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Zoriada- Thanks. I should have pulled out the CD and checked before I posted that. Anyway, the Cras is a gorgeous piece.
Basel- That’s called a hearse in English and I have known several people who have used hearses as their harp cars!
I think one of the most gorgeous pieces of chamber music written for harp is the sextet by Jean Cras. Try to find a recording of that.
There are a number of grading lists out there. Someplace I’ve got several of them. But I agree with Saul. When I looked over those lists I felt that many of the pieces were in the wrong place. So if you find such a list, take it as a general idea of what the level of each piece is and be prepared to move some things around to suit your particular technical level. Any piece is difficult if you don’t have the technical underpinnings required to play it. So what is difficult for one student at a particular level will not be as difficult for another.
Carl…I’m sure you can relate to thsi personality trait). Chris-I just came across your comment and laughed out loud. Welcome to the club!
Let’s see…Idiotic comments. Hmmmmm…When I was just starting to freelance many many years ago, people would frequently come up and say. “Gee, you must be in the (Boston) Symphony.” I wanted to say to them(but didn’t) “Do you think I’d be playing Guys and Dolls with Saugus High School if I was in the $%^&# Symphony???” One day I was unloading a harp from my car when two little boys- maybe 11 or 12 years old- walked by. They looked at what I was doing and then one of them said(in a heavy Boston accent) “Hey mistah, is that a hahp?” Yes I said. He then turned to his friend and said “See, I told you it wasn’t a banjo!”
Zoraida- I just looked at that clip. The kid is wonderful! Very sensitive performance and a gorgeous technique. I wonder who his teacher is?
I’m surprised no one mentioned Britten’s Ceremony of Carols. That was the first time in my life I had ever heard harp, and it wasn’t just the Interlude that I loved, but the harp accompaniment to all the carols. The recording was King’s College Choir with Osian Ellis, and I nearly wore out the record. It was a loooooooong time before I heard any other harp recordings, but the Britten was all I needed to get started. I had an excellent teacher named Lois Bannerman and 6 months after my first lesson I played several movements and the Interlude from the Ceremony… That was kind of my dream come true at the time.
Barbara- If I tried to play that on most harps, I would have cut and bleeding knuckles after the first 3 measures. I’ve got large hands and long fingers, and over the years I’ve found that there are certain pieces that I simply cannot play on anything but one of my own Swanson harps or on the Lyon & Healy Wagner harp that I rebuilt for myself years ago.
It really can’t be transposed lower because the beginning of the piece is already very low on the harp. It would sound like I was moving furniture if I put it any lower. No, the answer is to play it on a harp that has sufficient room up in the first octave.
Some 23’s have sufficient room at the top but many don’t. I personally would not be able to play Contemplation on a 23. Not enough room at the top, and the first octave is too high and behind my head. I much prefer semi-grand harps because the first octave is lower and not so far back.
There’s one other issue that is critical to being able to play this piece, and that is the amount of room in the first octave for your right hand. Renie wrote this on an Erard Gothique, like the one pictured in another thread,”My ‘new’ Erard. Erards have an enormous amount of room in the first octave, making this piece much more playable. Unless you have a harp where you can get your right hand easily into the first octave, this piece is out of the question.
Emily- I actually learned the whole piece but didn’t quite get it to performance level. It’s a strange piece. The first two pages are not difficult at all. Low to middle intermediate level. But the last three pages are VERY difficult!
Christopher- That harp is very small isn’t it? I’m wondering if any of the oblong bass discs are hitting against each other when the pedal goes up into flat. You could correct that either shortening the rod very slightly(1 full turn if there is no overmotion) or by making the slot felt thicker.
Sound travels really easily on a harp and almost any noise any place on the instrument will sound like it’s coming from the action. So it’s probably coming from the pedestal with the F pedal hitting something. Does the sound happen when you move the pedal sideways(out of the natural slot) or when you move it up and down? You might try laying the harp down on the floor and moving the F pedal with your hand while you look up into the pedestal to see what is hitting. If you can locate the source of the noise I can probably tell you what you have to do to stop it.
I wanted to add one comment to my previous post, and that is that critical thinking and the discussion that goes with it, heated or not, should, in the end, leave everybody participating or just observing with an added understanding of the subject at hand. For that reason, when I’m around other people over diner for example, I relish animated and heated explorations of a given subject, but I’m ready to walk out if it is simply arguing.
