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Bernhard- My question was written from the standpoint of the harpist, who is not going to order strings by diameter but by name(4th octave C, etc.). So if the carbon string company is packaging its strings to match the diameter of the same string in gut, the harpist is greatly increasing the tension on the harp frame by changing to carbon strings. This is what I am talking about. There isn’t a single harpist at any playing level who is going to concern himself/herself with the diameter of the string. They are going to put the string on the harp according to how it is labeled.
What I would like to see here in the US are a variety of gauges which could be marked ‘standard gauge’ and ‘light’ or ‘thin’ gauge. You can get lever gauge gut and wire strings from Vanderbilt, and they are long enough to go on a concert grand harp. I used those to string my Erard. The lever gauge wires run about .008(8 thousands of an inch) smaller than standard gauge, which is quite significant. The guts run only about .002(2 thousands of an inch) smaller then standard gauge guts and is barely noticeable.
Bernhard- Your post brings up the question: Are the carbon strings 15% smaller diameter than the equivalent gut or nylon string? Or are they the same diameter? In other words, is a 4th octave G carbon string the same diameter as a 4th octave G gut or nylon string and therefore 25% higher in tension? Or did the carbon string company make their strings 15% smaller diameter in order to keep the tension the same as a gut or nylon string? I suspect that the carbon strings are packaged at the same diameter as the equivalent gut or nylon string and are therefore much higher tension, which is what I have always suspected. If that is the case, changing to carbon strings is going to damage the harp(soundboard and neck) because of the enormous increase in tension.
Julie- I’ll tell you something else that drives me nuts, and that is composers who compose at a keyboard with the “harp” button on. The sounds coming out are more or less harp sounds, but the notes are written for a keyboard, not a harp. So they do all sorts of things that simply won’t work on the harp: fast repeated notes, 5 finger patterns,both hands very close together or overlapping, etc. That’s all keyboard technique, not harp. And then they wonder why the part doesn’t work.
The problem with metronome markings, when put there by the composer or transcriber, is that they usually figure out the marking by thinking the music in their head and then match that to the metronome. They rarely figure out those tempos from actually sitting at the instrument and playing, or better yet, listening to someone else play the piece, adjusting the tempo to the speed they feel is right, and then matching that to the metronome. And we always hear music in our head faster then we would actually play it. The composer Daniel Pinkham told me that many years ago, and I think it is true.
When I was a student, I labored endlessly to play whatever piece I was working on at the speed indicated by the metronome marking, and thought I was a huge failure if I just couldn’t pull it off. When I got back to playing again after a hiatus of more than 20 years, I decided to ignore all metronome markings and let the piece find it’s own tempo. When I get a piece to performance level, I’ll occasionally compare what I am doing to the metronome markings. About half the time I’m doing exactly what the composer or arranger indicated. The rest of the time I’m a bit slower. In either case, i don’t care if it sounds the way I want it to sound.
I’m not telling anybody what they should do. She should try various options and see what works for her. That’s all you can do. But she should not exclude the possibility of medication if it proves to be a major problem.
I do not agree with you that “the vast majority of performers DO find that their stage nerves diminish” with experience. State nerves are very specific, as I said in my article. One person can do weddings, background music, even orchestra work with no problem, and then fall apart playing a solo. Another can have no problem playing if they are accompanying themselves singing, and then be a wreck playing in an orchestra. Yet another can play for a small group of people in their living room, but fall apart playing the same pieces in a concert setting. Lawrence Olivier stopped performing on stage for over 15 years because he couldn’t control the nerves. But he made movies during that time, which didn’t bother him at all. Horowitz withdrew from public performing twice during his career, each time for more than 10 years. But he made recordings during those periods, which didn’t make him nervous.
I know many people who gave up careers in music over this. And I’ve been told by knowledgeable people that many orchestra players use beta blockers for performances, particularly the brass players. In all the research I did for that article, and with all the people I interviewed, I did not find one person who could say that their nerves(for the events that made them nervous) got better the more they performed.
I don’t agree with that at all. If you have incapacitating anxiety, as some people do, then it’s only going to get worse as time goes on, because you are building on bad performances. In my article, A PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS, I mention Vladimir Horowitz and Lawrence Olivier as to very famous, very talented performers who were so undone by nerves that they both retired from live performances for years. I just read that Derek Jacobi, the great English actor, did exactly the same thing after years of stage acting. In preparing that article I talked to many many people who gave up a career in performance because they could not control the nerves.
Everybody gets nervous performing, and everybody thinks their case of nerves is really bad. But people get nervous to different degrees and with different symptoms. If you can get through a performance, no matter how nervous you feel, with minimal loss of control and lowering of performance quality, then trust me, you don’t get all that nervous. But if your performance really suffers quality-wise because of the nerves, or if people who really know you and your ability tell you that you sounded nervous, then you have a serious problem with nerves that no amount of performance experience is going to help.
