an in-depth interview with Mairéid Sullivan
May 1999
Anne-Marie O'Farrell was born in Dublin where she began her musical education
at the College of Music. An honors graduate of University College Dublin, she
has received numerous awards, including a DAAD academic scholarship to study
at Bonn University. She holds professional diplomas in three instruments along
with many recent national awards for original composition. O'Farrell graduated
with a first class honours Masters degree in composition from the National University
of Ireland in Maynooth. She has performed at the World Harp Congress in Prague.
She will be performing in a concert in Los Angeles on Sunday June 3 at 8 p.
m. at the University of Southern California, as part of the 2001 Lyon &
Healy Harpfest.
Her creative arrangements of traditional Irish airs for harp and her commitment
to the expansion of its repertoire have led to recordings for TV and radio in
Ireland, France, German, the USA and Japan. She latest recording is My Lagan
Love, released in 2001. Her earlier albums include, "The Jigs Up",
"Heads & Harps" and "Harping Bach to Carolina".
In addition to her interpretation of Irish music, Anne-Marie is especially noted
for her transcriptions of keyboard, lute, and pedal harp repertoire for the
lever harp.
She is also noted for her unique levering techniques, which she continues to
develop on this instrument. Both as soloist and accompanist she has toured extensively
in Europe and the United States, and more recently, performed at the Lyon &
Healy Harpfest, following her appearance at the Edinburgh Harp Festival and
the European Harp Symposium in Amsterdam.
At home in Ireland, Anne-Marie has been a regular performer with the National
Symphony Orchestra and the R.T.E. Concert orchestra. In addition to being in
frequent demand as a recording artist for albuM.S. with internationally renowned
musicians. She is also committed to the promotion of new music, and in the summer
of 1998 premiered and recorded twelve new Irish compositions for flute and harp
with flautist Philipp Davies. She is noted for her serene and joyful poise in
making even the most difficult techniques seem effortless.
INTERVIEW
Mairéid Sullivan: I’ve heard that you have introduced spectacular
new techniques for playing the Irish gut-strung harp. Where does your inspiration
for your innovations come from?
Anne-Marie O'Farrell: Yes. I do a lot of music that has never before been played
on the Irish gut-strung harp. My inspiration comes from the fact that what I’m
doing is unique. I have developed techniques for playing music that people have
never before considered possible on the instrument: Such as J. S Bach, J.P.
Sweelinck, Handel, Naderman. These composers wrote for other instruments. Naderman
wrote for the pedal harp.
But the Irish harp doesn’t have pedals. Instead, it has a lever at the
top of each string. So, what pedal harpers do with their feet, I am doing with
my hands. Up until recently, people have played either renaissance music or
folk music or original compositions on the Irish harp.
I am the first harper to go rummaging in the classical repertoire to find pieces
which are good music, are really interesting to play and, also, possible to
play on the instrument. My hope is that people who learn the instrument will
have greater challenges facing them. That’s what fires me up.
M.S. How in the world did you think to develop these techniques?
A.O’F. Well, I first learned the Irish harp with very good teachers. At
the moment I am playing a Camac harp, Ex Caliber is the model. I have found
it very good for my purposes. However, I will shortly be playing a new model
of Irish harp, a Salvi, Livia. Salvi is the world’s leading harp maker,
based in Italy. The model is Livia. I have helped Salvi design a new mechanism
for blades, or levers, to accommodate the techniques that I am using.
The idea is that my techniques would ultimately become standard. Just like today,
people have a very clear idea of what constitutes good pedal technique and what
constitutes bad technique. At the moment, I am one of the few people who believe
in good blading technique. Whereas, up to now, people haven’t really thought
about the blading techniques, because they haven’t done much blading.
M.S. Can you give us some more detail on that?
A.O’F. Yes. Up to now, people have simply changed the blades, the levers,
between pieces, because each individual composition is in one key. But what
I have done is rummage around for repertoire which, when transcribed to the
Irish harp, has a more interesting sequence of keys, and will involve key changes
and modulations during the piece.
That means you have to change blades as you play. In order to do that, your
right hand has to play more notes, to leave your left hand free to change the
blades. Alternatively, your right hand has to develop techniques in order to
come up over the far side of the harmonic curve, or the neck of the harp, to
reach over to the opposite side to where the levers are. This is quite unorthodox.
Other things I do involve multiple changes in a single movement. Changing several
blades with different fingers at the same time. My latest one is changing blades
using a knuckle instead of a finger pad, so that with the finger pad, of say
for example, my fourth finger, I could play a string and, with the knuckle of
my second finger I could move the blade up. It’s great fun! Really great
fun!
M.S. Do you ever find yourself sometimes wanting to laugh with delight while
you are playing in this complex way?
A.O’F. I do get a great kick out of doing something that nobody has ever
done before. I get a great excitement out of the thought that, someday, this
may become standard. I get a kick out of thinking that I might have started
something new and exciting for harpers.
M.S. Like Maire Ni Chathasaigh did for dance music on the harp?
