_________________
"There's fast music and there's lively music. People don't always know the difference"

Donncha Ó Briain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIJnafX5ubw

I was captivated by the sound of wire harp since the first time I heard it (over the radio). It was a sound I carried with me over a decade and more, before I had the opportunity to acquire one and set about studying. I was playing harp repertoire (Carolan) on guitar and hammered dulcimer to approximate the sound..

I'm hooked on airs, pibrochs, the ap Huw MS, on wire. For me, the adjectives you use - ethereal, contemplative - is epitomized in this oeuvre. It's what I sought, and found, from the instrument.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLE7az4P49c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxL7UTEtpB4

Why not some more pibroch on GHB? Granted, Youtube is probably the worst way to experience it, but there ya go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7bVSCEAqSI

Bray pin harp: https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Welsh-Harp-William-Taylor/dp/B00000JC82 Has some amazingly Pibroch-y moments.

This opens the rabbit hole to Early Music in general. . .

_________________
My name is John. It is NOT "OP."

My interests are increasingly in this realm - since my instrument and its repertoire derive whence. Concurrently, I began taking more interest in archaicisms like harpsichord, modal choral works, and various forms increasingly remote from modernity. I've learned some of the repertoire from Bill Taylor's recordings. I find the bray harp in particular intriguing, yet I haven't sought one myself - it's quite a departure from the rich harmonics of wire.

I suspect the overtones you get with brays are ridiculously similar to those of a mildly overdriven electric guitar. I have a bray harp (not proficient on it by any means) and it plays a mean "Ironman" / Black Sabbath riff. Not sure that's what you were looking for.

But for mysterious/contemplative early music, my one-stop-shop must be Anonymous 4, if you've heard of them?

_________________
My name is John. It is NOT "OP."

An old clip, but TM succinctly expresses what this thread may be about -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXTvikUGr0E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8gnKT5MlnM