Jean- Interesting comments. My doctor, when I first talked to her about my “golfers elbow” said to try the anti-inflammatory, which worked for most patients. But if it didn’t, then there was the injection you mentioned.
I had some success with the anti-inflammatory, but have just kind of waited it out since, trying to avoid the movements that cause pain. The pain is almost completely gone now with not further treatments. I’m back to lifting weights and that doesn’t cause any pain either. It’s taken 3 or 4 months from the start of this to get to this point.
Tiffany- I just pulled out my copy of the Aria. it’s been years since I played it, but I guessed right about the part you are talking about. It’s the start of the grand arpeggios in the harp, with the organ playing the first theme.
The metronome marking at the start of the piece is an eighth note equals 72. Letter D is the start of the recapitulation and says “a tempo”, referring back to the beginning of the piece. So the tempo there is an eighth equals 72. But that may sound a little frantic with all the notes the harp has to play. I would suggest that you figure out what you can play tempo-wise at D and use that tempo for the beginning of the piece. If it sounds too slow for the beginning, play the beginning slightly faster and then relax the tempo down to what you can do at D. Just try not to have too much of a discrepancy between the two sections.
A word of caution. If you have not had a rehearsal with the organist yet, I think you’ll find that from letter D to the end of the piece it’s almost impossible for you to hear clearly what the organ is doing. You’re going to have to explain to him that he will have to watch you and follow your beat. You have to be positioned so the organist and you can see each other. And at D you will probably have to mark beats with your head as you play. Every time I have ever played this piece, I was never really sure if the organ and I were together in the second half of the piece!
Michael- Why don’t you have a teacher? Where are you? there’s an American Harp Society and there are lots of teachers listed in their directory in every state. It’s not a good idea to teach yourself. You’ll develop atrocious habits that will be very difficult to correct. So, get a teacher!
Have you talked to your doctor about this? It may be helpful to see a physical therapist who could give you some exercises. In any case, it’s probably going to take time to get over it. I somehow got a case of “golfers elbow”(I don’t play golf) this past summer. That’s pain on the inside of the elbow, where I think yours is on the outside of the elbow. My doctor prescribed a very strong anti-inflammatory and told me to use ice on it several times a day. I didn’t do the ice(lazy) but the anti-inflammatory worked great. When the prescription ran out the pain came back somewhat. I haven’t done anything more. I’ve just been waiting it out and it is almost completely gone now. But you should start with a talk to your doctor.
Brandon- How far are you from Sioux Falls, South Dakota? There’s an excellent teacher there named Anna Vorhes.
Brandon- Welcome to the harp community. There was another thread on here about this a few years ago. If you poke around in the archives you can probably find it.
There are more and more guys, both kids and adults, who are taking up the harp. There’s a Catholic boys school in Brooklyn New York that started a harp department last year and they’ve got 8 boys playing the harp. Robin Cartier in new Jersey has a huge harp department in a public high school, with many boys playing the harp. There are some spectacular men playing the harp now. In the last 20 years several have won international harp competitions(Emmanuel Ceysson of France as well as Xavier de Maistre), both of whom are now in major orchestras. Emmanuel is principal harpist of the Paris Opera, and Xavier is harpist in the Vienna Philharmonic. Emmanuel is 25 or so and Xavier maybe 30. So you’ve got plenty of company. Let us know from time to time how you are doing and what you are working on. Good luck.
When I wrote that article for the Harp Column, I showed a copy to my own doctor. I had consulted with a doctor in the writing of that article, but it was another doctor, one married to a harpist friend of mine.
My own doctor called me as soon as she had read the article and asked me if she could keep that copy of the magazine that I had given her. She also asked me if she could make copies of the article. She told me that she had many patients who had terrible problems with public speaking-herself included-and she wanted to be able to give them a copy of my article. She mentioned one patient, an architect, who regularly had to give presentations and who was paralyzed by nerves each time.
The point here is, a lot of people have problems, severe problems, with performance anxiety. And when they do, it usually doesn’t get better with practice, but in fact usually gets worse. If that happens, medical intervention is really the only way out. Not everybody needs beta blockers. But for those who do, it’s good to know they are there.
I think violin harmonics are written as a diamond. But are they written where played or where they sound? I don’t know.
To me, all notation for harp should tell you where to put your fingers. That is why I hate double flats and double sharps. And I don’t want to see A sharp if in reality I have to play B flat. That is why I hate the harmonics-where-they-sound business. Writing the harmonic where it sounds does not tell you where to put your fingers. Finally, for time out of mind, harmonics have been written where they are played(where to put your fingers). It was typical of Salzedo to change something like that, just to put his own stamp on it.
