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Barbara- I’m sure there are cases where the student has so many bad habits, or simply has no technique because of the very bad instruction that he/she got that there is nothing left to do but start over. But the new teacher had better be able to explain in a way the student can understand exactly why what the student is doing now is wrong and why the changes the teacher says are needed will be an improvement. I have heard of many instances- and I won’t mention the school of playing this involved-where an advanced student no less auditioned for the school and the teacher said “You’re doing everything wrong and you are going to have to start over from the begining.” I can name specific teachers who did this on a regular basis and I can name several students they did it to. One of them came to the teacher at a very advanced level and the teacher said this. That student two years later won an audition for a major American orchestra and is now in a major European orchestra.
Bernhard- Thank you so much for that post. I’ve decided to respond to you on this in a private email, which you should have by now.
Bernhard- I would love to see comparative tables or graphs of all of the types of strings available, showing the tension they produce. In other words, I’d like to see comparisons of each of the types of strings available, comparing the same diameter and the same length for each string and what tension it takes to get them up to the same pitch. A short version of this could compare for example all of the C strings on the harp, and the vibrating length would be for the C flat position(the longest length for each octave). A longer version of course would give this information for every string on the harp. The delux version would also say how much thinner or thicker(in thousands of an inch or milimeters) one type of string has to be to produce the equivalent tension of another type of string. I would like to see this done for the wire strings as well.
Do you know if this information is available? Do you know anyone who would be interested and capable of doing it? As different types of strings become available, it is critically important that harpists understand what happens when they change one type of string for another. There are two completely seperate issues concerning harp strings. One is of course the quality of the sound produced by one type of string or another. The other is the amount of tension resulting from using one type of string or another, and the effect it will have on the life of the instrument, particularly the soundboard.
Ivan- I think that all of us who are working on pieces without a teacher or a specific date to finish a piece end up working on this for a while, then changing to that, then trying something else, and as a result nothing gets completely finished. That’s why when I started practicing and learning music again, after a hiatus of 20 years, I made a rule for myself that the very first thing I would do with each new piece is memorize it. I don’t feel that a piece is mine, is finished, until I can play it from memory. And if I don’t make the specific effort to memorize it just doesn’t happen. So with each new piece I work on, first and foremost in the learning process, right at the begining, is the goal of memorizing the whole piece. I actually work out the technical issues, difficult spots, and get it up to tempo AFTER it is memorized. That might help you to finish each piece you work on.
I don’t find it gloomy. It goes into major numerous times during the piece. What I like about it is that Tournier doesn’t use that format of melody-in-the-left-hand-arpeggiated-harmony-in-the-right that he uses so often.
That I don’t know. I’ve been told that there were three fires between 1889(when they started building harps) and 1910, which is the reason for all the confusion in their early records. My understanding is that all serial numbers prior to 1910 are three digits, and the four digit numbers start in 1910.
Cathy- Don’t hold your breath! I am drowning in work right now and its very difficult for me to find any time at all to practice. But I’ll get started on it and we’ll see. Before I can record it, I have to memorize all 19 pages.
Number one- I’m going to have to learn it! Easy or not, I’ve never played the piece except to read through it to check it out for my student. Number two, I’d have to figure out someplace to post it. Maybe David Ice could help me with that. I’ll tell you what though, I’ll start working on it and try to record it on my Erard. That way we kill two birds with one stone.
Steven- What a nice compliment. Thank you. When I bought this harp many years ago, it was a decrepit wreck. When I got it home and started working on it, the first thing I did was to take off the base. I unscrewed all the bolts but it wouldn’t budge. It took me several minutes to realize that some well meaning but misguided woodworker, in an attempt to prevent the baseassembly from pulling apart, had glued the pedestal onto the body and baseboard! That was why there was a long crack in the body shell on one side. I repaired the crack and it has never moved in over 20 years, but you can still see it there to this day.
This harp had an extended soundboard, but when I rebuilt it, I felt it prudent to replace the wing substructure. This harp had a wooden crown which was in terrible condition. When I rebuilt the harp 20 or so years ago I bought a new crown from L & H, which was made of solid brass. It was so heavy(3 pounds) that I could feel the difference when I played and moved it. So I took it off and have just left it that way.
Bonnie- the later variations, and the last one and coda in particular are slightly more difficult than the begining, but as I said, the whole piece sounds really virtuosoic when in fact it is just not that hard. That’s why it’s such a good piece for low intermediate students.
Cathy-A local harpist was cleaning out her music library and had a brand new copy of this piece she wanted to sell. I was unfamiliar with the piece but looked it over and decided it would be good for my 17 year old boy student. He fell in love with it. As for my own copy, a number of years ago an older woman who had been a professional harpist in Boston asked me to sell one of her harps. When I went to pick it up, we chatted and I told her that I was working on a Tournier piece(I think it was Lolita the Danser) and that I wanted to explore more Tournier. She said to me “I’ll give you all of my Tournier.” She gave me a stack of music almost a foot thick, all Tournier. So I own almost everything Tournier ever wrote. This piece was in there. I don’t think there is likely to be any difference between the three copies you found. Most likely they are all printed in an 8 1/2 X 11 format, which means you’ll probably have to photocopy the whole thing to get it to a larger, more readible format.
Then there must have been 2 number 299’s, because I bought one from an estate sale, also a Wagner, and later sold it.
Many years ago I was playing a job someplace when a man came up to me and introduced himself as Jim Buckwell. He was a decendant of the Buckwell of Browne and Buckwell and he had some records and other stuff from that business. He sent me photocopies of what he had and I’ve got it someplace here in the house. It’s been years since I looked at any of it, but I’ll see if I can find it and see what exactly is in there.
I’m guessing that it weight around 70 to 72 pounds. it’s a small instrument, about 68 inches tall, but I love playing that size instrument. A lot of the pieces I do have difficult technical work right up into the first octave, and on a concert grand, that puts the first octave above and behind your head. On this instrument its lower and further forward.
I think an important step for any student checking out a new teacher is to ask them point blank what their opinion is of the student’s technique and what the teacher would do with that technique if the student were to study with that person. If the teacher says that you’re doing everything wrong and you will have to start over(which I’ve heard of, I’m not making that up) then I don’t think that teacher should be considered. If the teacher says, after you’ve played something for them, that you have some problem areas that need work, and she can explain clearly why they are problems and give a compelling reason why you will have to make some changes, then I would consider that teacher. I would not suggest under any circumstance just taking pot luck and signing on to study with a teacher without knowing what you are getting yourself into.
Laura- You’re completely wrong in saying that almost all American harp professors teach Salzedo method. Just to name a few who don’t: Suzanne McDonald at Indiana University, Nancy Allen at Juilliard, Debbie Hofman at Manhatten School of Music, Susan Jolles at Mannes, Emily Mitchell at New York University and SUNY Purchase, Barbara Allen at NYU, Carol Mclaughlin someplace in Arizona, Cynthia Price-Glynn at Boston Conservatory, Gillian Bennet at Cincinnatti University, Ann Yeung at Illinois University, Ruth Inglefield at Peabody,Sarah Bullen at Roosevelt University JoAnn Turovsky at University of Southern California, and Susan Allen at CalArts, just to name a few. There are many more.
