phone mic tutorial, March shows, new ep, historical harp stereotypes
greetings again from this harpgoon. Time has been marching on and this month has unexpectedly left me quite a large amount of free time which I've tried to devote solely to writing new music.
Thus! A lil DIY phone mic (+ speaker) tutorial from my soldering iron to yours alongside a few typical musings on sexy harp tropes. 🫠
UPCOMING SHOWS
it's our FINAL SLIPSTREAMS SHOW next Wednesday, March 12 at 9:30pm. We're pulling out the stops for our big last Tranzac Residency hoorah, with duo cichorium joining us for allll the percussive beeps & bangs.
GUELPH - Thursday, March 20 at 7pm at Brothers Brewing Co. for an eve of experimental music with old friends Seagram Synth Ensemble & jazz fusion group The Stack.
WATERLOO - Saturday, March 29 at 745pm for Pinch Cabaret #38. Breaking out some big harp shenanigans for this eve of cabaret shenanigans at Hepcat's - Pinch usually sells out so highly recommend grabbing tickets in advance.
march is for sexy harp stereotypes
Historically, the harp in western culture has had quite a few stereotypes over the millennia since the instrument's early appearances in Cycladic and Egyptian cultures. Typically leaning into a few generic categories since Europe's medieval ages - divinity, femininity, and a symbol of wealth. Obviously some slight divergences exists across such broad categorizations, one of my favorite being the harp's vibe shift in the 18th-19th centuries.
AKA: I bet you didn't know that the pedal harp used to be the sexy instrument of the 19th century. From sex workers playing harps as saloon entertainment in the North American Wild West to women in aristocracy, the harp's position in relation to the player's body rendered it both a symbol for the divinely feminine and hyper-sexuality. Even to the point that in France, "to play the harp" became a euphemism for doing something definitely NSFW.
Sexiness aside, this idea that harpist's have to have a certain 'look' has, whether fortunately or unfortunately, ended up a bit of a red thread in my own career. From getting an angry email that “…the beautiful harp in the photo deserves to be shown off with more respect than the sleeveless white t shirt and ripped jeans" to consistently being told I play/look like an angel, it's a trope that's followed me around seemingly no matter the sound I play.
There was definitely a time where this meant I'd pointedly avoid writing anything remotely tonal or 'beautiful' as evidenced below.
While it was fun being antithetical, and was a very important part of expanding ye olde sonic vocabulary, forming a musical identity in opposition or protest of this trope ended up not being as freeing as I first believed. In avoiding tonal or beautiful, or leaning into the whole free improv-y vibe of 'must play my instrument as atypical of what I think you expect as possible' - I was still as constrained as before, just with an opposing aesthetic to sweeping glissandi and ball gowns.
All that thesis + antithesis to say, it's nice to feel a bit more synthesized in the sounds I pursue and how I portray myself. It's become less a need to prove a point than figuring out what's important to me to 'say' (or 'saying' and then figuring out what the hell was that piece about after the fact). You can compare/contrast with greensborough if you like.
Anways, enuf about me. If you want more historical discussion about the harp + harpist's historical stereotypes, I highly recommend Dr. Noël Wan's "Dis-Embodying the Female Harpist" with Inter Arts Matrix.
PHONE MIC TUTORIAL
You can also build this exactly the same but substituting the XLR cable for a stereo headphone wire with 1/8" male output to turn the phone into a very small speaker.
Essentially you are replicating the phone's original purpose, but this gives you the opportunity to send whatever sound you'd like your audience can listen to with that intimate feeling of a phone call from your ear to theirs.
some recommendations
BBC's "The Harp". focusing mainly on welsh + western classical tradition, and covering quite a few harp cultures around the world. Hosted by the impeccable harpist Catrin Finch.
This exploration of how an ancient Egyptian harp might've sounded.
Made in Canada or this handy app for scanning your groceries
lastly, this is the 6th monthly newsletter I've sent, how am I doing?
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feel free to shoot me an email, always happy to chat further/hear feedback/share resources on harp history et al.
thanks for reading!
<3 grace <3