The January meeting of the Bude & District U3A was held at the Falcon Hotel on 19 January.
The chair, Hilary Workman welcomed members and read out the notices. She asked for suggestions for ways to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the national U3A this year, and also reminded members that February’s meeting would be at the Parkhouse.
Val Adams then introduced the harpist Sarah Deere-Jones who gave a fascinating history about the instrument. In fact Sarah had brought several small harps on which members were able to ‘have a go’ after the talk. She and her husband run the Harp Centre at Whitstone near Bude where pupils can go to learn harp playing.
Sarah demonstrated how to play the instrument by playing her own composition of beautiful gentle, music inspired by a Loch she had visited. This was much appreciated. She told us that harps originated in the Middle East, particularly North Africa around 3,000 years BC. They were much later introduced to Europe, reaching Britain between the 9th and the 11th century.
On the screen we viewed harps of all ages and sizes coming from many countries. Marie Antoinette had a very elaborate one showing wealth and culture. Sarah showed pictures of her playing harps in many different countries and on the QE 2.
The talk ended with her playing another beautiful piece of Cornish Harp music.
The vote of thanks was given by Wendy Jones.
Eve Tilsley
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