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Stravinsky, because he was Russian, did not have copyrights on any of his early music, in particular the three ballets. For this reason, he went back to these pieces, I think in the 1940’s, and made new orchestrations, which he could then copyright. I believe that the main thing he did to the harp parts is reduce them from two harps to one. This made them more problematic to play.
I have never seen that. Maybe it is something that the lever harpists do. It’s never done on pedal harp.
I don’t know what you are asking. Are you talking about a scale-like passage where the 3rd or 4th finger crosses under the thumb? There is no notation for that. You just put the fingering if you need to and the harpist knows what to do.
Drill it out with a drill bit that is small enough to fit into the string hole in the tuning pin. You could use an electric drill or an eggbeater hand drill. Whatever is convenient.
Thank you so much Jerusha and Balfour. Very kind words. These pieces are such a surprise and revelation. Who knew that there could be so many pieces by Tournier that had never been published? Everyone who hears them tells me that they love them.
Hi Lily,
The thing that I love about the Bochsa etudes is the variety of patterns. Each etude is built on a different pattern, and playing different patterns until you have muscle memory for that pattern is how you build technique. The one deficiency- and this is true of virtually all 19th century etudes- is that they are all very right handed. The left hand can phone in its notes! That’s why I wrote an “etude variation” for each of the original etudes that puts all the technical material into the left hand, thus giving both hands an equal workout.
Dear Lily-White,
If you want an etude book that is spiral bound, look at my Bochsa Revisited, published by Carl Fischer Music. You can find it in a number of places, including my web site http://www.swansonharpcompany.com. You can even print out examples of a number of the etudes and try them out to see if they fit your level of playing. Lastly, there is a version for pedal harp and another version for lever harp. Both are spiral bound.
Carl Swanson
There’s too much here that raises more questions. I would have to examine the harp in person to tell you what the condition of the instrument is and what needs to be repaired. I can tell you that all those 3 digit serial number Lyon & Healy harps have the same problem with the body shell, which you alluded to in your post. It took Lyon & Healy 22 years, from their start selling harps in 1889, to figure out how to build the body shell so that it would last. In their earliest version, which is present on all the 3 digit instruments, the body shell was made from two very thick layers of veneer with the grain direction the same on both layers. These body shells develop cracks, often big cracks, which really cannot be repaired. The body needs to be replaced. Beyond that, I don’t know exactly what is going on so can’t advise you. Try to get a good technician to look at it sometime.
It’s a real tragedy that the Wurlitzer serial numbers have been lost. Many years ago I spoke to a woman who was the last secretary to the President of the North Tonawanda New York Wurlitzer factory, which is where the harps were made. She told me that when the factory was ordered to close down in the late 1930’s, the President of the company ordered several workers to go up to the 5th floor records room and take everything to the dump! She told me that she knew for a fact that some of those workers took some of those records home with them. But she didn’t know exactly what they had taken. Maybe a hunt of Facebook or some other site, looking for descendants of anyone who worked at that factory would turn up something. There is a North Tonawanda Historical Society that I contacted many years ago. But at that time they didn’t have anything. Maybe they do now.
You shouldn’t look at a semi-grand harp as “second best.” They’re great for playing gigs, are easy to move, are more comfortable than a concert grand for a lot of repertoire, especially 19th century repertoire which have technical work right up to the last string on top. As far as getting used to spacing: Get used to it!! Us older harpists have spent a lifetime playing different harps with different spacing. If you have trouble adjusting, then you need to play a variety of harps on a regular basis. You should be able to adjust instantly to whatever harp you are playing.
To my knowledge, the Wurlitzer serial number list is lost. It’s a real tragedy. Because we can’t find the serial number list, we don’t know when any particular serial number was made, we don’t know what the Wurlitzer total harp production was. We don’t know what the year to year production was. We don’t know how many of each model they made. I tried years ago to find the Wurlitzer serial number list, without success.
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for your kind words. Your book is going out this afternoon. I hope you try some of the other pieces in that edition too. I think you’ll really enjoy them.
Hi Balfour,
It’s a long complicated story. I’m in the process right now of writing an article that I hope will be published in the American Harp Journal. That will explain all of this. In addition to these pieces, I found about 10 more by Tournier that were never published and are not on any inventory of his music. Emmanuel Ceysson just recorded a whole Tournier CD that will be released next year. A lot of the pieces that are on that CD are ones that I found, including 5 songs that Tournier set. I’m really looking forward to that.
The Children’s corner is a long complicated story too. It was going to be published last year, but there was a complication that I can’t go into here now.
