What’s on your music stand? (February 2013)

[Jerusha Amado]

Kreig,
How difficult is the harp part for “The Planets”?

[Jerusha Amado]

Hi Brook,
It sounds like you’re working on some great pieces! Will you use Rhett’s hymn for church?

[andee-craig]

Deb, I feel your pain! I find that once you really know a tune, even if you don’t play it for a while, it comes back much more quickly and easily when you go to refresh your memory on it. The more pieces in your repertoire the more you can’t play *everything* all the time at 100 percent perfection if you know what I mean!

I’ve been working (at my normal job) so much more lately and am having even less time to practice. I now have a goal to practice an hour every night after work, even if I’m tired. It’s the only way, really….

Jerusha I took lessons from Kathy DeAngelo (in NJ) for 10 years. I learned by ear and learned the theory little by little, as it applied to traditional Irish music, as we went along. Somewhere down the line I ‘got it’ and started coming up with my own left hands for pieces. There are certain things that work in Irish music and certain things that don’t. Sometimes I can look at a tune I already know that’s in the same key as a new one I’m working on and use that as a guide for chords, etc. Grainne Hambly once said to me in a workshop that the left hand is evident in the right hand or something to that effect. The melody gives you clues.

If you know what key something is in (or what mode) there are a limited (sometimes more and sometimes less limited) number of chords, etc. that will work.

I’m really proud of my arrangement for ‘Were You at the Rock?’. I learned it first on the fiddle from the playing of Brian Conway, one of my favorite fiddlers. I slavishly copied his ornamentation (cuts, rolls, double stops, etc.). Now 7 years later I’m applying all of that to the harp. Sometimes what works on the fiddle doesn’t work on the harp because of the nature of the mechanics of the instrument so you have to go with something similar. For example, doing a roll rather than a particular cut or vice-versa.. I also got ideas for the left hand from what Brian does on the fiddle. A double stop (playing a chord–two strings at once) on the fiddle becomes a chord on the harp.

Wow, that was a long reply!

[emma-graham]

I’m looking at the duet parts for Salzedos suite of dances and Song in the Night plus Après Un Reve and Handel’s Firework Suite – all duets. Solo wise I’m loving Patrick Hawes’ How Hill and Ibert’s Ballade. All depending how good (or not) my RSI is. 🙁

[Jerusha Amado]

Hi Emma,
Those Salzedo pieces should be a delight to play!
What does “RSI” signify?

[emma-graham]

Hi Jerusha. Repetitive Strain Injury! Three years, a gazzilion doctors, physios, specialists etc and no one can find anything physically wrong so I should “just give up the harp”. I’ve got it to a manageable place, but sometimes I just want to crack open Grandjany’s Rhapsodie and go for it!

[Jerusha Amado]

Emma,
I know how it feels to be in pain. I used to suffer for years with tendinitis, but I read the book The Musician’s Way by Gerald Klickstein and began to apply the principles in it (more exercise, stretches, much more frequent breaks, etc) and am now feeling a lot better.
I can’t imagine giving up the harp. That must have been hard to hear!

[Briggsie B. Peawiggle]

I’m working on a bunch of ensemble parts. I am playing with 8 other harpists as an opening act for Naoko Yoshino when she comes to this area next month. We are playing at Kirk In The Hills in Bloomfield Hills…..a big, beautiful church. Right now for my own pieces, I’m working on the first movement of Rosetti’s Sonata in F and a lot of technical exercises….some Salzedo, some Bochsa, some McDonald/Wood. I’m about half finished learning/memorizing Hasselman’s “La Source” but I kind of let it go for awhile…..just need a break from it. I have so much other stuff going on. I’m singing a solo voice recital at the end of April and another at the beginning of May…….and then there’s Lent/Holy Week and Easter and I’m a church organist.

[kreig-kitts]

Jerusha, I should get my music tomorrow (knock wood). It is on the Internet Sheet Music Project, originally for two harps, so we’ll see what the symphonic band transcription has. From the IMSLP, Mars barely has anything, just that “bum-bum-bum bum bum-bum bum” part everybody knows where nobody will hear a note of the harp anyway. Some of the movements are quite hard and have two distinct parts, but Jupiter, the only other movement we’re playing, isn’t too bad, except for a burst of activity in the last few measures.

