Welcome to another edition of 5 questions with…! In this series, I interview musicians via email. Today’s guest is prolific harp arranger Angi Bemiss of Simply the Harp. She is also a hospital musician. (If you’d like a follow-up interview with more on that, let me know!)
This post may contain affiliate links, banners, &/or embeds. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you (more info here). I try to mark most in-text links with an asterisk. Thank you for your support!
About Angi Bemiss: Angi Bemiss is a lifelong musician who is best-known in the harp world as an arranger/publisher through her company Simply the Harp. Her arrangements are for lever harp but are easily playable/adaptable for pedal. Within 14 books and ~150 pieces of sheet music, there are arrangements for over 550 pieces – popular, theater, classical themes, traditional, instrumental, worship, wedding, lullabies, and holidays. Angi is a Certified Music Practitioner (CMP – MHTP) and Certified Therapeutic Harp Practitioner (CTHP – IHTP) and has played at hospitals and hospices since 1998. She lives in Atlanta with her husband Kevin.
1. How did you get started arranging for harp?
My husband Kevin surprised me with a harp in 1989 for our 10th anniversary. At the time, we lived in Savannah, GA, and I was a church pianist as I had been for most of my life. He also arranged for me to take lessons from an excellent harpist, Dean Owens. It’s a long story, but Dean was a well-known performer in Savannah (pedal harpist). He had never taught and told Kevin “No” several times before Kevin finally convinced him to at least meet me. We hit it off immediately (he was an engineer, and I am an accountant). He was the perfect teacher for me, primarily because he was patient and flexible. He had no “ego” tied up with making me a harp-performer, and he accepted it when I explained that I anticipated playing the harp for church – Sunday services and weddings. So, he taught me proper technique first, but he also quickly allowed me to start creating arrangements of “church music.” There were limited books available for a lever harp – possibly only one of which included hymns (thank you, Sylvia Woods!). It was early in the days of “contemporary praise music,” so I started notating arrangements. At the time, it was pencil on music manuscript paper, and I sometimes ended up with holes in the paper from erasing & revising.
2. I hear you were an early user of computer notation software. What changes have you seen?
Oh my! In my case, things haven’t changed much because I found a program that worked well for what I did – right time, right program. I started off in ~1996 with Passport which became Encore, and I believe the company is out of business now. I still use an earlier version of it. As with many computer programs, the “enhancements” of subsequent versions brought new bugs or loss of favorite functionality (why fix what I think isn’t broken??), so I have been thankful with each successful migration from a previous PC to my current one (January of 2024, this year!). That program (with my customizations) is probably now on my 6thor 7th computer!
From the beginning, Encore has had the ability to transcribe from MIDI. As a pianist, that has been wonderful! I often start with a basic MIDI transcription and then create my arrangement changes with the mouse, as I work it out – from computer to harp to computer to harp, repeat repeat.
I used to own Sibelius and still own Finale (which has also recently been discontinued), and that’s where I have seen some advancements and new capabilities. Having said that, I was in a workshop last year for a demo of Sibelius. There were a few features that appealed to me, but there was nothing that could justify changing over. I have well over 1,000 pieces notated in Encore (full arrangements). It would be nice to have a program do a “clean” notation from a scanned score – primarily for transposition. Otherwise, I prefer to start with either a lead sheet (melody & chords) or a simple arrangement. Tempting, but not compelling.
I summarize my stance with this: I know how Encore works and how to navigate around its little bugs or inefficiencies. With the other two programs I have used (Sibelius & Finale), I found similar and/or different bugs or inefficiencies. Why trade what’s known for what’s unknown?
3. You publish harp arrangements at the intermediate level. (I love your idea of publishing all arrangements in C & Eb!) How do you decide the level of a piece, and how do you keep your arranging within that level?
Good question, simple answer: I am an intermediate lever harpist! If I can play it, then it’s intermediate.
My arrangements do vary from lower to upper intermediate, but it’s primarily based on the sound of the arrangement. I am fanatical about the clarity of an arrangement that emphasizes the melody and beautiful harmony. I will say here that the arranging process takes a long time for me – I sit at the harp with a red pencil, play it one way, then another, then notate the sound I like. I also strive to minimize finger buzzes and tangled fingers.
Another thing I often say is this: The harp played simply but well is beautiful. It is better than a harpist playing a complicated piece poorly. I do enjoy hearing excellent harp performances, but “that is not who I am as a harpist.” Circling back to Dean Owens (my teacher), he understood and accepted that about me. If music is complicated, I will sit down at the piano to play it. (A prime example, for me, was accompanying church cantatas – that always required hours & hours of practice.) I love being an intermediate harpist who has played as a therapeutic musician at the same hospital for 25 years, plus occasionally for church services and weddings.
The harp played simply but well is beautiful.
-Angi Bemiss
4. Do you have any advice for other music arrangers?
Listen carefully to the sound of your arrangements, and “keep it simple” when possible. That seems to be the prevalent current market for lever harp arrangements, especially with therapeutic harpists. Identify harpist-arrangers whose music you enjoy hearing and playing, then figure out why it appeals to you. I have favorites, and their arrangements are favorites for a variety of reasons. Several examples are: Kim Robertson, Sunita, RoJean Loucks, and Frank Voltz. Also, open up the left-hand (use 1-5-10/C-G-E rather than 1-3-5/C-E-G or 1-5-8/C-E-G, for example), where it sounds more clear/reduces muddiness or adds lovely harmony.
5. Who else would you recommend as a guest in the “5 Questions with…” series?
Sunita, Frank, Lorinda Jones, Rhett Barnwell, Joy Slavens, Nella Rigell (my favorite harpist to hear – she is an excellent performer & popular Atlanta teacher – Atlanta Ballet, Broadway shows, traveling concert performers, Celtic, and therapeutic musician – all of it!)
Thank you for asking, Barbara!
And there we have another installment of the “5 questions with…” series. Click the link to browse other interviews, and let me know in the comments which other musicians you would like to see interviewed!
Look for Angie’s arrangements at Simply the Harp, Sheet Music Plus*, Sheet Music Direct*, or your favorite place to purchase sheet music!
Fischarper interviews may be edited for accuracy (spelling, punctuation, etc.), sentence flow, space, etc. Interviewee views are not necessarily endorsed or shared by Barbara Fischer or Fischarper, LLC.
Barbara Fischer runs Fischarper, LLC and loves her job as a harpist and private music educator. She enjoys blogging about various aspects of the music field on fischarper.com/blog. For more music resources, check out the Fischarper store. Find out where you can find Barbara on the interwebs here. And you can sign up to receive Fischarper updates by joining the email list.