This page is for published Pern music, currently limited
to the MasterHarper of Pern CD and Songbook.
The MasterHarper of Pern
CD by Anne McCaffrey with Tania Opland and Mike Freeman
"The music of Masterharper Robinton has been
described in many of Anne McCaffrey's books. Songs feature prominently in
his world as the main tool for teaching and preserving its culture, and for
passing down a warning, through generations, of the unique dangers facing
the planet's inhabitants.
The duties of McCaffrey's 'Harpers' include those of
historian, teacher, diplomat, and entertainer. This cd represents Robinton's
work, both in composition and preservation, and was created as a companion
recording to the novel The Masterharper of
Pern."
The MasterHarper of Pern
Songbook by Anne McCaffrey with Tania Opland and Mike Freeman
(Action Printing, 2004)
"The response was overwhelming when we released
the Masterharper of Pern CD. It came mostly in the form of two often repeated
questions: "Can we get sheet music for this?" and "When will you do a recording
of Menolly's music?" We'll get to the second question later, but this songbook
is, at long last, the answer to the first. We had to make a lot of decisions
about the notation. It would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible,
to transcribe every note of every piece of music on the album. Much of it
was improvised in the studio around loose frameworks of arrangements. "Robinton's
Dream" was nothing but free-form improvisation, and so, with apologies, has
been omitted from this collection. For the rest, we've tried to find the
heart of each arrangement, leave out the extras which would make it more
difficult to read, and keep the parts that will be most useful to most people.
We hope we've at least come close to achieveing that
goal."
