One day I received a call. A nice voice from the other part of the phone kindly requested to be photographed with her friend while they both were playing the harp. That lady was Helena de Rijke, the member of the harp duo Arcangeli. I got surprised, I never thought that there is still somebody who plays this instrument. Well, I must admit, I normally listen rock music and there are a lot of guitars and drums on the stage, so the harp for me was an instrument, which belonged to the past. I was wrong. I admit it.
We scheduled an appointment and we met at the South Western House, a wonderful building in Southampton.
I discovered that the harp was regularly used by many baroque and classical composer – Handel, Mozart, Boieldieu, Albrechtsberger, Schenk, Dussek, Spohr, Berlioz, Liszt, Puccini, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Wagner. This was a big surprise for me. I could recognize its magical sound and felt very shy for having gave no name for a long time to the instrument. Now I know this instrument… now I can hear it. What I’ve learned thanks to the photography is that we see what we know and we know only what we see! This is a continuous lesson… this is what photography always teaches to me. It was wonderful meeting Arcangeli, Helena and Jenny and listening to their wonderful music.
“Arcangeli” Harp Duo | Website: www.harpitecture.com
Jenny Broome | Email: jenny@harpitecture.com
Helena de Rijke | Email: helenaderijke@hotmail.com
