Patrick O’Donnell wrote this review.
There’s good reason harps have long been associated with heavenly visions, fairies and all things sweet and light. Their gentle sound is hard to describe in any terms but “angelic,” and the music they produce is as much lullaby as any mother’s sweet song. It’s as if someone took a music box, removed the cover and enlarged the strings (even though it’s really the other way around).
Harp music has never made up a significant portion of my collection, though, and perhaps never will. I like to think I prefer my music with a little more of an edge to it; harps have a way of dulling that edge and placing a gilt over it.
Or perhaps it’s because of an incident a while back on a tour through Scotland and England. At one proud old hotel, a beautiful harp stood in the corner, and the tour guide announced that one of the young waitresses would be treating us to dinner music. We sat down and awaited our meal and the night’s entertainment eagerly. The teen warmed up with a few scales, then went straight into a version of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”
Without the vocals, and with the magic a harp lends any tune, it actually sounded nice. We all clapped politely. Then we went back to our meal, and she played a few tunes in the background. Soon, though, we heard something familiar, and realized she was playing a slightly different version of “My Heart Will Go On.” Then a scale or two. Then “My Heart Will Go On.” Then a segue into … “My Heart Will Go On.”
Thankfully, Hunting The Hedgehog is all traditional music, a collection of Welsh Gypsy tunes handed down through four generations of harpers with nary a hint of Dion. Bowen’s skillful fingers make the instrument sing as only a harp can, portraying the enchantment of a beautiful country and free lifestyle. Some will recognize “Fairy Glen,” a popular waltz. Other noteables are “Gypsy Hornpipe”; “Opening of the Flowers/Fair Maid of Corwen”; and “Smith’s Hornpipe/The Policeman or The Man with the Mouth” (the last being a tune whistled by gypsies to warn of police presence).
This is an interesting and important collection as much because it is music that may otherwise have been forgotten as because it explores a world where everything can sound beautiful. Perhaps I will add more harp music to my collection, after all!
