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I was making the assumption that the harp had been flown in, and that would mean it had been through more extremes of temperature and air pressure etc. Sure if it was by road then less to worry about. I once shipped a harp from UK to Salt Lake city and the harpist was very careful, meaning slow, when it was delivered and we did the same on its return. By road less of a problem, I agree, now that I see that Oregon is just two states south of Vancouver.
The single bars go by very fast in Neptune, when you are adding colour with sweeping chromatic broken chords you would be advised to create a 2nd part with just your notes in because turning those pages is very difficult. You also have a few very exposed bars ear
Ier in Neptune, doubling with flute melody, the figure and fingering tricky and even though I listened to it last night and loved it. A long time ago, once I knew the work well enough I went through the double part and created separate, largely independent, parts. A very interesting scientific review of each planet was provided in the UK’s radio 3 performance last night. Both Voyagers still transmitting back to earth, voyager 2 did a fine job on the planets.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000kfxYou should allow about 3 weeks to gradually bring the harp up to pitch. So do for example the C’s sound at the pitch of A’s or G’s ?
There is one snag to the UKs assisted purchase scheme, which came to light !ast year : you have to be learning in a state school and taking the instrument into school, so I hope you can substantiate this. As I teach someone privately she couldn’t get past this red tape.
Look at the PDF of Holywell music’s catalogue about 10 years old there is an orchestral section. Also I just found this sensible article :
https://www.ilasta.com/article/a-harp-in-the-orchestra/I had made a couple of liners for pedal harp transport covers before, as you say, and found horse canvas and sail cover canvas perfect and not too tough to sew. I noticed over the years that they both slip on top first, column end before knee end, so this time I have sewn up the front edge and will put the ties on the back opening – counter intuitive but as I find my harps get dusty at the base and on the soundboard, I think this will work better. I reckon a tailor, haberdasher or an upholsterer would make light work of the job !
Hearpe, Basel is a Syrian professeur of harp who had to take cover, sit it out and then flee the city of Homs with only the clothes on his back, so he lost everything including his instruments. It takes time to recover and get reestablished in a new foreign country & culture etc. My summary might have inaccuracies so apologies to Basel.
When you are able to study or simply want to listen this is one of the most loveliest duos in the repertoire, so now I think Santa Barbara must be a fantastic place having twice got as far as LA and Santa Monica. https://youtu.be/6JdVBULKACg
Tomorrow a 72 year old grade 8 pianist is coming to see me, she’s finding the harp more tricky than she had imagined and once school resumes I have a 10 year old pianist who has been waiting 6 years to play the harp and obliged to play piano first so all very interesting…
4 years later and I am returning to this topic. I have been teaching a piano grade 5 teenager who wants also to play the harp in orchestra, now that’s an interesting reason for starting out. So in a record 9 months she has made the transition from hands that could not play to a very accurate and careful player who still lacks the strength to perform. Her reading is excellent but acquiring harp skills cannot be hurried, playing 3 fingered straight chords needs developing, in scales her 4th finger would crash into her 3rd & she found spread chords in the right hand counter intuitive. However her patience and easy familiarity with the harp’s string pattern and compass are great and as a piano to harp guinea pig we have found out what the commonalities and the differences are. She’s very lucky to he moving onto a local orchestral centre for youngsters which provides a pedal harp and a graduated introduction to orchestral works.
Watch Emmanuel playing Impromptu Caprice, fantastique ! https://youtu.be/r3xvVw9vPF8