A.O’F. Yes. Exactly! I use lots of her ornamentation. The ornamentation
which she brought, from fiddle and pipe music, to harp music is now quite standard
amongst Irish harpists. It was from her that Ilearnt what I have about ornamentation.
M.S. Did you learn from her directly?
A.O’F. I have attended workshops that she gave.
M.S. Its nice to know about the community aspect of the music.
A.O’F. Well, the idea is that things get shared around. If you introduce
something new, obviously, it has to be used by other people if it is to become
a trend. Interestingly, she now plays an Ex Caliber harp now, also.
M.S. What was the reaction when you first started to develop these techniques
amongst audiences and amongst harpists?
A.O’F. Some audience members like to close their eyes to listen to me,
because there is so much arm movement going on, with all the blade changing.
But harpists love watching it. That is one of the reasons I like playing for
harpists, because they understand how much work goes into transcribing a Bach
Fugue for Irish harp, for example.
Statistics only serve a very limited purpose, but just for the sheer heck of
it, sometimes I count the blade changes. There is a Welsh folk tune, called
“Watching the Wheat”, arranged by John Tomas, which I transcribed
for the harp. It has somewhere in the region of sixty-three blade changes.
M.S. How many minutes long is the piece?
A.O’F. Three minutes. Then I transcribed one of the Bach Fugues, from the
Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues, Book One, and I discovered there were eighty
blade changes in two and a half minutes. So far, that’s my record.
M.S. It must keep your very fit.
A.O’F. Well, actually, I’ve started doing shoulder exercises, basic
Yoga stretches. I was moving my arm so much; that I was concerned about the
possibility of getting tense, so, I decided it would be a good idea to do some
exercises as a preventative measure.
M.S. What is your next project going to be?
A.O’F. I am about to look through the Shostakovich preludes and fugues,
because, at the moment, with the classical repertoire, its winding up a little
bit top heavy with Baroque. I don’t want to categorize myself as a Baroque
person.
What I do is not about being historically authentic. What I’m really trying
to do is make things interesting for people who play the Irish harp. So, I’m
eager to get the balance by going toward other centuries of musical style as
well.
I certainly do some post-Baroque music, like early classical Naderman, for example.
I also perform contemporary music on the Irish harp. I want to look into some
other areas of piano repertoire, to see what else I can rob. The idea of transcription
is to remain completely faithful to the original text. What I am doing is definitely
not arranging.
M.S. The music community wouldn’t appreciate that either.
A.O’F. Exactly. That is not to say that there aren’t very good arrangements
knocking around, for one harp or two harps, of various works like, “The
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba”, and so on. I’m just saying that if
I am going to look at Shostakovich, then I am only going to transcribe exactly
what he wrote, note for note, for the Irish harp.
M.S. Why Shostokovich?
A.O’F. I heard the preludes and fugues recently and just by listening to
the texture some of the preludes and fugues sounded like they might work.
M.S. How confident do you feel when you hear music like that, before you even
attempt to transcribe it, it will work on the harp?
A.O’F.
I know by listening to the texture. If I can tell that there is a reasonable
chance of it working, then, after that, it’s just a case of demanding more
of my hands to make it work. But the bottom line is the sound. You’ll know
immediately by the sound, if you can or if you can’t do justice to the
music. If there is any question mark over the sound, then you just forget it,
you know.
M.S. What else attracts you?
A.O’F. I’d like to do more contemporary music. I’d like to commission
more music from living composers for the Irish harp. It needs more concert pieces.
It needs more virtuoso pieces written for it. There is almost no virtuoso music
written for the Irish harp.
M.S. That’s interesting, considering reports from the twelfth century about
the tremendous dexterity required to play the wire-strung harp of old.
A.O’F. That music didn’t survive. I am talking about virtuosic in
terms of a very complete harmonic language. Virtuosic, in terms of taking the
instrument to the edge.
M.S. Do you imagine that there would ever have been repertoire for the Irish wire-strung
harp that would have pushed those limits.
A.O’F. No. Because at that time harmonic language was very limited. Sure,
they had great dexterity and it was virtuosic for what they had. But we don’t
have literature from the twelfth century.
M.S. I am curious about your own imaginations about that. What you imagine about
past possibilities for the harp would be interesting to hear.
A.O’F. The only thing we really know is that they had elaborate ornamentation.
M.S. What does it take, in technique, to create such elaborate ornamentation,
that could have been so highly revered by a very sophisticated Norman observer
in the twelfth century.
A.O’F. I’d say we have all of that now in the dance music that is
played on the Irish harp.
M.S. In terms of the intellectual search into history, do you think modern players
have captured the essence of what might have been the cutting edge in the old
techniques and musical structures?
A.O’F. I don’t think you can put it that simply. I mean, we are playing
on totally different kinds of harps now. Those harps were wire-strung harps.
M.S. So, what about the reinstatement of the wire-strung harp that is happening
now?
A.O’F. There are specialists in that area, who specialize in playing in
the old style, but it is not my area.
M.S. I’m curious to learn what you think about comparing the modern complexity
of playing, against imagining the achievements of another era, which we’ve
lost touch with. Do you find any thrill from turning your imagination toward
the past?
