Blog - Page 8 of 18 - Anna Hagen Harpist

Recording and Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day! And as I go into record my CD of Christmas music on Monday, I would like to stop and thank my father for teaching me something.

Making a CD is hard is work!

Wait, that wasn’t what he taught me. I’ve just been discovering that as I prepare to record! I’ve lost track of how many hours of arranging music, organizing recording and practicing with a metronome have gone into creating a two minute version of Jingle Bells. As my father has said, instead of working forty hours a week for the other guy, I now work sixty hours a week for myself.

But that’s just context. I want to thank my father for teaching me the nature of work.

As a harpist, I have an amazing job, pulling out ethereal melodies. I get to worship Jesus whenever I play whether performing or practicing.

But getting to worship with our work isn’t just for musicians. My father is an engineer. From him I learned that our work is worship. Let me explain.

We discover the character of God through worship. We imitate the character of God in our work. We cannot separate work from worship, just like I can’t separate the beauty of the harp from the hours of practicing.

Not only do I worship in my work, my work is a form of worship. I am honoring God by imitating God in work.

During hours of practicing for this CD, I’ve prayed that people who listen to this Christmas music will not just hear pretty harp music, nor a perfect performance, or even the work put into producing a pretty and perfect performance. I hope that they will hear the worship that is at the heart of all Christmas music and be able to worship in response.
“Worship Christ the new born king.”
Thank you to all the fathers for your hard work!

Christmas in June

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Usually, I fill June programs with patriotic music. Between Memorial Day, the anniversary of D-Day and the upcoming 4th of July, this seems like the season to stir the spirit with songs like America the Beautiful, Salute to the Armed Forces (which sounds surprisingly good on a harp) and the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

But this month is a bit different. For June 2015, I’m playing O Holy Night, Angels We Have Heard on High and The Little Drummer Boy.

Explanation? I’m making a Christmas CD!

The most common question from people who bought my first CD, The Joy We Share, was “When are you making a Christmas CD?” The answer is this year! The last week of June I will record a CD of all the Christmas Carols you asked for. We will produce it in July, put it into production in August and plan to have it available for purchase in September.

Which means that while my family is grilling hot dogs outside, and the corn is shooting up in the fields, I am practicing Christmas carols! If you are at one of my June programs, you will be treated to a special preview, a Christmas in June.

Of course, I can’t abandon my patriotic songs, so you will hear a few of those as well. And last week, when I played The Battle Hymn of the Republic back to back with O Holy Night, I realized how these two oft requested songs from totally different seasons correspond.

Think of the second verse of O Holy Night

“Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains He shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.”

This beloved carol was written by a Frenchman, Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, in 1847, then translated into the familiar English version by John Sullivan Dwight. A scant 18 years later as the Civil War split America, Julia W. Howe also united the ideas of Christ’s birth and fighting for freedom in the third verse of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

“In the beauty of the lilies,
Christ was born across the sea
With a glory in His bosom that
Transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy,
Let us live to make men free.”

By his birth, Christ made a commitment to live and die for our freedom. That Christmas spirit doesn’t end in December anymore than the patriotic spirit stops after July 4th. The commitment to a love that desires freedom and to a joy which keeps us marching is for all seasons. That love makes Christmas carols appropriate in June.

May you find that freedom as you celebrate this season—hopefully outdoors with hotdogs and fireworks!

Stay in touch to hear how the CD is coming and if you would like to pre-order the Christmas CD send me your name, phone or email and address.

Keep listening for Joy!

Christmas Light

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Monday night, I performed in the glow of gas lamps for the first time. Before, I’d only seen lamps like that in picture books. They hung from the ceiling around The Carriage House Amish eatery where I played after dinner Christmas music. The luminous steal mesh hummed excitedly, casting circle shadows directly below the gas canisters—the final contrast for a weekend of curious lights.
Christmas is the season of lights, but, as a harpist, I worry about light all year long. When I unpack the harp I think about light before acoustics. Sound carries around corners. Light does not. I need light to see my music, to see the strings and where I am putting my finger. I appreciate enough light to see my audience and gage how they respond to my songs—and my jokes! I always carry my own battery stand light in my harp bag, but a performance space with good lighting is a gift. And in a weekend of six performances, I received a variety of gifts.

To begin Saturday evening, I performed in a pitch black sanctuary, with only a stand bulb to throw a doily of light over my music. I sat at the end of the brass orchestra in my own church, Nappanee Missionary, for their Christmas cantata, and the choir and the musicians were the only spots of light in the sanctuary.

Half an hour later, I performed with the Maple City Chamber Orchestra on the brilliant stage of Souder Concert Hall. The stage lights, bright and sharp as trumpet blasts, illuminated the entire orchestra and choir in the golden bowl of white wood, and the reflected light almost touched the audience. From where I sat in front of the percussion, the conductor in his white waistcoat shone like a paper cut out against the shadowy balconies.

Sunday morning I joined another cantata at the United Methodist church. In contrast to the last two concert spaces, the white walls of the 1874 sanctuary were split by stained glass windows that warmed up the winter morning light and left blue and gold foot prints running across the audiences’ faces. Light filled every corner.
Among the Christmas lights and Christmas candles, the true light of Christmas shines as Christ, the light of life. I imagine Christmas light to be like my weekend of performances—first only a few, the prophets, like the musicians on stage, saw the light. With their tiny lamps, they poured out music to the audience in darkness. When Christ came, he brought light to the church, spotlighting every movement of the performers and inviting the shadowed audience to participate. But when Christ comes again, a dawning Sunday morning, there will be no darkness on stage or in the seats.

“The light that shone on Bethlehem fills all the world today . . .”

