method which is perfect for novices and beginners as it teaches how to hold the harp how to tune it play simple strums and co-ordinate the fingers and thumb in fingerpicking for the first time.

With more enthusiasts than ever since its heyday the Harp is an instrument which has successfully demonstrated its staying power and its important role both in music and beyond! John Marson’s Book of the Harp is a uniqueand definitive work distilled from a wealth of experience: a lifetime's study and research and an outstanding professional career. He traces the development of the harp from its earliest origins thousands of years B.C. to theinvention of the pedal harp in the eighteenth century and the harps of the twenty first century. He examines the writings of many forgotten exponents of the harp including inventors players and composers and provides a fullycomprehensive view of every model make and modification to the present day!The Book of the Harp is a rich source of information entertainment and anecdote on everything from strings tuning principles offingering and tone production historical influences designs techniques and methods to the harp's literary associations and those with the theatre and cinema its Celtic and religious symbolism virtuoso players and itsappearance in the poetry of Milton and novels of Jane Austen. Both historical and practical The Book of the Harp is an authoritative source of entertainment and a fascinating study for student professionalmusician and interested reader alike. John Marson has enjoyed a glittering career during which he has been principal harpist of the London Symphony Orchestra the BBC Symphony Orchestra Professor of Harp at the Royal College ofMusic and soloist and freelance.

If Bach Was A Cellist-The purpose of the series if Bach was a cellist is to live the fantasy that everything Bach wrote he wrote for the cello.The concerto in D minor (BWV 1043) for two violins string orchestra and continuo by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is one of his most loved works. Indeed the slow movement may be one of the most popular and loved pieces in the instrumental literature. Traditionally it is believed to have been written in Köthen where he held the position of 'fürstlischer Kapellmeister' from 1717-1723 a town that saw the birth of the Brandenburg concertos and the solo works for violin and cello. The Dorian church mode (the absent Bflat in the key of Dminor) would also speak for the younger Bach. Recent research however has shown that the orchestral parts carefully written out by Bach himself and found among the papers of his son Carl Philip Emanuel date from around 1730. The sophistication of the composition also speaks for a later date than Köthen. The original score has been lost.Always in need of concert material for his 'Collegium Musicus' in Leipzig Bach made a version of the present concerto for two harpsichords (BWV 1062). The original key was transposed to C minor so that the top note would not exceed a D but remain within the range of a standard harpsichord. Another C minor concerto (BWV 1060) for two harpsi-chords often heard in an arrangement from the 1920's for violin and oboe by Max Schneider and Max Seiffert speaks for two concertos in D minor for two violins by Bach.When arranging an orchestral score for the pianoforte one has to remember that a double-bass sounds an octave lower than notated. This is a welcomed fact when dealing with two instruments that play the original solo parts an octave down. At the same time for a transcription of this kind the ambition must be to avoid the cello soloists playing in octaves with the violin tutti parts - which is what would happen were they to share the same material. This ambition made a piano reduction

A fantastic suite from Robert Hinchliffe The Elements is everything it's name promises it to be: spirited tranqil sometimes strict in timing sometimes free and flowing but ever reflective of The Elements. For Flute and Harpsichord or Piano.The solo flute part is also included on a separate insert.