Re: Wind Music

Ralf Kleemann (rkleeman@urz-mail.urz.uni-heidelberg.de)
Tue, 4 Jun 96 21:23:06 +0100

>I'm a new harper so I am still in the discovery stage. Last week my husband
>and I were on vacation on a very private beach on the north shore of Lake
>Michigan (the Upper Peninsula side). I had my small lap harp and as we sat
>there, I just plucked chords. It was a beautiful setting, and a beautiful
>day. As I sat there, the wind over the strings began creating the most
>beautiful haunting sound. It grew to quite a volume. I'm sure others have
>discovered that this can happen.

Oh yes! Lake Michigan! Harps! What a setting! I wish I could be there!
There are different words for this phenomenon. Some call it Aeolian harp
(greek tradition), some call it wind harp, you may also wish to check the
"Mists of Avalon", where so-called war-harps appear at one point.
This way of natural creativity has been fascinating me ever since - weird
and haunting and mystical. I was almost stoned when I first heard that
sound.
A friend of mine told me that he had seen a documentary film about
Aeolian harps: the wind comes to the strings, curls itself around them,
causing them to oscillate... this might even have been the way the
principle of harps was discovered: an ancient hunter went home after a
long day of raving across the steppe, her/his bow rested on her/his
shoulders and the wind began to play on the bowstring. Hmm! What was
THAT? ... and so the bow was turned into an instrument, making the hunter
the first known famous musician. :)

Cheers,
Ralf

-------------------------------------------------------------
Ralf Kleemann, Heidelberg, Germany
http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~rkleeman/

"I wish I die peacefully in my sleep, just like my grandfather,
not screaming in terror, like all his passengers." (unknown)