A.O’F. I certainly have an interest, but my real interest is in going forward.
I don’t think I have heard enough good players truly attempt to recreate
what might have been there. I find when I hear the old music, while it sounds
lovely, the music only goes ‘skin deep’ for me. I know that several
people have gone to great lengths to research the musical heritage before they
play. For me, that music does not fire me up to forge new directions and be
inspired by the past. I am just not that inspired by the music for the wire-strung
harp.
M.S. I am really interested to find out what it is that does enthrall you in the
music you are playing.
A.O’F. For me, it’s the harmonic language. The facility to change
key is almost a bottom line you know.
M.S. It must be a very complex experience for you. How do you feel while you are
playing the music?
A.O’F. What I would be concentrating on when I am playing the music is
communicating the music as clearly as possible to everyone listening. So that
they are, hopefully, quite unaware of the extent to which what I am doing may
be difficult. The bottom line is that I am a messenger for the composer. That
may sound a bit wet and dramatic, to put it like that, but that really is the
bottom line. The composer has written something and it is your job to put that
across. I am simply concentrating on clarity of message.
M.S. It is certainly an amazing feat to do all of that comples blade changing,
and, at the same time, keep your ear to the music, to be sure that the music
is conveyed as the composer wanted to convey it.
A.O’F. Well, that’s my job, you know. Coming back to Bach, I adore
Bach. He is second best to God. His music can work through a great many different
voices. I am fascinated by the different interpreters who can have such different
and such valid interpretations of his music.
M.S. Who are some your favorite interpreters?
A.O’F. Some of the players I love are Andras Schiff, from Prague, Alfred
Brendel, who is nearly in his seventies now, and Glen Gould, the Canadian pianist.
These are pianists whose interpretations I admire and whose interpretations
are utterly different from one another.
Some of the Bach I play was written for lute, so, by playing on a plucked string
instrument, I am not so far removed from the original source. But again, I stress
that I am not setting out to be historically correct. I am setting out to find
music that is interesting for Irish harp players, without being unfaithful.
I mean some people could turn around and say, “heck, if you are playing
on an instrument that wasn’t around in Bach’s time, so you are being
unfaithful”, but you could say the same about pianists who play Bach.
M.S. Do you have a family?
A.O’F. Yes, I do. I have one child. My four year old daughter, Carmel.
M.S. I suppose you don’t want to tour so much now that you have a little
family to care for.
A.O’F. Long before she was born I noticed that it was really useful, as
a musician, to be based in one place. I could make something grow from being
in the one place, by taking shorter trips abroad to events where there is a
concentration of harpists. I do anywhere from three and six festivals a year.
Most of these events would be harp festivals. In a way, I am getting directly
to the audience that I want to communicate with. That’s not to say I don’t
enjoy playing for non-harpists, I do, and it’s great. But my particular
fascination, at the moment, is the development of the repertoire, which is of
particular interest to harpists who want to learn the techniques. It is particularly
rewarding for me to take part in festivals and give workshops to show the developments
that I am getting involved in.
M.S. Where is your home base?
A.O’F. I live in Dublin.
M.S. What do you think about what is happening in Dublin, with all of the development
going on; the growth, the population expansion, the new buildings going up?
A.O’F. I think they need to give more attention to the problems of urban
sprawl, before the countryside is gone. Ireland, of all the European countries,
has a population small enough to get its act together on the environmental front.
I don’t think we are doing that quickly enough.
M.S. What do you think about this new fascination with Celtic music, ancient history,
philosophy, etc.?
A.O’F. I think it is a very useful marketing ploy.
M.S. Do you really think there is no more depth than that?
A.O’F. I haven’t seen very much depth. What I’ve seen is the
whole Celtic-misty atmosphere, the ‘foggy dew’, as I’ve heard
some call it, typically heard in the New Age music.
Granted, there is an openness to spirituality in Ireland. For example, people
will feel comfortable saying, “Yes, please God” or “I’ll
see you next week, please God”. My sister, Rosemary lives in England now,
and it was she who pointed out to me that she would never hear sacred music
on the radio there. No one, there, refers to their spirituality in the same
casual way as they do in Ireland. In ordinary, everyday life, in Ireland, things
religious are not separate. She said that she noticed the Irish would glide
from one into the other, with no dividing line between the sacred and secular.
It's particularly noticeable on radio, where you will hear sacred music being
played with secular music. Irish musicians will frequently include a sacred
piece or two on an album.
The Irish people seem to feel very comfortable with that balance between the
secular and the sacred.
M.S. Ireland has been very good at that, all through its history. It makes sense
then, that people would be attracted to that, especially in a world where spirituality
is becoming a much more important issue in personal life. It also makes sense
that the Irish don’t know what all the fuss is about because they take
their own circumstances for granted. That is a nice, practical and down-to-earth
observation, Anne Marie.
A.O’F. Well, it’s an observation I was glad to make myself.
DISCOGRAPHY
My Lagan Love 2001
The Jigs Up 1997
Harping Bach to Carolan 1993
Heads & Harps 1992
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