Traditional Beginnings

This book grew out of a genuine need. When Cynthia first began teaching the wire strung harp, she was frustrated by the scarcity of repertoire books available. Sometimes she was obliged to scribble out arrangements for her students on manuscript paper during their lessons.

It had not occurred to her that this might also be a problem for other players until she performed at the Texas Scottish Festival and Highland Games in the summer of 2000, where she met harp teacher Therese Honey, who expressed the same frustration to Cynthia and said, You are one person who can do something about it! Cynthia took the challenge.

The result of this encounter was Traditional Beginnings, an easy and progressive collection of recognizable melodies arranged for wire strung and small harps. These are tunes that Cynthia learned during her childhood in the Eastern United States. While no promise can be made that all the tunes will be familiar to harpers in Texas, Scotland, Canada, or even to someone who grew up in the next town over, hopefully many of them will be recognizable. The goal is to give beginning wire strung harpers familiar tunes to play so they can spend their timing learning harp technique rather than spend priceless hours learning how unfamiliar tunes go.

Basic wire harp techniques are introduced. Gapped scales are introduced and discussed throughout the book. Written for harps with 15 or more strings, the pieces were arranged on an Ardival Kilcoy clarsach, a 19–string lap harp. Lyrics and histories are included, and there is a section with practice drills. A bibliography completes the book.