Thursday, September 26, 2013

Green Over Blue / Simple Gifts




















Green Over Blue, Mark Rothko, 1956

I don't express myself in paintings.  I express my not-self.
(Mark Rothko)

The same might be said for music.

Yesterday I made a decision and bought an Oscar Schmidt 15-chord autoharp made in 1976 and began tuning the 36 strings.  Halfway through the challenging tuning, I stopped and went out for a walk with my Canon PowerShot SD550 Digital Elph in hand because it was a pristine sunny day with blue sky, big white clouds, and yellow leaves everywhere.  To my great surprise, every photo I took was overexposed and had vertical lines covering it:






















I've had that camera since shortly after I started my blog in December of 2006.  It's been a great little camera.  Interesting that it would suddenly have problems the day I bought an autoharp. The video function on the camera is still working.  Below is a view of Derby Pond from the trail at a spot close to the little dam and wooden footbridge.  You can hear the water running over the dam, and the waterfall beyond that:

  

Here is my new used autoharp with Bryan Bowers playing "Simple Gifts":


Thanks to bev for the inspiring me with her string instruments!


2 comments:

The Solitary Walker said...

Ah, Rothko. I was mesmerised in the Rothko room at London's Tate Modern. (As it happens, Carmen & I were in Tate Liverpool this morning! More later on the blog.) Best of luck with the autoharp. And re. the video: And they sat it's quiet in the countryside! Though it's a better class of noise :-)

bev said...

That is so cool about the autoharp, am! Glad to have inspired you!