[Jerusha Amado]

Hi Briggs,
You have a lot on your plate! But, everything that you’re working on (harp, organ, voice) must be very rewarding for you.
I read on another thread that you would love to buy a harpsichord! (If so, what brand would you buy?)
It’s good to realize when you need to step away from a piece for a while. I suspect that our brains continue working anyway, but with more efficiency, free from the bombardment of data with which we sometimes fill our minds. Do you ever find that when you go back to the piece after a hiatus, you can play it with greater ease?

[Jerusha Amado]

…..where nobody will hear a note of the harp….
Kreig,
As an orchestral harpist, does it ever bother you when this is the case? (It may not with Mars because the harp part is so small, but does this ever happen to you with larger harp parts?) Is more amplification of the harp needed or should the conductor tone down the projection of the rest of the orchestra?

[Briggsie B. Peawiggle]

I’m insane. Last summer when I was asked to do these voice things, I thought, “Oh how cool!” Now I can’t wait for summer so I can finally relax and not have to think about all this STUFF. I’m not sure about harpsichords. When I finished my undergrad work in organ, I was all set to get a teaching job — I did — and buy a harpsichord — I didn’t. I ended up getting so involved in the teaching thing that I didn’t give the harpsichord a second thought. I just love playing continuo in baroque orchestral works, but I have no room for a harpsichord. So the idea is really out, and I really spent money on my harps, so the budget won’t allow it either. I get the feeling though, that buying a harpsichord is a lot like buying a harp. You have to play a bunch of different ones to find one that sounds right to you. I’d just be happy with a one-manual (8′ strings) to do continuo work with…..but it isn’t going to happen anyway. 🙂

[kreig-kitts]

My only large ensemble has been the symphonic band in which I’ve been playing harp for just approaching three years, so I’m getting my large repertoire exposure as it comes in our concert programming, though I might make a point of learning some of the standard parts in my lessons in the coming year, so I can play the more confidently once the time comes to play them “for real”, and if I ever add “community orchestra” to “community band” on my résumé.
That said, in band the situation is probably multiplied by the fact that symphonic bands are much louder. Our band is quite large, 75-80 people in most concerts, which includes 15-20 soprano clarinets, probably 7-8 saxophones from alto to baritone, about 8-9 trumpets, and usually 6 French horns. So the harp can get buried easily. There are some other threads out here on when the harp can’t be heard, and I’ll try to dig up a couple I enjoyed most and post them in here. To sum them up:

Some harpists amplify, especially in pickup gigs such as church pageants etc., where there might be amplified singers and musicians, players and conductors of varying awareness, and less than ideal acoustics or seating arrangements. Many also amplify with large wind ensemble. My teacher, an orchestral harpist, once mentioned she thought it was fairly normal to amplify in a large band. I might experiment with it preparing for our upcoming concert. It’s very pops, and I have a feeling people will get excited as they play and push the decibels up.

It was rather frustrating for me one piece last fall where I was completely steamrolled, but even there, the xylophonist whom I doubled said that he could tell where I played. Sometimes the harp contributes to the texture, especially on attacks without being conspicuously heard as a harp. That’s the big part of what I like about large ensemble playing, sometimes you’re front and center, sometimes you contribute a unique little bit, and sometimes you should contribute to the fabric as you disappear into it.

For when the harp isn’t heard at all, sometimes it’s the others playing too loud or a conductor who doesn’t care. For composers, there are some throwaway parts. Maybe they wanted to give the harpist something to do whole everybody else was blaring away. There are some parts, however, where the composer didn’t seem to have a realistic idea of how the harp could be heard. I think it’s good to have a sense of humor sometimes, and remember that if my worst problem at the moment is that my harp playing can’t be heard above the trombones, life isn’t too bad.

[kreig-kitts]

Here is a classic thread on inaudible harp parts @http://www.harpcolumn.com/forums/professional-harpists/posts/50714

[Jerusha Amado]

Kreig,
Very interesting!! Thank you for sharing your experiences!
In the interests of accuracy, I should have referred to you as a symphonic band harpist as opposed to an orchestral harpist!
Thanks also for posting the thread on inaudible harp parts.
I really enjoy reading about the varied experiences of our wonderful community!

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