Musical Intention

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

How do you communicate the musical meaning of a note?
What do you do physically that relates to the character of a note in order to put it across to the listener as what it is supposed to be?
Do you listen to the note and what it does after you have left the string?
Some harpists raise, some follow through with either a flexed or curved wrist. How about you?

[Sid Humphreys]

All of thee above Saul. There have even been times that I didn’t raise but went downward instead. It all depends on the piece.

[Loonatik]

Mostly I do a slight raise. My hands don’t rise beyond the lowest pin and my left hand does major of he expression. If it’s heavy, like sarabande, I’d rather stay, or in case of a strong bass chord, play towards the column. There were occasions where the piece ended with bass octave played on one of the last few string near the column, and I’d just stretch my whole arm straight out downwards after playing. If it’s in the middle of the phrase, I’d drop or raise depending on what makes sense… I guess. If downward progression to a tonic, I probably drop after the phrase; if upwards, I’d probably raise.

[kay-lister]

Hmmmmm, interesting question Saul. On MY original pieces, I know what notes I want to stand out more, or be a little less pronounced and I find that my whole body really gets into the expression. Sometimes I notice that I am rocking (if you will) with the harp, or even a little hunched over and my head close to the strings to “Shhhh” the sound of the phrase. I will even “Bounce” off the strings if I want to have a quick, lite, perky feel to the piece and sit more upright just hanging on with my knees and the harp is completely off my shoulder.

I find that I’m less expressive when learning other pieces that are NOT my own as I am trying to figure the piece out. All the notations for dynamics in a piece that are not my own take me a while to get into really. It just takes me longer to get a good “Feel” for the expression.

Within all of that, I still try to keep with the proper technique (I study Salzedo). I don’t want to just be flapping around there behind the harp looking like a wounded bird.

I think you have to put your whole body into it. Otherwise, it would be like talking to someone in a monitone voice while sitting on your hands and not moving your head or changing facial expressions. Yeah, the conversation is still there, but something is SERIOUSLY lacking.

Kay

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I sometimes go downward to rest my arm, but only during practicing. As a listener, I have always felt a downward motion as very negative. At the end of Lamentation, Salzedo has the harpist drop their hands to the sounding board deliberately, to express death and mourning. It’s all in how you do it.

Musical intention can be even more specific. Do you intend a note to be perceived as an eighth-note or a whole note? I find I can express every aspect of a note’s character physically.

[Sylvia]

I’ll just throw this in the mix…tho probably no one will know what I mean.
When I first saw the post, I didn’t think about anything physical at all. I really don’t know what physical things I’m doing. (Don’t worry. I’m not a teacher and don’t want to be.)

I think we don’t play notes; we play sounds. Notes just represent the sounds.
Musical intention? My goal is for the harp to sound beautiful…clean with no noises (buzzes, squeaks, etc.) between sounds…. and no harsh or forced sounds. I record myself frequently to make sure I’m not playing bad sounds and just “tuning out” and not hearing them.
When I play somewhere and people comment, the word I want to hear is “beautiful.” Then I know I’ve accomplished what I wanted to do.

To describe how I play, I’d say I play from the guts and listen for the sounds I want.

[HankNYC]

My approach starts with fingering as this is our first line of phrasing and trying to get across our interpretation of what the composer has written down. We get different sounds with different fingers and different places on the string the note is played. It is also my belief the the gesture goes hand in hand with the sound and phrase I am creating.

I have one pet peeve with musicians coming out of some major conservatories (lots of pianists) that seem to get confused by the difference between playing in time and playing in rhythm. A waltz doesn’t have 3 equal beats etc.

Also – part of musical intention is making the effort to learn about the piece of music or dance that the piece music is based on.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Are you the Hank I think you are? Please get in touch with me, and with Don H. Wonderful to hear from you.

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