“Because It’s There,” harp guitars, The Shape of the Land, 植村直己物語, 冰峰物语, and Lost in the Wilderness

Michael Hedges’ composition “Because It’s There,” first released on the recording The Shape of the Land in 1986, was a milestone in guitar literature — a major event.

The harp guitar was fashionable in the US in the early 1900s, but it was rarely used in virtuosic music. While its photogenic qualities were without equal (a person simply looked more wonderful playing a harp guitar), its expanded range was typically used simply to add occasional low bass notes.

With “Because It’s There,” Hedges exploited the capabilities of the harp guitar in a new way, playing melody on the sub-basses with right-hand string-stopping while using the six-string neck for accompaniment.

Both of my grandfathers, Ira V. Stropes and Gordon B. Miruch, played harp guitar, and so I felt I was genetically predisposed to have one.

In the 1970s, I had picked up a 1914 Gibson harp guitar with 10 sub-basses from Milwaukee luthier Bob Pascoe. This instrument had been bequeathed to Pascoe by David Phillips who played bass in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and was enamored with string instruments that could speak with a low voice. This instrument brought photographic glory to whomever possessed it.

I had a riot playing this harp guitar with the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra — and they let you dress up!

And I played briefly with the Milwaukee Zither Club where I felt honored to sit next to Austrian emigre Hans Gliber who played a Hermann Hauser, Sr. contraguitar from the late 1930s.

Then, in the 1980s, I got to know Bob Hartman, the grandson of Carl Larson who, with his brother August, built Dyer harp guitars in Chicago. Hartman was devoted to documenting his family history. I wrangled two Dyer harp guitars from him, one of their earliest models with a Florentine headstock on the horn, and a glorious style 8.

In 1985, Windham Hill was contacted to produce a soundtrack for a film on the Japanese adventurer, Naomi Uemura, who had died in 1984 at the age of 43. Windham Hill Records and new age music were at their peak at this time. In the blush of this success and in the original spirit of the movement, Windham Hill provided a beautiful soundtrack featuring Phillip Aaberg, Michael Hedges, Will Ackerman and others. Hedges’ first composition for harp guitar, “Because It’s There,” became the opening track. This soundtrack was released in 1986 as a CD, LP, and cassette titled The Shape of the Land.

The title of the film in Japanese was 植村直己物語, which translates as Naomi Uemura Story, the first four characters being the name Naomi Uemura, and the last two meaning “monogatari,” which is a Japanese word for epic adventure stories and narratives. It was released in Japan in theaters, as a 10-part series on Japanese television, on DVD, and shown extensively in elementary schools. Naomi Uemura was embraced as a model of self discovery, idealism, and bold adventure.

Hilleary Burgess, Hedges’ manager, was kind enough to send me two VHS videotapes containing the film as it had been broadcast on Japanese television.

In 1988, when I was returning from teaching and performing in Beijing, my wife and I were walking down the street in Hong Kong and happened to pass a movie theater in the window of which I noticed a movie poster with some images from the film. We went in and learned, sadly, that the movie had already closed. Given my peculiar interest, and the fact that the film had already closed, the theater manager allowed me take the poster. I have remembered this amazing coincidence with nostalgia ever since.

The title of the film in Chinese was 冰峰物语. The first two characters mean ice-capped mountain and the last two, as in the Japanese title, mean “monogatari.”

Our China traveling companions, Walter and Yanhua Teague, have provided this translation of the text on the Chinese poster:

(Incidentally, in English, even though it was never released in the US, the title of the film became Lost in the Wilderness.)

In 1996, the first individual transcription that Stropes Editions, Ltd. published was “Because It’s There” which seemed like a stepping stone into an exciting future. Typesetting this music using Finale was an adventure in itself. Dan Schwartz and I spent many enjoyable hours in the summer of 1994 at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music dreaming up this first modern transcription of a harp guitar solo with tabuli in our teeth.

“Because It’s There” not only brought the harp guitar back into the consciousness of guitar players, but was the catalyst for a new generation of harp guitar players and luthiers.

Those sub-basses could be used for more than the occasional bass note!