King David's Harp

This is good, whatever's next will be fantastic

     

From afar I've watched Michael Levy, klezmer musician, struggle to master the ten-stringed Hebrew lyre (kinnor) and several other instruments evoking biblical antiquity - even a modern African descendent of an ancient Egyptian harp. Not long ago I discovered by far the best modern kinnor I've ever encountered and recommended it to Michael. And once he got one, all his hard work on instruments much harder to play paid off. The tone color of his lyre is splendid, bright and balanced, and his playing technique is at the top of his considerable game. This is also his most serious attempt yet to master the tuning of antiquity. The cyclical or "Pythagorean" tuning he used for most of the songs is ideal for plainchant and melody accompanied by drones, not for music that uses any kind of harmony, polyphony or even heterophony as he uses. One needs divisive tuning, what most people call "just" tuning (as on a mountain dulcimer), for that. And that's why I say "this is good, whatever's next will be fantastic". I tune my own lyre and my Celtic harp divisively, and I know that when Michael masters that part of his craft, the results will make people's hair stand on end for sheer "music of the spheres" beauty. I'm quite sure it will anyway and that other reviewers will say so.