New music, equipment

This is a bit of an insider's entry, but what's new with me is that I attended the American Harp Society's National Conference, and while there I bought a lot of wonderful new sheet music, and I also had a new pickup installed in my harp.  And I saw a lot of people that I've known over the years, making me feel like a member of the harp community! 

About the pickup:  Dusty Strings, folk harp manufacturer of excellence, developed a pickup specially for the harp, including one for the pedal harp.  The most noticeably special feature of it is that it is actually four pickups built into one unit.  The four pickups are distributed throughout the range of the harp, so that there is one located in the bass of the harp, one at the upper-most treble, and two more in the mid-range.  It makes for a pretty exciting sound!  Plus it sounds close to the natural sound of the harp, and I can just plug my sound system into it, real easily.  Thanks to Ray and Sue Mooers for developing it and installing it, personally, in my harp!

About the music:  I found a lot of beautiful Irish tunes (I love those!), country dances, some sweet pieces by Faure (a French composer), Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky arranged for solo harp.  And a reduction of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, arranged for solo harp by Daphne Hellman!!  Quite a find.  I also got more Bach, transcribed for harp: one book from his cello sonatas, and another from his music for lute.

So, all of this is pretty much juice for insiders only, but at least you can see what gets me excited!

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