he harp, that orchestral instrument once most closely associated with angelic behavior, is now in danger of becoming seriously hip thanks to the success of popular new performers and an increasing visibility in the lineup of rock bands.
The change in image can be dated to the arrival of Joanna Newsom on the music scene. The American harpist, 28, who also sings, first gained a following on the indie scene and now regularly sells out large venues. Newsom’s achievements have been followed by growing interest in the British singer, composer and harpist Lucinda Belle, whose new album My Voice & 45 Strings is out this summer and who is also proving a concert draw. In the skilled hands of Newsom and Belle, the harp is establishing itself as an alternative to the traditional acoustic guitar for many young singer/songwriters.
Earlier this year the Brit awards marked the new status of the instrument with a show-stealing performance from 10 harpists who accompanied rapper Dizzee Rascal and indie rockers Florence and the Machine live at the ceremony.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DRAG CITY
“The harp’s always been an instrument that’s there, but it’s always been background,” said Belle, 36, who was spotted when she backed Robbie Williams on stage and who has played with Rufus Wainwright, Annie Lennox and Natalie Cole. “The point is that we’re now making it foreground. I would say that there’s definitely a renaissance of the harp taking place.”
While Newsom recently sold out the Royal Festival Hall in London, Belle says she has been delighted to find a similar appetite for her work with her own orchestra. “It’s fantastic. The harp is really buzzing at the moment — everyone’s talking about it,” she said.
Life changed suddenly for Belle, who was running her family’s south London laundrette and working as a part-time music teacher, when Radio 1 DJ Fearne Cotton spotted her working as a backing singer and harpist for Williams at the BBC Electric Proms.
After being invited to play on Radio 1, she was offered a five-album deal by Universal records and she decided to concentrate on performing, selling the laundrette business that had been in her mother’s family for 40 years.
The artist, dubbed “the new Norah Jones” by critics, has also written the score for a new romantic comedy about a harpist. Join My Band, directed by Naomi Wright, has just finished filming in London and its screenplay charts a love affair between a harpist, Stella, and the school geek, who learn to love each other’s music.
Wright was keen to put the harp in the limelight in her story about the power of music. “I knew it was not going to be as visual and as fun if I used something else, like an oboe,” she said.
Belle said: “Like Stella in the film, much of my life has been about trying to break the mold of what a harpist is meant to be like — trying to be accepted in popular music and trying to turn people’s opinions around of what the harp can be.”
The lead part of Stella is taken by another up-and-coming harpist, Jessie Buckley, the daughter of a harp-playing mother. “It’s just such an unusual instrument and you very rarely see it anywhere apart from in the background on an orchestra, so it was really nice to have the opportunity to see it in a different situation,” said Buckley, who also appeared in the BBC television series I’d Do Anything in contention for the role of Nancy in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End revival of Oliver!
Newsom’s new album, Have One on Me, has confirmed her as a star on both sides of the Atlantic. She grew up in California and after her first album in 2004 she was frequently labeled as a member of the musical movement “modern psych folk.” Her songs blend traditional rhythms and avant-garde techniques.
Wright, who has watched the harp gain acceptance in pop music while she shot her film in the spring, puts its new fashionability down to the fact so many bands have chosen to use its sound on stage: “The harp has lots of otherworldly associations and traditionally it was seen as quite a sweet feminine, almost heavenly instrument, but now musicians are taking the beautiful aspects of its sound and mixing it up.”
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