THE WIND HARP: CORRECTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION

Some of you may recall my post from November about the Wind Harp album "Songs From The Hill".

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I have subsequently been contacted by Thomas Ward McCain, who single-handedly designed and built the harp recorded for the album.

I am somewhat emarrassed about the gross inaccuracies featured in my original post about the album, and can only say in my defense that the misleading information is repeated on both Wikipedia and All Music Guide.

I asked Mr. McCain if he would mind if I reproduced parts of his email on this weblog, by way of both setting the record straight and providing some fascinating new information on what has previously been a pretty mysterious recording, and am grateful to him for providing the following statement.

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My name is Thomas Ward McCain.

I built the big wind harp in Chelsea, Vermont, age 19/20 and completed it late June, 1971.

United Artists Records made a double album of its music titled "Songs From the Hill"
in 1972. I was not associated in any way with that project.

I am now 57 and live in Japan and have made good headway toward constructing another big wind harp, new design completely, more Oriental, in Nikko, Japan, a mountainous area north of Tokyo.

I recently came across a review of "Songs From the Hill" UA album that included a few errors about who made the harp, and its location. These errors were 100% innocent. The reviewer simply included information from other sources he assumed correct.

I penned him an email correcting the information in a friendly spirit, complimenting his sincere, in-depth review, and fine writing craftsmanship... I added some additional personal remarks about my experience building the "Chelsea Wind Harp" as the villagers of Chelsea, Vermont called the harp. I never wrote anything about this before now.

FIRST: Regarding the erroneous idea that "it was built by a Northern California Hippy commune, on a Mountain out west."

No, I worked totally alone, nearly two years on the wind harp built atop a high hill above the small village of Chelsea, Vermont. The property was owned by a wonderful man and farmer, Mr. Matoon, who gave me permission to built it on his land.

I lived high on the hill, near the harp site in a small cabin, and all the work was mine. I am orignally from the Adirondacks, northern New York State, not California, was never a hippie, nor commune resident.

I built the harp out of inspiration over years to combine my love of stringed instruments, art/sculpture and hiking and the outdoors/nature as well as a dislike for museums as the sad verdict/venue for most art. These factors meshed and manifested as this big wind harp.

I lived alone the entire time, a year and a half, never socialized except to be respectful to the villagers in the valley below, post office personnel, etc. who seemed to let me be, perhaps as I kept short hair, and seemed decent, hardworking and polite, though clearly aloof.

The day I completed it and it was fully strung with various guages of stainless steel wire gifted to me by Boeing Aircraft, my mother organized a small picnic for the villagers to hike up and listen as I released the dampers and let the wind play "music" it for the first time. There was a gentle wind/breeze and the sound was beautiful. The villagers were happy.

I disappeared after that, trying to be anonymous, an attempt to observe an Oriental
art tradition not to claim exclusively human authorship of song, writing, or art work. "Unsigned" allowed it be be authored/inspired by more than human hands.

A year later I entered a remote Asian monastery and meditated and lived there for 27 years, and left there in 2000 when I heard the United Artists Record album for the first time.

To be honest, I agree a bit with the reviewer that the album recording can sound "eerie!"...

So different than the feeling when you are on the hilltop next tothe wind harp with panoramic vistas of surrounding forested hills, vales and mountains. That experience for myself and apparently the thousands who somehow found it, was quite the opposite of scary...but rather lofty, uplifting, the wind playing a man-made harp....

When I complete the Nikko Wind Harp, I will think twice before permitting a recording as I still feel hiking a small mountain and viewing the harp is really part of my wind harp idea, not simply hearing its "sound."

Sincerely,
Thomas McCain
Mejiro, Tokyo, Japan

WEBSITE: wardmccain.com

PS: I did have the album (saved by my family for nearly 30 years) put on CD, which I have myself and made no effort to market it. However, I have sporadically received requests from persons in the last few years who have been unable to find the original double album UA recording and asked for a CD from me. As the harp itself has long since been disassembled and moved from the hilltop in Vermont to other East Coast locations, and rebuilt at least twice but, according to those who heard the Chelsea wind harp, reconstructions paled in comparison.

SO, I thought I would make some extra copies of my CD and make available should someone write me.
nipponforest@aol.com

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Needless to say, much respect is due to Mr. McCain for both his creative work and his approach to life, and many thanks to him for getting in touch. For those of you interested in the wind harp concept, his website feautures some fascinating photographs and technical details of the Vermont harp.

Labels: announcements, The Wind Harp