Ross playing first folk harp, 1979
The Wind Harp Experience – 1978
I kneel on a blanket at the Lake Jackson Indian Mounds just outside Tallahassee, Florida. Next to me I have placed my first folk harp, crafted with my own hands… she is beautiful! Carved smooth from seasoned maple and cherry, she stands naked quivering in the sunlight, every metal string shining, yet perfectly still under massive calibrated tension. I feel a well-earned sense of accomplishment as the warm breezes caress my cheek and the sun dances off tiny ripples on the water.
Guiding the harp to rest upon my heart, I reach out to strum a chord. One note plucked, and out of nowhere a breeze ascends off the lake and caresses the strings. My body snaps into centered awareness. All my senses focus on the soniferous tapestry coming from my yet un-explored new creation.
This finely tuned instrument begins to sing through no touch of my hand. It sings completely on its own, a melody so primal and simple, yet infinitely complex. The harmonies, with myriad layers of overtones, come and go with a random spontaneity that rivets my attention.
With gentle ease my imagination soars. In disbelief I reach out again to strum the harp, and before my stroke finishes, the wind rises again and envelopes my simple cord with an endless cascade of harmonies that transport me into another dimension. I feel like I am listening to a Choir of Angels, a shimmering ethereal melody that I have never heard before and yet find strangely familiar. I bend over placing my ear next to the sound hole. The full harmonic richness floods through my cranium—I am immersed in a fluidium of sound that has no beginning and no end. My sensory currents engage completely. I long for nothing, at peace in the fullness of the now.
Fast forward to 2013
Listen to the Wind Harp (recommend listening with headphones)
Reflections Garden, Keene University, NJ
