GLASS DUO was founded by Anna and Arkadiusz Szafraniec. They are the only glass harp music group in Poland, one of few professional ensembles worldwide. They perform both solo concerts and concerts with additional musicians. They have performed with string quartets, various chamber ensembles, even symphony orchestras. They have had several world premieres of musical works composed especially for them. They have also made numerous recordings for radio, TV and theatre productions. [Wikipedia]
…What kind of emotion
does a glass harp evoke, when it is listened to for the first time?
What revolution is experienced
by the ear, which attempts to find associations with those tones? What we try to capture, wanders somewhere at the verge of our ideas of angelic music, a mythical world, and instruments which sound only in our
dreams… [Glass Duo]
Bach’s classic piece for organ is taken to an entirely new level by musicians, Anna and Arkadiusz Szafraniec, founders of the Glass Duo, in their glass-harp performance of J.S. Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue at the Muzyke Kameralnej in Bolonia, Italy, 2011. Each glass, neither completely full nor completely empty, is perfectly tuned and flowing over with meaning.
What I find most remarkable about this performance, other than their exquisite rendition of the Tocatta and Fugue, is the perfect way they collaborate and interweave their movements as they coordinate their performance of this masterwork. If you have ever done piano “four hands” you know how challenging it is to master your own part while precisely and artfully joining with another person in interpreting and performing a piece of music. Add to this the hours and hours of preparation to master the piece, the challenge of tuning the glasses before the performance, establishing just right degree of moisture in your hands and fingers to set the glasses humming, sharing and coordinating your movements in an exquisitely choreographed dance, and so much more. You can only marvel at the process that went into the creation of this performance.
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It is my great pleasure, with the help of You Tube, to share this experience with you.
Photo credit ~ Margaret on her delightful blogMusings. Margaret is a student in Washington, D.C. and currently she is blogging her musing on Italy, where she is traveling and where she had the opportunity to see Glass Duo live. You can read all about it HERE. She also has another interesting blog, Adventures in Israel.
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Robert D. Rossel, Ph.D. ~ is a life coach and grief counselor living and practicing in Los Altos Hills California. He is a Buddhist and a long-time practitioner of self-relations psychotherapy and Ericksonian hypnotherapy. With an abiding interest in music, art, yoga, nature, shamanism, and mind-body practices, Rob has sought for many years to find ways to apply meditation and mindfulness in his spiritual practice and his life. Rob is a husband, father, and grandfather. He plays violin and viola and is a regular contributor to and collaborator on Into the Bardo.
Yesterday upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today. Oh, how I wish he’d stay away!
photograph c2013 Naomi Baltuck
This is the first stanza of Antigonish, written in 1899 by Hughes Mearns. It was inspired by rumors of a ghost roaming the stairs of a haunted house in Antigonish, Novia Scotia. It inspired a popular Glenn Miller song in 1939, with vocals by Tex Beneke.
- Naomi Baltuck
Editor’s note: What a fine example of how – with our art – we feed one anther. Here people pass around a folk tale. A poet picks it up and writes a poem. A composer finds the poem and sets it to music, which musicians then play accompanied by a singer singing the poem. Wonderful! J.D.
NAOMI BALTUCK ~ is a Contributing Editor and Resident Storyteller here at Bardo. She is a world-traveler and an award-winning writer, photographer, and story-teller whose works of fiction and nonfiction are available through Amazon HERE. Naomi presents her wonderful photo-stories – always interesting and rich with meaning and humor – at Writing Between the Lines, Life from the Writer’s POV. She also conducts workshops such as Peace Porridge (multicultural stories to promote cooperation, goodwill, and peaceful coexistence), Whispers in the Graveyard (a spellbinding array of haunting and mysterious stories), Tandem Tales, Traveling Light Around the World, and others. For more on her programs visit Naomi Baltuck.com
Robert D. Rossel, Ph.D. ~ is a life coach and grief counselor living and practicing in Los Altos Hills California. He is a Buddhist and a long-time practitioner of self-relations psychotherapy and Ericksonian hypnotherapy. With an abiding interest in music, art, yoga, nature, shamanism, and mind-body practices, Rob has sought for many years to find ways to apply meditation and mindfulness in his spiritual practice and his life. Rob is a husband, father, and grandfather. He plays violin and viola and is a regular contributor to and collaborator on Into the Bardo.
