From My Music Stand
Arrangements for Wire Strung Harp
Selected and arranged by Cynthia Cathcart

Nineteen Delightful Arrangements of Scottish and Irish Tunes for the wire strung harp of Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

This repertoire book comprises arrangements primarily for the wire strung harp, or any long-ringing harp. The book assumes that the harper understands damping and ringing concepts. The arrangements span the spectrum from late beginner to advanced. All the arrangements have been performed publicly by Cynthia Cathcart. Some tunes are set so that they will fit on a harp with a range extending down to the G below middle C. Others require a range extending to the second G below middle C. No levers or retuning is necessary to perform the arrangements in this book.

Performance notes are included for each arrangement. Some histories, lyrics, and a bibliography are given.

Nearly all of the tunes in the book From My Music Stand are on the recording Alchemy of a Rose. Most are in the same arrangements as in the book.

E-mails from purchasers

"You have published a splendid book of wire harp arrangements. I'm so glad to get my copy!"

"I played harp at our local Highland Games in the ensemble division with my husband. For our air, we used your Banks of Lochiel arrangement as a basis. My husband played low D whistle and I think it came out nicely. We traded off playing the melody and accompanying each other. I love your arrangement and expanded my wire harp skills learning it. It is a great tearjerker piece. I am looking forward to playing more of your arrangements. Please keep publishing them."

"I love the information you gave for each song! It is so nice to have you point out the tricky parts, or draw my attention to different ways to really interpret the songs. You have made them more than just tunes on a page. And the little history you give for some of them makes them so much more interesting to play. Lots of times people ask me about the songs I play and it's great to know something to say."

"All of the pieces from 'Music Stand' are excellent. Looking through the book, it seems the pieces in From My Music Stand are more advanced, which I prefer."

"I have to say, I'm gaining much more appreciation for Cynthia's style of notating wire harp music. I didn't realize how much is actually implied in your fingering notation--that you don't need to notate every single finger for every note."

"I've only briefly sampled the material in From My Music Stand, but it's clearly eloquent and expertly arranged. The first piece, "Mist Covered Mountains," is a gem: simple yet evocative."

"I'm excited by Cynthia's bagpipe adaptations. I play the smallpipes, and have been wondering for a long time how to adapt pipe scores for clarsach.The notion of G Major tuning is brilliant."