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Thanks Seika, know it’s a steady and cumulative process and I have written your points down in my study book as a checklist. I’m an experienced player and know to do most of these but there are some I hadn’t thought of. I’ll check I have sufficient pedal bookmarks (hadn’t thought of that for active listening) and master the jumps, yes, the piece needs higher heels than usual. As I keep working I’ll see if my confidence is growing !! We all have to stretch ourselves…
Darn, I lost the link but theoretically if you factor in enharmonics on adjacent strings, there’s a 2 in 9 chance you’ll get the right string and pedal combination to hit a note and therefore a 7/9 chance of missing it and after that it’s a train crash, one wrong pedal move leaves two out of joint. This happened to me once as a teenager, when there was no chance of recovery in a little piece by Pescetti, occasionally when in orchestra (they can play on) and sometimes to others, when unfortunate competitors crashed out of the 2nd movement of coincidentally Pescetti’s Sonata, which was the set piece….! Oh well, I guess I have to work out a recovery strategy, insist on rehearsals and try to eliminate hesitations and recaps.
Wow the piece (film and music) is enchanting, you could introduce some harp counterpoint or even short cannons, (as an echo) or better, get back to the composer and see if he would consider adding harp in.
apologies I commented earlier thinking you meant string quartets in general which are of course a completely different genre.As an observer it’s both interesting and scary when one realises just how plastic our brains are and how compelling this behaviour and these habits are. It is shocking to read these reports and how others behave during concerts and plays, such common habits are widespread (apparently audiences in a theaters are lit by phones during a perfomance and in pop concerts everyone’s filming the gig with their hands up in the air), so I guess people assume that if it’s become a norm then it ceases to be deemed rude, but then where are the boundaries ? You read about actors having to cope with this mid-stream on stage.
Furthermore I found two books: ” The Activity Illusion” by Ian Price (UK) explores how much people need to get a constant fix and reward from calls and messages, to feed their status and ego, with almost a preference for interrruptions over the task in hand, craving the fillip and the ‘reward’. Another “Alone Together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other” by Sherry Turkle (USA) cites a girl with splints on her sore thumbs from constant messaging, who would not knock on her flatmate’s door for fear of being intrusive, and school students exchanging 100 messages before lunchtime, preferring text to talking.
But hey, in a masterclass when the maitre’s phone went off, we all found it amusing…this is helpful
http://www.harpcolumn.com/forums/young-harpists/posts/57960I see what you mean about forgoing E# at the end of Sacree, that’s another example where I wish Renie had left Debussy’s part untouched, in my view that she made the renowned Animez much more difficult to read and unplayable for the feet; Saul and Carl’s earlier thread on that is still in the archives …. http://www.harpcolumn.com/forums/teaching-the-harp/posts/33684 I’m no expert but once that passage is rewritten in sharps and naturals it’s viable, many players have cracked it and published versions can’t really have omissions. Although I recast & learnt the pedalling last time, being consistent at speed was precarious. Spend too much time on that and you neglect the rest of the piece !
I’d really like a version which avoids double-take thinking about pedal and string choices whilst playing.
Anyway death by Debussy doesn’t appeal, I’d rather get excited by his sound world – the rest of the piece is actually quite fun ! Whilst I procrastinate, talented students just get on and play this.why hasn’t anyone mentioned that the height of the mid-point varies with the pedal (or indeed lever) setting, so it can be a hit and miss affair from one piece to another and accuracy has to be learnt. The notable example is from the Firebird playing something like DCDE in different flat and sharp settings, (I’ll have to check what the notes were) but the hand has to move up and down between adjacent strings for a clear sound. There’s a similar example in The Planets,
gosh, I just had a similar buzz develop today- first ever which started without warning and then established itself in the upper octaves, Reluctant to ditch the string I had to think logically….. string, metalwork, something else at that frequency obviously)so I slackenedthe affected strings one by one, same prob then I so then I tuned 3 adjacent stings to the same freq & tested each whilst stopping others in the vicinity (No clue, flummoxed + worried it’s metalwork) but it kept buzzing from all 3 strings & my ears couldn’t place it so finally I checked the knots and hey presto it was a totally unrelated knot filler higher up. Phew I was beginning to get desperate and it was frying my brain somewhat……
Thanks Carl, you sent those to me earlier !! I’ve been advised to stick to the part I know – so I will, but would still like to look over the new version and expect it to be better for others first time around.
I’d get a Bardic 27 from Camac in a choice of 10 colours but nylon strings, weighs 6kg and looks to be more compact, possibly cheaper and the carry case is a good rucksack, the Camac cases are always excellent. The Ravenna 26 in it’s case is not particularly small & I fear you might find it cumbersome. The strings are new carbon fibre (can’t remember the proper name) and feel better than nylon. Why not compare the relative weights.
well 30+ strings really. With 34, middle C is more or less central and will give you 2 octaves in the bass clef. The top string tends to be about the same note regardless (around 1st A or G simply because of the apex); it’s taken me a long time to realise this. What’s the next size up ? I had a look recently but can’t recall. There’s lots to choose from
I teach a 7 year old and it’s nearly too small for her, so it would be small for you. The platform stand works better than the extendable post which is dreadful to balance on. However with only one octave below middle C down to 5th C I doubt it will cover many pieces. Take a look at your music first – or settle for playing everthing an octave higher, I guess.
Well you’ll know that the 2nd movement in concertos is usually the slower and easier, so Mozart’s Flute+Harp 2nd movement would be great, provided you’re allowed a flute. The Handel is an obvious choice, there’s 2 editions with a piano reduction. What have you already discounted ? there’s a list here http://www.talkclassical.com/13286-your-top-10-harp.html and you could browse the Holywell catalogue p59 onwards and call them and also Catrin Finch composed something on her recent disc along with John Rutter’s new composition. Googling ‘imslp harp concerto’ brings up Krumpholz and Dussek concertos. There’s a CD of harp Adagio’s with one by Eichner and don’t overlook Concertinos when searching. Go on and stun them but don’t let the piano drown you out, I hate playing too close to pianos in orchestra. Good luck!
I’m going to focus on middle C up to G and down to G,F first to get the octave G to G covered securely and any notes beyond as they occur, some of which she has read before. The concept of the two staves in relation to the harp are important to instill into the pupil’s spatial understanding and then I’ll continue building secure note recognition at a gradual pace. She likes to tell me about notes she’s learnt on the recorder too so am incorporating that too & we played the recorder’s range together (me on recorder, her on harp) so she’ll learn to recognise and fix the whole compass. First time I have had such a young green beginner who hasn’t done recorder first, so I am grabbing the opportunity to teach both staves together. Revisiting earlier pieces facilitates this. Parents would prefer her just to enjoy playing along, so it’s a question of balance, fun, focus and learning.
