Author Archives: simon

Aeolian Harp

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Aeolian Harp Pavilion at the Royal Botanic Gardens

Aeolian Harp Pavilion at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.

Created by Scottish harp maker Mark Norris, the Aeolian Harp Pavilion was installed in the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh in May 2014 and is now a permanent feature in the gardens.

The harp is made from a 200 year old Wych Elm tree which was felled in the gardens in 2003 after Dutch Elm disease.

This time-lapse film shows the 3 day installation of the Pavilion … with music from Savourna Stevenson, which is also performed on a harp made by Mark Norris …

Music tracks are … ‘Calman The Wolf’ and ‘An Buachaille’ from the CD Calman The Dove ( Cook CD 137 )
… and ‘Come Try Me ( 1st Movement String Quintet )’ from the CD Touch Me Like The Sun ( Cook CD 192 )

80′ Jazz Rock Fusion Harp

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Rare footage of a very young Savourna Stevenson playing part of her ‘Moorsong’.
In an interview dating from around that time, Savourna expressed her delight at meeting with guitarist Mike Stern and saxophonist Bob Berg … and you can certainly hear the Mike Stern influence here.
Her writing and performing over the years has certainly covered an incredible range of styles and genres … and I for one am sad that we don’t have some more of this jazz rock harp material recorded on CD.
I believe she now has a growing reputation as a composer in the classical music world and is writing a pedal harp concerto for the harpist Catrin Finch. What a big musical brain she must have!!

An Buachaille

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Savourna Stevenson playing An Buachaille ( The Herdsman ), one of her virtuosic pieces specially written for the small / lever harp. She recorded this on her CD ‘Calman the Dove’ which also has several great tracks with Davy Spillane on uillean pipes and low whistle.

Emily’s Calling

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A great live performance from Savourna Stevenson playing Emily’s Calling. As both an original composer and an amazing player, Savourna Stevenson is just in a class of her own with the harp. This piece is on one of my favourite CDs ‘Touch Me Like The Sun’ which includes a track with singer Eddi Reader and three tracks with Savourna’s harp + string quartet, playing Savourna’s music used for the TV series ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘Ugly Betty’.

The Source

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Savourna Stevenson playing a live performance of ‘The Source’, the opening piece from her CD ‘Tweed Journey’. The Tweed Journey charts the course of the River Tweed ( in her native Scotland ) from source to sea, starting with solo harp then adding a new member to the band for each piece … so by track 7 it’s a 7 piece band … another excellent CD from Savourna.

Blue Orchid

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A nice live performance of ‘Blue Orchid’ from SavournaStevenson. She originally wrote & recorded this as part of the music for a TV documentary about orchid flowers … and also recorded it on her excellent CD ‘Touch Me Like The Sun’ … a wonderful CD that everybody should own, even if they think they don’t like harp music! Savourna is a prolific composer and has written a lot of great music for theatre, dance, TV and film … and even writes for full symphony orchestra. A great creative talent … as well as a cracking good performer on the harp!

Bluegrass harp

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Savourna Stevenson playing a solo version of her ‘Silverado Squatters’, a fun little piece of bluegrass for harp. Part of the music she originally composed for a series of TV documentaries about the life and travels of writer Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s recorded with fiddler Aly Bain on her CD ‘Tusitala, Teller of Tales’

Water, from the city to the sea

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Water, from the ‘The White Swan’ on Calman the Dove

This short film features a number of different pieces of music. I like them all.
I have not sought the permission from the performers/artists for the use of their music. I would hope however that they will enjoy how I’ve used their music. I’ve loved the ‘Ocean of Sound’ LP of a number of years (& the book) and there’s loads of other good stuff on this double LP. I also really like Savourna Stevenson and her other stuff like ‘Fording the Tweed’ (Touch me like the Sun). The music featured in this film is as follows in chronological order:
Savourna Stevenson — ‘The White Swan’ from the album Calman the Dove — released 2000.
All other tracks are from the double album ‘Ocean of Sound’ 1996 compiled by David Toop