Anything you are not keen on ??

[Alison]

just as I thought I’d get back into playing, well, we are doing “In the South”. This is the 3rd time that I have been given this piece in 15 years and d’ya know, I just can’t bring myself to like it. There’s so much Elgar that I know & love but but this one… Curiously, since I also play brass and usually I like their ensemble. I guess this is just one piece that will never speak to me even though some of it is indeed lyrical.
Maybe this has been explored before:
http://www.harpcolumn.com/forums/coffee-break/posts/24813

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi Alison,

Thanks for posting the link, it was an interesting read! I don’t play pedal harp so I’m not familiar with the piece you mentioned… maybe a link to a good example of it?

On wire harp I started with the traditional Irish folk music… I still appreciate it but I dont’t play it at all anymore. My work now revolves entirely around arranging Gregorian chant for wire harp. It was a good way to learn the basics of technique, but mine has evolved a lot to accomodate playing chant, so it’s not at all historically correct anymore… Not a question of like/dislike per se, just my own musical growth and development. I doubt I could go back to playing, say, jigs and reels in a truly authentic way on harp now. Once in a great while I’ll give a listen to someone else doing that, say to myself, “oh, yes I remember that one” and then it’s back to chant studies.

[Sylvia]

One I thought of right away….is the Sousa Stars and Stripes. I make major modifications. Tempo is 138, and I’d dearly love to see someone play the part as written at that tempo! No one cares, of course, and the section that shows is the third section, which is OK for the arpeggios, and then deteriorates into (loud) madness, again requiring modifications. The part is not attributed to Sousa, although he always had a harpist in his band.

[Sid Humphreys]

About 4 year ago, I did Chadwick’s Symphonic Sketches. I didn’t care for the harp part at all. It was difficult to learn and could hardly be heard, except for the Noel; that was the hardest, I think the harp was playing 6 notes to the violins 4. Bleh! I hate remembering that performance! LOL

[Alison]

oh, well I will look up Chadwick, as never heard of him(?) – they said the harp sounded lovely and was ‘indespensible’ – & I’ve just renewed 25 new strings on it – my reading and playing were accurate and musical, so I guess the best thing about the day was being with friends… perhaps I will get payback unexpectedly.

[roy-clement]

Sylvia, I have just taken on learning all of the Sousa Marches. I play a lot in Wind Ensembles and the Harp part always goes unplayed. ( I am a Percussionist, and a new Harpist.) I would love to hear more about your modifications to the Stars and Stripes! And, any other band works for that matter. Thanks!

[Sylvia]

I don’t write out stuff, so here’s my verbal account of S&S.
My part says “Edited in Sousa performance style by Keith Brion,” so I don’t know if that’s what you have.

For the first few years, I didn’t play the intro because it starts so fast, but then I got the hang of it to watch for the start and still focus. (slow learner)
Here’s Syl’s cheat sheet.

M3 omit G♮ and A♮
M5-12 LH top notes only and connected
M12-13, LH top notes only
M15-16 19-20 use LH octaves
M15-16 2nd beat (we’re in cut time) RH B and A♮ together (omit LH on that beat)
M21-36 LH top notes only RH chord scrunches (if it’s spread out, play closest
chord members
M54-85 as is…85 just a chord
M86-87 forget it
M88- RH only
M89 1st beat
M90-91 forget it
M92 2nd beat RH
M93-94 as is
M95 1st beat only
M96 forget
M97 beat 2 only
M98 as is
M99 1st beat only
M100-101 forget
M102-105 as is
M106-109 forget it
Sections are repeated, so I use only the 1st page and the page starting with rehearsal #54. (no page turns)

[Sylvia]

This was on http://www.naxos.com
Notice the third paragraph about instrumentation. I don’t know if that means he did NOT write for brass band.

Sousa’s Greatest Marches

John Philip Sousa personified turn-of-the-century America, the comparative innocence and brash energy of a still new nation. His ever touring band represented America across the globe and brought music to hundreds of American towns. John Philip Sousa, born 6th November, 1854, reached this exalted position with startling quickness. In 1880, at the age of 26, he became conductor of the U.S. Marine Band. In twelve years the vastly improved ensemble won high renown and Sousa’s compositions earned him the title of “The March King”. Sousa went one better with the formation of his own band in 1892, bringing world acclaim.

In its first seven years the band gave 3500 concerts; in an era of train and ship travel it logged over a million miles in nearly four decades. There were European tours in 1900, 1901, 1903, and 1905, and a world tour in 1910–11, the zenith of the band era.

The unprecedented popularity of the Sousa Band came at a time when few American orchestras existed. From the Civil War to about 1920, band concerts were the most important aspect of U.S. musical life. No finer band than Sousa’s was ever heard. Sousa modified the brass band by decreasing the brass and percussion instruments, increasing its woodwinds, and adding a harp. His conducting genius attracted the finest musicians, enabling him to build an ensemble capable of executing programs almost as varied as those of a symphony orchestra. The Sousa Band became the standard by which American bands were measured, causing a dramatic upgrading in quality nationally.

[patricia-jaeger]

Sid, a harp performance in a summer orchestra I had to do, is one I wish I could forget. The conductor had programmed an Heroic March by Edvard Grieg, and I really don’t think Grieg had any harpist help him write the harp part- the pedaling demanded too many changes too quickly, and the brass and winds covered a lot anyway. Two weeks to practice the part was not enough for me. Has anyone else here played a harp part or work by Grieg? To quote you, Bleh!

[Sid Humphreys]

Patricia, maybe you’ll get a chance to do Saint-Saens ‘Marche Heroique.’ Much better for the harp!

[justin-lo]

There was a contemporary piece played in my orchestra 2 years ago, where the harp had to play a whole lot of 5 (on the left hand) against 3. Probably half a page, at least. I might have appeared a bit too overjoyed to learn that I’d be playing the piano part instead. But so far my encounters with contemporary orchestral music harp parts have never ended up favourably.

[Sid Humphreys]

Right now I am doing Suk’s “Fairytale” first movement. It’s like 6 pages of hard exercises. I’m really tempted to do E major glisses for half a measure with a C natural for the other half coming down. This goes on for 6 pages ( 2 sextuplets ascending followed by 2 sets of 16th descending). LOL!

[Author]

Posts