Have you gone – the OTHER way?

[kay-lister]

Seems like most folks start with lever and transition over to pedal or even just start with pedal.

[Jerusha Amado]

Kay,

My experience has been somewhat different.

[kay-lister]

Jerusha,

What drew you back to lever and why only lever for now?

Kay

[sherry-lenox]

When I began I naively thought that pedal literature must be vastly superior to lever literature.

My turn around came with hearing some of Laura Zaerr’s original music for lever. Upon my first hearing, I realized that lever music can be found in numerous degrees of complexity and execution. I have no reason ever to consider pedal, because if I play for the next 100 years there will still be wonderful things to play and hear on lever.

For all of you who are attending Somerset, Laura will be performing her newest work (I think) at the Friday night concert. The description is wonderful and I’m quite sure it will sound just as terrific. I LOVE LEVER!

[barbara-brundage]

Yes, Laura is a wonderful harpist and a good composer, too. It’s interesting to me that of the 8 harpists who were at Eastman when I was there, 3 of us became seriously interested in lever harp later on.

[Jerusha Amado]

Well, it became a question of having enough time for everything!

[kathy-chanik]

One thing I love about my lever harps is that they’re made from actual hardwoods, like cherry or koa or walnut-where pedal harps are all made from maple.

[Leigh Griffith]

Maple is an
‘actual hardwood’. It is harder than both cherry and walnut, I don’t
know about koa. Of the 13 harps in our ensemble, one is walnut (mine)
one is cherry and the other 11 are maple. Here in Maine we don’t call
it ‘rock maple’ for nothing!

Leigh

[barbara-brundage]

Hi, Leigh. I think Kathy means that in a pedal harp, a walnut harp is a maple harp that’s stained to look like walnut, not that maple isn’t an “actual” hardwood itself.

[Leigh Griffith]

Ahhhh!!! I get it. Sorry Kathy! Thank-you Barbara!
Leigh (backing away and bowing deeply in extreme embarrassment)!

[barbara-brundage]

No problem. Pedal or lever, it’s one of my favorite woods, anyway. I love the beautful quilted maple that dusty and thormahlen get sometimes.

[sherry-lenox]

There’s a beautiful harp on the Blevins site in quilted maple. It was made into a Phoenix, large lap harp, 29 strings and I think a really beautiful design, and the maple is just the cherry on top of the sundae.

[kathy-chanik]

Yes, thank you, Barbara.

[jennifer-buehler]

I can tell you why I won’t be moving

[Jerusha Amado]

Jennifer,

I can relate to what you’re saying.

[Author]

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