Turlough O' Carolan, courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland
Today, I’ve finalised my harp and piano arrangements of the Welsh folksong ‘The Queen’s Marsh’ (also known as ‘Conset y Peipar Coch’ - an internet translation site suggested this means ‘Red Pepper Sauce’, but a Welsh friend thinks it's more likely to mean ‘The Concert Set of the Red Piper’ - if you're Welsh, you're reading this and you know any different, please reach out and let me know!). My all-time favourite arrangement of this piece is Steve Baughman and Robin Bullock’s Celtic Guitar Summit recording (for guitar duet). Their version is quite fast, but mine are both fairly slow.
It made sense to use the bones of the harp arrangement for the piano version, but I've made a few changes. I used more notes in the piano version of the right-hand, changed some of the harmony subtly, and removed the harp ‘rippled’ chords and replaced them with block chords. These sounded better on piano. Chromaticism on the lever harp is limited to what one hand can do in terms of lever changes, so the only accidental I've added is C sharp. I kept this the same in the piano part, but was able to use an extra quaver because the left hand doesn't need to leave the instrument to flick a lever.
I'm pleased with the results, because it's such a beautiful tune.
Free resources to help with writing/arranging for the harp:
Composing specifically for lever harp:
https://harpcolumn.com/forums/topic/advice-on-composing-for-lever-harp/
Scottish lever harpist Ailie Robertson on how to compose for lever harp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHYvbxzTIrs
Berklee’s Writing for Harp guide:
https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-today/fall-2004/writing-for-harp
Fifteen Seconds to Write for Harp:
May 2025