Monday night, my weekend of orchestra performances over, I returned to doing my solo harp events. I performed for a Lion’s club under the gas lamps of an Amish barn. But maybe that was the best reminder of all.

“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,
let it shine
let it shine
let it shine.
Let it shine till Jesus comes, I’m gonna let it shine.”

My next public performance will be a candle light Christmas Eve service at North Main Mennonite in Nappanee.
Merry Christmas and celebrate the Light!

December Events

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Busy Holidays? Between December 1st and the 24th, I am playing at 32 different events! The following events are open to the public so that you have a chance to hear Christmas harp music live!

• December 7th at 7PM, I am playing a special Christmas Concert at the First Church of God, on 2411 S 6th St, Elkhart, IN 46517. All are welcome!
• December 11th at 1:30PM I play my monthly concert Riverview Adult Daycare in the beautiful chapel of Trinity Methodist on 2715 E Jackson Blvd,
• December 13th at 7:30PM, I will join the Maple City Chamber Orchestra and choir to perform a wealth of orchestral Christmas music in the beautiful Souder Music Hall, at Goshen College
• December 13th & 14th at 6PM, I will perform in a Christmas Musical with my home church, Napannee Missionary
• December 14th at 9AM, I will be adding to the Cantata at the Goshen United Methodist
• December 21st at 9:30AM, I will perform during Holdemen Mennonite’s Church service
• December 24th at 8PM, I will play in the candle lit spaces of North Main Street Mennonite in Nappanee

Links to all of these events can be found on my website event’s calendar.
I hope to see you at one of these events! If you can’t make it, pick up a CD and please keep me in prayer.
“The Lord is near, Oh come, let us adore him!”

Merry Christmas to you!

One Year of the CD

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Last week, I walked into a senior facility playing Simple Gifts on my small harp. To my confusion, I heard the same melody ringing out of the CD player.

Then I realized, they were playing my CD!

One year ago, I took two months off from college to create my first CD, The Joy We Share. I used all my own arrangements of favorite hymns and recorded it locally with the skill of Nimblewit Productions. With my mother, Cathy Hagen Artist, I designed my own cover graphics using the beautiful images from Brian Chris Photography.

By the end of October, 2013, ten boxes of disks piled up in my living room. What was I thinking to buy a thousand CDs? How many years would it take me to sell that many?

Today, the UPS truck delivered another ten boxes of CDs. Since this time last year, I’ve sold over 900 disks! I didn’t want to run out and the new shipment arrived just in time for Black Friday!

More amazing than the numbers are the stories of the people who have enjoyed the harp music. I’ve received thank you letters from families grieving the loss of loved ones and from families with new babies who use my CD as lullabies. I’ve met little girls who ask me to autograph the disk, missionaries who take it to the other side of the world, aunts who send my hymns to their nieces in the hospital. One friend told me she just leaves my CD on repeat and worships while doing house work. A widow shared she listens to the hymns at night when she can’t sleep.

Perhaps the best recommendations came from a retired stress management professional who bought one for himself, then bought a hundred and twenty more to give away to family and friends!

When I decided to make a recording, I wanted to leave a hard copy of my harp music with a few people I knew and loved. I had no idea how this CD would allow me to share joy with so many more people.

I do n’t just mean the joy of soothing harp music. The opening song is Blessed Assurance and the last hymn is Amazing Grace. Being sure of grace is the source of joy.

Now I’m often asked when I will make another CD. Not until I finish college!

Don’t have a copy or want another one? The Joy We Share is still available for $12 on my website, Facebook and on iTunes or you can call me directly at 574-875-0795.

This Thanksgiving, I am thanking God for a year of the CD. Thank you to everyone who has encouraged my music, invited me to play, bought and recommended my CD. Thank you, and please continue to share the joy.

Easter Hymns

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“Thank you for playing the Easter Songs!”
I had just finished playing When I Survey the Wondrous Cross for my April/Easter program and an older lady with a curiously misformed jaw was shaking my hand. She continued “I lost my voice to throat cancer, I can’t sing anymore. But I loved those Easter hymns about Jesus!”

What do you say to someone who has lost something as precious as their voice?

I may be only twenty with a perfectly healthy jaw but I could commiserate a little with this lady. I don’t sing. My voice breaks quicker than a hard sour candy that just got stepped on. But like the lady who was patting my hand, I have always loved hymns. To balance my love of words with my lack of singing, I arrange my own versions of hymns for my harp around a technique my teacher calls “word painting;” I make the sounds imitate the meaning of the lyrics. With instrumental hymns, the expressions of music can dramatize a sentiment that we have sung so long we have forgotten what it means. In my own arrangements of hymns on my CD The Joy We Share, I carefully thought about each of the hymns and their lyrics as I worked through harmonies, dynamics and tempos. Listen to my arrangement of the Easter hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross below as I explain.

The first verse counts everything as loss in comparison to the love of Christ. To mirror this emotion I begin the melody simply with single notes, ignoring “richer” harmonies. The second verse laments the suffering of Christ so I transpose the melody into a minor key with piercing embellishments to provide the extra prick of thorns. The final verse “demands my all” so I throw all the grander of the bass into the music and try to cover all of the harp octaves in the finale. This interpretation helps me understand the words . . . even when I can’t sing.

But the lady I knelt next to after playing that song understood something more about those lyrics–she had lost something she took pride in but continued to focus on “love so amazing, so divine.”

So to my new friend with throat cancer I said “But you have the words in your heart–and that is where they matter!”
“That’s right!” she agreed “I know ’em and I believe ’em. I hold His love in my heart.”

Listen to my recording of When I Survey The Wondrous Cross and download this song and other Easter favorites from my CD The Joy We Share here or on iTunes. Check out my YouTube Channel for more hymns.

When I Survey The Wondrous Cross
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Words by Issac Watts