A Long Expected Party

My posts here of late have been few and far between. It's not that I haven't been pursuing music, it's quite the opposite. Since I last posted I have completed building my ten string Kantele, pictures were taken by my sister and husband and I have yet to obtain them. When I do I will be certain to create a nice long blog post of my kantele building adventures.

Rehearsals for Season 4 of the Idisi has begun, and I am having a wonderful time with all of my wyld sisters every wednesday night. We are getting ready for a big photo shoot this coming Sunday, it will be a great time providing the weather is accomodating. Wyld women photograph best in a natural environment, after all. It's an exciting time in my life, and I am most looking forward to sharing all the happenings with my friends next month at my Annual Fall Music party.

Let's talk a little about The HOBBIT A Long Expected Party, shall we? I have preared some songs that are Middle Earth inspired, one on my mountain dulcimer, and three on my autoharp. I hadn't even had my autoharp in my little eager hands a week when I was suddenly inspired and worked out a melody to one of my favorite Tolkien poems, I Sit and Think, which is attributed to Bilbo Baggins:

I sit beside the fire and think of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall never see.
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.
But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

This is the first song I have written that has words to it, so it is a milestone for me. I have a couple that I wrote on the mountain dulcimer and a couple on the five string kantele. I love to play them and I think they sound good, to my ears anyway, and if there are some quiet moments I may play them at the party as well.

While I would like to spend all my spare time practicing my instruments between now and November 17th, I will be spending a considerable amount of time getting the house ready. We pulled up the carpeting in the living room this past weekend, and there is more prep work to do before we can sand and finish the hard wood floors. The good news is that there does not appear to be any gouges or damaged boards. But there are many stains which may or may not come off in the sanding process. We'll see. A stained but re-finnished hardwood floor is still more attractive than a stained old carpet.

But back to the music, there is one little bit of trivia that I want to share. There is a strong link between Authoharps and The Hobbit. Marc Gunn, Autoharpist and Tolkien fan extrodinare, wrote some of my favorite songs in honor of middle earth that I have ever heard. In fact, his song Ring of Hope, is one that I have prepared for the party. But don't worry, you can learn some Hobbit friendly tunes in time for the event yourself. Just purchase his songbook via downloadable PDF, like I did!