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>As I wrote, most people don’t even notice something like levers on a big floor harp.
I completely agree with this. My own personal preference is strongly for camacs although I agree that they are ugly (if you’re obsessing over details) and I don’t care for the swept-back style of the handle, which makes it tricky when you have to go back and forth to harps with levers where the handle is more directly over the string you are playing, but the ability to regulate them and the excellent tone more than makes up for that.
I think to some extent it has to do with the kind of playing you do, as well, which is why I haven’t said anything about levers in this thread. I find I tend to slice my fingers on the sharp edges of the truitt handles when making fast changes, which I do a lot in the kind of playing I do, but that’s not a concern for the sort of music usually used for healing/therapy.
But I think you’re kidding yourself if you think non-harpists can appreciate the appearance of one lever over another. They can’t tell a Style 23 from a troubadour, seriously, unless both are directly in front of them together.
Well, for all I know (I only play large floor harps when I play lever harp), perhaps someone did actually experience this, but I’m curious as to how light a harp would have to be for it to be a real problem, which is why I’d like to know which harp.
>I certainly would never want to big, heavy Camac levers on a small harp as it adds unncesessary weight and affects the overall balance of the instrument.
Just curious, Michaela. Is this based on personal experience or just theoretical? If you’ve experienced it, which harp did they throw out of balance?
> Am I hearing that there are more subtle adjustments possible with Truitts for modal playing?
Levers make half steps. All properly working levers raise the tone a half step, regardless of brand, so no, I don’t think that’s what anyone was saying.
Hi, Kay. No, I’ve thought about it, but there doesn’t seem to be the interest in Christmas music that there used to be. If you email me I can send you a couple of things, like a lever harp adaptation of (part of) the Samuel Rousseau ‘Variations Pastorales’ that will be available if I ever have time to get the Seaside Press site set up for downloads.
Thanks for asking.
>Perhaps bubinga?
I have no experience with either of the models you’re considering, but I just wanted to point out that while I’m a totally a bubinga kind of girl, it is about the heaviest of the possible woods, something to consider for healing type playing where you do a lot of lugging.
>They made ones with 43 strings and also 44 strings, I think since I have seen some of these models.
Are you sure those weren’t Washburns, Misty?
I don’t know the first two, but the last two are full-fledged concertos, requiring about the same skill level as something like the first movement of the Handel (although a different skill set–you have to be *very* good with celtic ornaments to play the celtic concerto, for example).
So while they’re excellent audience pleasing pieces, they’re not for gently breaking in the novice orchestral harpist, if that’s what you’re looking for.
If you’re looking for pieces that feature the harp rather than just works that have harp parts, about the easiest concerto type pieces I can think of are the two vivaldi concerti arranged by Kathy Bundock Moore. I think that some of the McDonald Wood pieces have also been orchestrated (Processional?) but I have no idea of what the ensemble parts are like.
Can you explain a little more about what you want: concertos or just ensemble opportunities, lever or pedal harp? What skill level for the harpist?
There’s a very nice arrangement of that piece in Dewey Owens’s “Wedding Music for the Advanced Lever Harpist”. Also Gertrude Ina Robinson has a nice lever harp version, too, but I forget the title of the collection.
There’s a very nice arrangement of that piece in Dewey Owens’s “Wedding Music for the Advanced Lever Harpist”. Also Gertrude Ina Robinson has a nice lever harp version, too, but I forget the title of the collection.
Of course, you’ll need to adjust for range on some of them, just as you would with a small pedal harp, but it’s usually just a case of leaving out the bottom notes of octaves or jumping the octave once in a while, like in the arpeggiated left hand of Silent Night. Of course, if you have a 40 string harp, no adjustments would be necessary.
If you like the McDonald-Wood arrangements, you can actually play quite a few of them on lever harp.
In book 1:
O Holy Night, with a little fudging on the inner voices in mm. 9 and 10. i usually just play the top line in treble in the second half of m. 9, and and subsitute another note for the D# in the bass in m. 10.
O Come All Ye Faithful: play it A rather than A-flat (you’ll need to adjust for range in the bass octaves sometimes and leave out the D# in the right hand in measure 23.
Away in a Manger: no problems
First Noel: just don’t do the elaborate cadence at the end.
Lo, How a Rose: no problem
Book 2:
Silent Night: Just cadence before the glissando section begins
Away in a Manger: no problem
We Three Kings: no problem
It came upon: play scale gliss or arpeggio instead
Hark: Play scale glisses where you have the B# F-flat
Lullay: this is very doable, but kind of complicated to explain. Pay attention to which voices need to go back and forth between the F natural and F sharp and you can figure it out.
Come thou long expected: no problem, although I’d leave out the C# in one voice in the chord section where it appears in both hands.
Book 3:
Bring a torch: play scale gliss or skip the transition section at the bottom of the first page
Rudolph: in the descending octaves on the first page, don’t play on beat one, skip the F# octave, so it’s rest, G, E, D.
We wish: some variations work fine
Deck the Halls: scale glissandos
Twelve days: no problems
