Harper Hall CD from Opland-Freeman is Finished!

[Cavatica]

I got this note from Tania Opland this morning, as apparently I'm on her mailing list for such things:


Greetings from fluffy white snow-covered Anchorage, to all our long suffering and ever so patient mailing list members:-

Finally, at long last -- Not quite in time for Christmas/Chanukah/Solstice, (sorry, we tried!) but better late than never, the new CD collection of Menolly's music of Pern is on its way to the duplication plant --

It's now available for pre-order and will ship the moment we have copies:

SUNSET'S GOLD
Music from Anne McCaffrey's Harperhall novels, composed, arranged and performed by Tania Opland and Mike Freeman.

Song for Petiron
Sweet Sea (My Nightly Craft)
Gatheritza - a Nerat gather dance tune
Gather Day/The Harper's Glass
The Little Queen (Menolly's Firelizard Song)
Sunset's Gold (The Blackest Night / A Harper's Lament)
Equinox
Brekke's Cry
Run! (Menolly's Running Song)
Ghulees
Hatching Day
Four Hundred Turns - a previously unpublished Anne McCaffrey ballad

Featuring Guest musicians:

Philip Boulding (folk harp and valiha)
Harper Tasche (folk harp and bray harp)
Madeleine Doherty (concert harp)
Felicia Dale (hurdy-gurdy)
with additional vocals from:
Alicia Healey, Joe Prater, Toni Wood, Emily Groff, Felicia Dale and William Pint.

We expect to have the first shipment of this long awaited and exciting album available to mail out by the end of the year (THIS one!) and we hope to start shipping pre ordered copies by Dec 31.

To be among the first to receive yours, please follow the link from our home page at www.opland-freeman.com. You can order online or download a mail order form.

This CD is not yet available at any of our usual outlets, so for the time being our online store is the only place to get it.

Please pass this on to anyone you think might be interested :-)
Tania & Mike



So it's not quite in time for Christmas, but certainly a nice way to start the new year!

[Cheryl]

Woot! Thanks for passing along the news!

[cbrtlsseca]

Oh my goodnesss I have to get that..

I am re-reading Dragonsinger now

[Dernok]

Bad news for my paypal account... 8-)

[unicorntig]

YAY!!!!!!! I have been waiting for this CD to come out. I can't wait till its shipped!! Exciting news!!

[Hans]

Great news! Thanks for posting it so quick

My order for them is in!

[Anneli]

Ordered

[Khanath]

oooh, i just checke my email and had to share the news... but Cavatica beat me to it!
i did a very undiginified *squee!* right here at the office when i read the email, i can´t wait to get my copy!

[GinnyStar]

Sound quite nice, perhaps I can get my paypal setup, save some more money and pick up a few to add to the collection!

I think I can do it, I well have to see how I stand money wise, I got a few bill to pay yet

[cbrtlsseca]

I know I my thoughts on the songs i probably way off what they truly supposed to be, but I hope I can picture Menolly writing/singing them as I hear them..

[Hans]

I had that with the first CD to, cb, but havign it and hearing the songs is still marvelous!

[tatiana]

Sweet! My "Sunset's Gold" CD has just arrived! My fingers are still cold and stiff from the walk back from the postbox as I'm typing this!

I thought, "Who the heck do I know in Alaska?" when I noted the Sender address was from Anchorage, Alaska...and then I realized what it had to be based on the bulky shape of the envelope -- the CD's...and it was, yay! I actually ordered two copies as I promised my sister one of her own for Christmas.

Now, it's time to listen and enjoy!

[Brenda]

I'm kind of afraid to get it, since I have my own versions of so many of those songs.

[Dernok]

Originally Posted by tatiana

Sweet! My "Sunset's Gold" CD has just arrived! My fingers are still cold and stiff from the walk back from the postbox as I'm typing this!

TICK! Just started my stop watch. Let's see how much longer shipping overseas will take...

tick. tick.

Still not here...

tick...

[edith]

Originally Posted by Brenda

I'm kind of afraid to get it, since I have my own versions of so many of those songs.

Same here, although I'm not that musical. I can just fit tunes to them so easily in my head. Though maybe someday it'd be nice to hear them.

[jube]

Mine's ordered

[cbrtlsseca]

Just got mine in the mail this weekend.

