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I have a little Stoney End Eve. It’s old, but was in brand new condition when I found it on ebay a few years back. It had no levers, and it needed new strings just because of age, but it’s a really really nice little harp. It has a beautiful voice, and the string tension isn’t too floppy. I’m a pedal harpist, so the harpsicles were a little too loose in tension for me. I had Bill Webster install full Loveland levers on it, which makes it very versatile. I used to take it to school so kids could see a real harp and even try it out. I also took it to the nursing home where my mom was bed-ridden and in the late stages of dementia. I used to play for her sometimes. I could tell she liked it. It has a very soft, sweet voice. Lately it’s been in its case too much. I need to take it out and play it. It’s a really sweet little harp.
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.
Thanks for the info. I understand your reasoning for not wanting a minivan, but I have to say that I agree 100% with Carl Swanson. I just got a 2013 Dodge Caravan, and it is the absolute perfect harpmobile. It has an automatic liftback, low loading deck, tons of room — the harp just shoves right in and there are room for 3 more concert grands according to Carl. For sure I can fit everything I need in there. I love the stow and go seats…..no need to remove seats to have the cargo area free….and the stowing is so easy. It also has a lot of power, isn’t a gas hog, and it’s really not that hard to maneuver — and this coming from someone who really prefers smaller cars. I think it is the perfect harpmobile — for me.
I have 4 harps: A Camac Athena concert grand, a L&H Troubadour I, a Webster Cecelia and a Stoney End Eve. My favorite is the Camac because I prefer pedal harp. I love it because I can play anything on it, and I am pretty sucky at lever flipping, but do well with pedals (I’m also an organist by degree and therefore, I do pretty well with my feet even though it’s a completely different concept). I love my Troub because it has a beautiful mellow voice and a very high string tension. I love it because it’s old and still does very well. I love the Webster because it also has high string tension, a really wide soundboard and it has an interesting voice. It works really well for early music and for Celtic music, but it is capable of anything. The Eve is limited, but it is a cute little harp, and I used to take it to school when I was working so the kids could see and try a real harp. I also used to take it to the nursing home and play for my late mom who was in the throes of dementia and completely unaware of her surroundings. She would relax to the music. I’m glad I have run out of room for instruments, because I really really would like to buy a harpsichord, but alas, have no room left in the house. 🙂
Briggsie
I believe it depends upon the harp as to whether or not you can hear a difference. On my Camac Athena there is a marked difference between coated wires and silver/copper wires. The coated have a very dull sound while the silver/copper ring beautifully. My teacher has also noticed this on her Camac Atlantide.
Briggsie
Hi Kreig. Thanks for this info. I just solved my harpmobile problems with a minivan, but I enjoyed reading your assessments. Can you be a little more specific on which cars you were able to load your harp into flat, if any? I had an ’02 Subaru Outback, and I had to crawl into the back doors and manipulate the harp by turning and lifting to get it in. It would not load flat. I found that to be a big pain. Just wondering if any of these allow a flat, ‘slide-it-in’ sort of load.
Thanks,
BriggsieI ended up buying the plastic mat with grippers on the underside. It should work really well. It rolls up and I’m keeping the box it came in so I can store it when I’m not using it. The Webster Cecelia went right in the side door and lay lengthwise across the width of the van where the center seats normally are. It was SO EASY!!
Thanks Sherry. Nope….not to worry what anyone thinks. If it works for you, it works!! Does the harp shove right in to the Flex?
Well I just did the Stow and Go on the middle seats because I’m loading my Webster Cecelia in today to take to my ensemble rehearsal… TOTAL piece of cake. I read on another thread about harp cars that the O.P. didn’t want the stigma of driving a “mom van” sort of thing. Well get this: I’m not a mom (except for 2 little rescue pups who LOVE sitting in their own little seat in the van). But I am the owner of a beautiful concert harp, and I’m tired of having to get the harp in and then go in the back doors and turn and twist and pull until the harp gets in correctly and then having to risk bumps and dings to get it out without injury. I’ll suffer the stigma in order to lower the harp and push her in. 🙂
Yay for my spanking new van.
For me, warming up is necessary because I am primarily a keyboard musician. I need to sit at the harp and put my hands in the proper position for harp playing before I launch into a piece. I need to subtly remind my hands that this is a harp and not a keyboard. I like to go through some large chords and arpeggios just to make sure my hands are doing the right thing before I start actually playing a piece. I also warm up on the keyboard, but in a different way……just to get things moving and my mind centered, and I wouldn’t think of singing without a warmup first…..it’s just me though.
Absolutely right, Gretchen. Cubic feet won’t really tell you if the harp will fit. You need length and width, but I can tell you from experience that the way to know for sure is to do exactly what Gretchen says, and I just did that. I drove a Grand Caravan from the dealership to my house, loaded my harp, unloaded it, drove back to the dealer and bought one. In the past I have measured, and I ended up with a car where the harp needed to be manipulated, loaded weirdly. It made loading and unloading quite difficult. Take the car to your house and load your harp.
In a Dodge Caravan you can load 4. If you go to the “New Harp Car” thread and read Carl’s posts, you will see how. I could easily put 2 in mine. We have also loaded 2 harps into a Taurus X, both on the non-disc side with lots and lots of padding so no discs were bumped.
In consideration of that fact that your harp has a beautiful voice, as my does, then these are the steps I would take: Consider what you paid for it. Add to that the cost of the repair and then decide if that’s going to be worth it. Is it more worth it to just sell it for what you can get for it now and move on? I have found that a Troubadour I sounds a lot like a pedal harp. Therefore, if I were going to play something, I would go straight to my pedal harp. However, when working on Celtic tunes or folk tunes, it’s nicer to have a harp that really shows that music off…..and for my ears, it wasn’t a Troubadour. I ended up getting a Webster Cecelia, which really works well for Celtic/folk music. I use the Troub at church for pieces that work well for preludes or offertories there. But really, to my ears, it sounds like a small pedal harp.
Secondly, I’d talk to the technician after he has had a chance to do a thorough exam of the harp and see if it is stable enough to consider putting more work into. Is the soundboard okay? Is the neck not too pulled to one side? Since you have already had Lovelands put on, will it even be possible to change those or adjust those?
Good luck….keep us posted on it, because I find this really interesting. Here’s a pic of my Troubadour I with the new levers. It’s not a great shot, but it is what it is. 🙂
LOL…..well, maybe after several years of wrenching your body to get a harp situated in a car, you’ll feel differently. That’s how my love for the van came about. Good luck to you on finding the perfect car.
