INAUDIBLE HARP PARTS

[alexander-rider]

Tayce! Good luck for Wagner! I got that call too…but you’re obviously braver than I! I played the Schoenberg Pelleas et Melisande in Norway this summer- however, we used the arrangment for 4 harps done by Francis Pierre. Harp III was bad enough, I can not imagine what it must be like playing it as written…. Carl, I have never heard about the RAH being amplified. But couldn’t swear to knowing it for sure.

I was at the proms and I could also hear every not the harpist played. But it was Marie-Pierre Langlamet. ‘Nuff said!

I believe that if you play the harp in the orchestra, your only choice is to believe in what your doing whether you think it could be heard or not. Otherwise, one may as well just pack up….

[carl-swanson]

The thing that always drove me nuts about almost all orchestra parts when I used to play them was that, on first looking at a part, I would think each and every time, ‘now what did the composer really want here?’

[Ian McVoy]

Troika from Liutenant Kije suite by Prokoffiev.

[rosalind-beck]

Ian, I respectfully disagree.

[Ian McVoy]

I understand your disagreement. It may just be my negative association with the piece. The first time I ever played it, the orchestra completely drowned out the harp part. Not only that, but their music library didn’t have the individual part, forcing me to either buy it or put it on to Finale from the score.
-Ian

[catherine-rogers]

Hi, Ian, we can all relate to your frustration about that. If it happens again and you can’t find a local harpist who has the part you need, give a shout-out on this website. I have found other harpists to be incredibly helpful in sharing parts and markings in an emergency. We’ve all been there.

[paul-wren]

I recently did Mahler’s 3rd and in the second movement, there are about 8 measures where the harps are tutti and playing some very large chords. But the whole freakin orchestra is playing as well. The conductor kept yelling at us “I can’t hear the harps!”

[paul-knoke]

Well, if the conductor really wants the harps to be hear, then he/she should adjust the dynamics of the rest of the orchestra accordingly. Failing that, you can try taking the passage up an octave to help it project. Not the intended sound, but then, I strongly suspect the composer’s intentions are already not being fulfilled!

[Tacye]

Or, if you aren’t already, ask to be put on a riser with the wind.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

There is a very loud, but buried, glissando in another Mahler Symphony. After the conductor asked for more sound from the harp, I pulled out two felt picks and doubled the gliss with the picks. He beamed and gave me the thumbs-up. So, sometimes one has to do a little tweaking of the part (if possible), since the premiere of the piece may have been (a) with a smaller or softer-playing orchestra (b) in a different acoustic.

[david humphreys]

for me, Sam Pratt had the answer——Meistersinger Overture—–you can`t hear the harps, but you miss them if they aren`t there!

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

There is also the experience of not playing actually louder, but making a much bigger gesture as if you are, and having that satisfy the conductor.

[Mel Sandberg]

The best solution was provided by Tchaikovsky:

[wendy-willis]

Speaking of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, does any body have any suggestiona on how to finger the a tempo section on page eight? Can you hear it anyway?

[paul-knoke]

I usually just double the right hand part with my left, an octave lower. The texture there is about as dense as it can get, so there’s no way the lower registers of the harp will be audible anyway. Plus, that passage is going so fast that it’s more important to keep with the rhythm and harmonic structure than to labor over each and every written note.

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