Haven't listened to it all yet just bits and pieces.. but sounds good.. The "Don't leave me alone." is a little faster then I imagined, but is very good.

[Anneli]

I'm really keen to hear how/if the Firelizard song has changed since Mike and Tania played it at Anne's party a couple of years ago

*hopes the overseas shipping doesn't take an eternity*

[Maleus]

Got mine! Got mine in the mail today!
Only 5 days to reach home from Alaska. That may be the last time I complain about overseas shipping

OMG, it is so beautiful
Light must have been weird when I opened the letter; for a few seconds, I thought the firelizard just below Menolly was... white But then, no, it is a blue. A very light blue, but still blue, like on the original cover. Silly me

I am just listening it, and I like it very much
Still middle-age and folk inspired music, still wonderfull to hear when trying to dive in Pern atmosphere. I already copied he music on my mp3 reader, I think I will loop read them all day long tomorrow

[Becky]

I got mine too and thought the envelope with Menolly on it absolutely wonderful!!! I am saving the envelope too!

[jube]

It's coming, it's coming............

[tatiana]

Originally Posted by Becky

I got mine too and thought the envelope with Menolly on it absolutely wonderful!!! I am saving the envelope too!

Did you receive a different kind of mail packaging other than a plain white envelope that held the CD? Or did you mean the CD booklet with the Menolly illustration originally used for the PB cover of "Dragonsong"? Just curious!

[Hans]

I got my little stack yesterday! Listening to it now!

The one giving me goose bumps is also my favourite Pern poem: Sunset's Gold!
I used to have this verse on the homepage of my original Pern site...

It's so beautiful...

[Maleus]

Originally Posted by tatiana

Did you receive a different kind of mail packaging other than a plain white envelope that held the CD? Or did you mean the CD booklet with the Menolly illustration originally used for the PB cover of "Dragonsong"? Just curious!

My enveloppe what printed with a black and white piece of the picture used to make the CD cover (mostly Menolly and her instrument). But it is not very well done, so there is not much worth keeping :/ I don't collect enveloppe though, and I care more for the CD being fully protected from external bumps

[Brenda]

Is "Sunset's Gold" the one that starts my "Harper, Tell"?

[Becky]

Originally Posted by tatiana

Did you receive a different kind of mail packaging other than a plain white envelope that held the CD? Or did you mean the CD booklet with the Menolly illustration originally used for the PB cover of "Dragonsong"? Just curious!

The envelope is white with a faint black and white printing of Menolly, her pipes and firelizards running down the left side, under return address. The same art that's on the cd cover and the cd itself. The art is by Elizabeth Malczynski Littman from 1977.
So now I'm curious to hear if anyone else got this same envelope. Ah, after I posted this I read that Francois has gotten the same one.
Hmmmmm and now that I look at the entire envelope I'm thinking that there's Thread scattered over the rest of the front of it. They are smallish vertical dashes in light gray all over the rest of the front of the envelope.

[Hans]

No, since I received more than one CD they packed mine in double bubble envelopes and those were plain coloured ones.

Brenda, yes and no. They combined the song Harper tell me... with two other verses. They cobine wonderfully well.

The first two verses are now:

from Dragonsinger

Harper, your song has a sorrowful sound,
Though the tune was written gay.
Your voice is sad and your hands are slow
And your eye meeting mine turns away.

and from the seventh section of the fourth part of Dragonflight:

The blackest night must end in dawn,
The sun dispel the dreamer's fear:
When shall my soul's bleak, hopeless pain
Find solace in its darkening Weyr?

Sunset's Gold has always been my favourite pern song and I am very happy it turned out to be the title song and such a good one. Sweet Sea (a combination too, of the Eastern Sea Hold Song and the first song that appears in Dragonsinger), the Gather Song / The Harper's Glass, and the title song are my favourites on this CD.

And I must say that I find this CD better than the Masterharper one. But then, Menolly was always the one best known for her catchy and easy to like and hum tunes, wasn't she?

