Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Magic Harp of Verlye Mills


































Goes well with a box of wine and an Ambien.

Link

4 comments:

Dustin Lacewell said...

Hi!

I once fell in love with Verlye Mills with Harp with a Beat that I downloaded once randomly of a file sharing site. Then I lost it for about half a decade. Its now remastered on Amazon.

Is there *anything* you can tell me about this artist? I can't find anything but scraps. Hardly scraps.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dustin,

I studied harp for a while when I was much younger and had one of Verlye's records. My harp teacher, Joy Hujsak, knew Verlye and told me some stories in case you're interested. The accuracy might be a little weird because this was told to me a long time ago. 1st, Verlye could play really incredible chord changes that most harpists can't because she would use platform shoes to work the pedals with. Normally you can only change one note at a time 1 1/2 step either up or down. Verlye could change 2 at a time on either foot with the shoes. I don't know how she kept track of all this in her head, so that's another story and a testament to her brain power. Last I had heard, Verlye had fallen off a platform while loading her harp and was injured. I hope she recovered.

There are some really amazing stories about the Hollywood harpists.

Hope this amuses you.

Melissa said...

I'm sure you have found these already, but there is an article in the American Harp Journal from Summer of 1981, vol 8 pg. 42-43, that gives a brief bio.

and an Obituary in the October 26, 1983 Variety magazine, vol. 312 p.404-405.

There is also a music score (or book) that she has authored and I am in the middle of searching for that to see if it gives any biographical information.

Hope this helped

Melissa said...

Yeah, the books seem to be harp techniques with no real information about her. :)