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- This topic has 17 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 5 months ago by Saul Davis Zlatkovski.
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October 28, 2009 at 3:50 pm #151317Maria MyersParticipant
I think that it was pretty obvious that you meant skill in playing the harp in an orchestra setting.
October 31, 2009 at 12:52 am #151318Saul Davis ZlatkovskiParticipantReally, the competition in the 70s and 80s was fierce. There were few openings, and a huge generation of harpists jostling each other for a position. If anything, the level of playing has not risen, but dropped at the high end. Young harpists seem to know little about music and history and style, and just waggle their fingers any self-entitled way they feel. (Based on YouTube observations, which is probably not representative.) But I have heard that from harpists who have heard many young players.
Baby boomers had strict teaching and high expectations to fulfill. The only thing that has grown is the size of the literature. How much repertoire you are perhaps expected to know has grown. Sometimes a harpist may be hired for more political than musical reasons. Some orchestras are very competitive with each other.
Playing bigger, longer transcriptions is not in itself a mark of high achievement. I think, for harpists under 40, the biggest achievement is in tone quality, sense of style, interpretive knowledge and creative thinking, integrity, authenticity, and deep background. You should know every recording ever made by Salzedo and Grandjany, Lawrence, McDonald and some other harpists. You should know the recordings of Erica Goodman and Judy Loman and the Salzedo Harp Duo, to name a few of today. You should know the great musicians of the early and mid-20th century, such as Casals, Rubinstein, Piatigorsky, de los Angeles, de Larrocha, Sutherland, Caruso, Landowska, and the recordings of the playing of the great composers. You should be able to distinguish between the major schools of playing and the national styles. You should be able to read and correctly interpret baroque and classical ornamentation in a harpistic way. You should be able to create an idiomatic continuo harp part for a baroque sonata that is harpistically possible. Who is playing a lot today, who won a competition is nice to hear, is fine to support, but will not educate you much at all, I think. Music is transmitted from generation to generation, from culture to culture, and if students do not strive to learn from the past or abroad, then they make music that is more and more lacking in value. Music is not about self-expression and success. It is about learning to express the music, universal thoughts, feelings and emotions grand and subtle. It is hard work over many, many years. You must never stop learning and growing. Those of you who want to compete to see what you can win, and only want a few years in the spotlight should not enter. Don’t take the places of those who really care about music.
October 31, 2009 at 11:21 pm #151319Saul Davis ZlatkovskiParticipantI don’t mean that as a tirade, nor as a rebuke, but as a guideline to being what most informed people would call a substantive musician.
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