Despite you having your own marvelous renditions of some of the songs on this CD I do wish you would buy it, it is re4aly good and your own songs, especially since they are a capella (on this CD only Song for Petiron is), they are different enough to stand as wonderful, seperate creations worth their own place in Pern fandom! This CD does not diminish anything from the quality of your work, Brenda! It would have been different had you been in a two or three man band I think, then the products would have been much closer together. Now, it feels like you have given us the classical version and Mike and Tania the popular one, if you get my meaning

[jube]

Originally Posted by Hans

Now, it feels like you have given us the classical version and Mike and Tania the popular one, if you get my meaning

I would agree with what Hans said, Brenda. After all I think it said somewhere in one of the books (Masterharper of Pern ??? perhaps) that there will always be music just for the harpers and there will always be music for the general populance. One had to realise the difference between the two.

[Mike Freeman]

Originally Posted by tatiana

Did you receive a different kind of mail packaging other than a plain white envelope that held the CD? Or did you mean the CD booklet with the Menolly illustration originally used for the PB cover of "Dragonsong"? Just curious!

Sorry for the confusion folks! The first seventy or so CDs to be mailed were in hand inscribed envelopes, until the hand (Tania's) cramped up and we decided to let the printer do the work! Didn't think anyone would want to keep the envelopes!

Mike Freeman

[jube]

Oh well, I was quite happy just getting the cd, not fussy about the envelope, it's only a covering after all. *shrugs shoulders*

[Hans]

Originally Posted by Mike Freeman

Sorry for the confusion folks! The first seventy or so CDs to be mailed were in hand inscribed envelopes, until the hand (Tania's) cramped up and we decided to let the printer do the work! Didn't think anyone would want to keep the envelopes!

Mike Freeman

We have an at times rather crazy club of collectors here, Mike

[Cheryl]

Originally Posted by Mike Freeman

Sorry for the confusion folks! The first seventy or so CDs to be mailed were in hand inscribed envelopes, until the hand (Tania's) cramped up and we decided to let the printer do the work! Didn't think anyone would want to keep the envelopes!

Mike Freeman

Originally Posted by Hans

We have an at times rather crazy club of collectors here, Mike

That we most definitely do! Right now I'm being thankful that I haven't gotten around to ordering the new cd yet because now I know to ask to have it signed when I order!

[Becky]

As Hans said - we collectors are a bit crazy at times. I am keeping the envelope because it's so neat looking. I think it was a fantastic idea to put that image on it. I enjoy it so will keep it because of that.
Ok....so I've also kept every envelope from Dragonhold! I guess I've got an envelope collection too! Ack!

[Mike Freeman]

Originally Posted by Cheryl

That we most definitely do! Right now I'm being thankful that I haven't gotten around to ordering the new cd yet because now I know to ask to have it signed when I order!

Happy to sign anything on request!

I draw the line at monogrammed envelopes with perfume though ...

[Hans]

Originally Posted by Becky

<snip>Ok....so I've also kept every envelope from Dragonhold! I guess I've got an envelope collection too! Ack!

You too?

[Ryuu]

My favorites are "The Little Queen", "Sunset's Gold", and "Brekke's Cry"

And then that last song, "400 Turns" is so haunting!

awesome!

[StevenB]

I had one of the envelopes with Menolly but it had a large "HM Revenue and Customs" sticker plastered right over it. Still, it's the beautiful artwork on the CD cover that counts.

Mike, perhaps you and Tania can sign my copies next time you're in this neck of the woods?

[StevenB]

Originally Posted by StevenB

Mike, perhaps you and Tania can sign my copies next time you're in this neck of the woods?

Whoa! Belay that! Mike, I just noticed you signed one of our copies already! My fault for ordering more than one copy and opening a non-signed version first. Thank you so much for doing that. And I received one of the printed envelopes, which meant Tania's hand was tired at the time too. Much appreciated.

It will still be good to see you again when you're in this neck of the woods.

[Becky]

LOL, Hans!!! I figured that maybe they'd be proof in case some signature or item in my collection was questioned. But then too I like having them.

[Mike Freeman]

Originally Posted by StevenB

Whoa! Belay that! Mike, I just noticed you signed one of our copies already! My fault for ordering more than one copy and opening a non-signed version first. Thank you so much for doing that. And I received one of the printed envelopes, which meant Tania's hand was tired at the time too. Much appreciated.

It will still be good to see you again when you're in this neck of the woods.

Hi Steven. You owe us big time dude, like that was SO much trouble ... We'll be touring the UK mid May through Mid June. If I smell a single malt from anywhere within 400 miles we'll be on your dooestep. Otherwise I'll just turn up to give your better half a large hug whenever we're passing by.