Lights in the Piazza

[M Rodgers]

Has anyone played the musical “Light in the Piazza?” I am curious about how demanding the part is.
Thanks!

[Sid Humphreys]

I know that David Ice played this musical. I recall him saying that it was a lot of pedal work. Hopefully he will see this post and chime in!

[kate-rogers]

This is a gorgeous part, but it is somewhat challenging, rhythmically and pedal-wise. Definitely worth the work! If you need more info I will get my part out and look at it… I did it a few years ago at Arena Stage in D.C.

[laura-palmieri]

I’m also playing “The Light in the Piazza” show in a few weeks and am a little nervous on the harp part. If anyone has any tips on what to really focus in on or fingerings for some of the sections, I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!!

[laura-palmieri]

Still looking to see if anyone has any sound recordings of this show. I’ve been listening to the original broadway recording, but it hasn’t been too helpful. :-/ If anyone has any other helpful suggestions for fingerings or pdf copies of marked harp parts of this show, I would greatly appreciate it!! Thank you! Laura-sweetharproses@hotmail.com

[David Ice]

I do have a recording, I believe, where I integrated the Lincoln Center production into the broadway recording. As for fingerings, pedals, etc. I found the printed part to be pretty right on. There are a couple of sections where the pedals are insane, and I just simplified as best I could. The harp is pretty much essential throughout and there’s not too much to leave out without seriously hurting the intent/orchestration. If you have to drop a chord/note here or there, okay, but you can’t just say, “Oh, the piano will just have to cover this” because the piano is equally busy.

But the part is gorgeous and the harp is really a character in the play, so it’s totally worth the effort you put into it. Just to play the opening bars……!!!!

[laura-palmieri]

Thanks so much David for your reply!! You are absolutely right about the harp part, and I can completely relate to your youtube video you posted! I’m playing the 5- piece orchestration harp part, and it feels like I’m responsible for 2 entire sections, plus holding everyone together. The counting is just crazy for everyone in some songs… I’m sweating over playing those soundboard sections. I’ve never done that ever during a show and really don’t know how I’ll get those glisses on time during those sections. I feel like if there was a recording of the 5-piece orchestration parts, that would be super helpful. If there’s any recording or youtubes you can recommend, could you let me know about them? And if you still happened to have the harp part, would you mind if I asked you about a few ridiculously hard sections that I’m trying to figure out? Thank you! Laura sweetharproses@hotmail.com

[David Ice]

Alas, the only recordings I know of are of the full orchestrations. And I never found any 5 piece orchestrations on YouTube.

[laura-palmieri]

For the piece “autami”, when it says to hit soundbox and then soundboard, would it be okay to just use the soundboard for those timpani sections? Are there harp parts that incorporate the soundbox, or is it just for the soundboard. I’ve only ever seen patting on the soundboard in harp parts but maybe I’m wrong.

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