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He looks surprisingly good. Not like those tabloid shots of stars without their makeup. That’s what made me suspicious. Congrats!
Michael- I’m surprised you don’t get splitting headaches constantly refocusing your eyes. That would drive me nuts.
I got the following email from Kathy Bride(Professor of harp at Eastman School of Music and Grandjany student) today, after asking her about the little R in the box. Thought you might be interested in seeing this:
The explanation of the “R” in a sort of half box is fully explained on page
32, Etude No. 6. I do not know why the publisher chose to put the
explanation there and not in the “Preface” or notes “To the Harpist” in the
beginning of the publication. So, if you skip No. 6, you will have no idea
what this means. This figure was only used in the Etudes, which was Mr.
Grandjany’s last publication.
Unfortunately, he also did not explain his usage of odd fingerings in this
work. I wish he had because it would have cleared up many misconceptions. He
conceived the idea of Bach Etudes for the harp not only for technical
development, but for finger dexterity and finger independence. Thus, should
a harpist be faced with having to employ a “strange” or unusual fingering in
a solo work, chamber work, or orchestra part, they would be able to do so,
and to play with ease, relaxation, and confidence because these odd finger
patterns had been practiced within the Etudes.
I found the explanation of that symbol!!! it’s on page 32 at the bottom. There are two versions of the symbol. The one that looks like a right angle box with the R inside it means”for either right or left hand: roll very rapidly, almost unbroken.”
There is a second version of this symbol where the vertical line extends below the horizontal line. That one is “for both hands simultaneously; roll very rapidly, almost unbroken.”
Gina- I just went and looked at that page. Given where he uses that symbol(the bracket with the letter R inside) I’m gonna take a wild guess. The R with the bracket means right hand and I’m guessing that he is emphasizing the fact that the right hand plays on the beat, meaning that the rolled chord starts before the beat so that the melody note will land exactly on the beat and not after it. I’ll be curious to see if anybody can find Grandjany’s own explanation.
Oops!! I posted this under the wrong thread! It should be under the Bach-Grandjany Etudes thread. I’ll repost it there.
Esther- I just went and looked at that page. Given where he uses that symbol(the bracket with the letter R inside) I’m gonna take a wild guess. The R with the bracket means right hand and I’m guessing that he is emphasizing the fact that the right hand plays on the beat, meaning that the rolled chord starts before the beat so that the melody note will land exactly on the beat and not after it. I’ll be curious to see if anybody can find Grandjany’s own explanation.
Michel- Many years ago when I moved to Boston(from Paris) I visited the Loeb Library at Harvard just to see if they had any harp music. What I found were volumes and volumes of music by Bochsa. As I remember it was mostly or entirely solo pieces written on various Opera themes. But it’s been so many years since I was there that I don’t remember specifically. You might contact them to see what exactly they have. But I do remember finding TONS of stuff by Bochsa.
Maybe there ought to be a page on the list for non-harp related subjects. It could be called The Other World, or Miscellaneous… Kim?
Saul- I hate to be the sarcastic pessimist here, but the primary criterion for many harp departments is that the student have a pulse and body temperature of 98.6. The list of harp departments that actually screen students and require certain standards of playing is quite short. All the rest will take whoever is willing to enroll.
Bernhard- Many many years ago I believe Lyon & Healy sold a box-more like a platform- that the harp and harpist would be placed on for concerts to increase the volume of the harp. I’ll ask Sam Milligan about that. He’ll know the details.
Gillian- There is no ‘date’ after which music was written exclusively for double action harp. In fact, there was initially enormous resistance to the double action mechanism. Naderman, in his Universal Methode for harp, goes on a long diatribe about the double action harp, in essence saying that anything that can be played on double action harp can be played on a single action instrument, except cheap effects like harmonic glissandos and who wants to do that. That sort of thing. Remember, Naderman built single action instruments.
For many years after the introduction of the double action harp(in 1812 or so) harpists bought the double action instruments, but they continued to tune them in E flat and to use only half the mechanism, because that is all they knew.
As far as I can tell, it was Parish-Alvars who wrote the first music that could only be played on a double action harp. Before him, harp music was basically the same as piano music in every way. With Parish-Alvars, it could no longer be played on piano or even the single action instrument. So it’s impossible to establish an exact date for the change over from single to double action harp.
That’s a long walk even with a harp cart. And you didn’t say if you have a cart or you plan on carrying the harp, which would be totally insane. Start making calls now and get someone with a stationwagon or van to help you. Tell them: no help, no harp.
No, that’s a Horngacher. My semi-gilded Empire, which is similar to this one, does not have the spiral vine around the column. You can see my harps at my company web site, http://www.swansonharp.com.
