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Catherine- I do think the problem is two pronged. The first is asking composers to write for an instrument that they truly do not understand. Many of them now use a keyboard with a “harp button” and think that if it works there, it will work on a real harp. The other problem-and this is true of many artistic disciplines- is having other composers(academics) judge these competitions, and the results are always disastrous. You can see the same thing in architecture, where the competitions for a new building design are judged by a panel of archetects. Same in theater. Competitions for new plays are judged by academics, with equally disastrous results. If you look at the history of Broadway, both with musicals and drama, not one great work ever won an academic competition. For some reason, the 20th century turned over control of the arts to academia, with horrible results!
I want to add here another problem with composition competitions, and that is that most of the time these competitions are judged by academics: other composers, composition teachers, etc. That is the worst way to assess new compositions. There is a looooooooong history of academics getting it wrong. The judging should be left to the audience!!!
New nylon strings stretch, and stretch, and stretch… If I’m replacing one nylon string, I’ll tune it up a major third to try to stretch it out quicker. But I wouldn’t do that with more than one string at a time. Both nylon and gut strings want to go back to wherever they were when you tune them. So if you tune a nylon or gut string down from where it was, it will drift up. If you’re tuning it up from where it was, it will drift down.
Are you sure you are using the correct gauge strings on this harp? Some non-pedal harps are built to use pedal harp strings, and they have more or less pedal harp tension. The Lyon & Healy troub and my own Swanson lever harp are built that way. Other non-pedal harps are built much lighter and take a much thinner string. From what you’ve written so far, I’m not sure you have a clear understanding of this, or what gauge strings the harp was built for. Why are you improvising with the strings anyway. Just buy what the instrument requires.
Having to move a harp up or down a set of stairs is one of the unavoidable downsides of playing the instrument. In a living situation, where you are going to have to do this on a regular basis, it gets really old really fast. Keep looking for someplace to live, and at the top of your list of requirements is: no more that 5 stairs tops to get in or out of the apartment or house.
One of the things you want to watch out for is ordering strings, holding them for a year or more, and then having them break. I know of one company whose policy is that if you don’t contact them about new strings breaking within 2 weeks of the order being shipped, then they won’t do anything. So many harpists keep strings for a year or more before using them. So don’t order more strings than you can use fairly quickly.
I had bought my strings from the Harp Connection, and had driven there to get them. When the strings broke, I called them and they mailed me the replacements at no extra charge.
I had a couple of Bow Brand strings break as I pulled them up to pitch the first time. But that was more than a year ago. I had gotten them from the Harp Connection, and they replaced them right away. Maybe what Lyon & Healy sent you was something left over from the problem period.
Janis- I think it depends on what you are arranging. If it’s jazz or pop music, then my understanding is that the player basically keeps the pedals in the key that the piece is written in. Accidentals are moved when needed, and as soon as it’s over, that pedal goes back into the home key. So jazz and pop players are used to moving a lot of pedals on one beat, then moving them back again. So I think for them, chords need to be spelled correctly. For classical players, the pedals are carefully worked out in advance, and on a harmonically complicated piece, the pedals are never in a key. The classical players want to see what strings to put their fingers on. So if you are in the key of B♭ for example, and you have to play a note A#, then they want to see the note spelled A#.
Janis- I too played piano, as a lot of harpists have. But pedal markings for piano are so much simpler than pedal markings for harp. I think the problem I was having with the people at Carl Fischer was that they thought of harp music as being basically the same as piano music, with some slight additions. They just didn’t realize how important the pedal markings are. They probably don’t realize also how important the notation is. Pianists can easily read D# or E♭. It doesn’t make any difference to them. But for us, those are two different strings, and it’s possible the note can only be played one way(either D#, or E♭, but not both). Also, because pedal indications are so important, they have to be clear enough and large enough to easily see. If there are notes 4 or 5 ledger lines below the lower staff, then the pedals are going to be so far from the staves that it will be easy to miss them. On the other hand, there may be so much notation in or between the staves that there is just no room to cram them in. In many instances I tried both and then made a decision as to which was clearer.
I’m preparing my next publication for Carl Fischer right now, which is the Ravel Introduction and Allegro. I’ve re-notated some passages to show clearly how the passage is played, which hand plays what, etc. I’m also including fingerings of the same passage by different(really great) harpists, like Renie, Grandjany, David Watkins, Phia Berghout, and Pierre Jamet. It’s interesting to see their various solutions to the same passage. The point here is that difficult harp music really needs to be carefully planned out, and notated the way the harpist is going to understand immediately how something is played.
Elizabeth,
If you go to amazon.com, then type in Debussy Danses sacree et profane, my edition of the Danses comes up. If you then click on that picture, you can then click on the first page of the piece and see how the pedals were printed in that edition. I got a lot of flack from the production people at Carl Fischer because they said they had never seen pedals printed so large. They were used to printing them in tiny 12 point font. I told them, you’re right, you have never seen them printed this big. But that’s the way harpists write them in, and that’s the way they should be printed.
I have taken a ruler and measured the size that many harpists write in their pedals. I’ve done this with maybe 12 or 14 different harpists, and they all write their pedals 3/16 of an inch tall. That is the standard size that everybody wants to see, and that’s the size I asked for in that publication. I also asked that it be printed in bold and everyone I’ve talked to says they love the way the pedals are printed in that edition.
Once in a while I get a call from someone who is trying to rent a harp for a day so their cousin from across the country can play at their wedding. I generally pass these on to local harpists, who I tell to charge your normal gig rate. Then you transport the instrument, wait while the harp is being used for the ceremony, and then transport it home again.
For this photo shoot, I’d advise the same thing. Charge whatever you would normally charge for a gig that is going to eat up the better part of a day, bring the harp to the location, wait, and watch, as the photo shoot is being done, then bring the harp home again. That way, the harp is never out of your sight.
Evolve- Singing and playing is tricky, because you are using two different parts of the brain to do it. Even talking, and then playing something is tricky because of that shift from one part of the brain to the other. There’s a wonderful play called Souvenir, which is about Florence Foster Jenkins(the play inspired the movie). In the play, the whole story is told by her accompanist, Cosme McMahon. Throughout the play he has to talk directly to the audience setting up the scene. Then he turns to the piano and plays through the scene. it’s very tricky to do and takes practice.
I think that most of your problem is just one of getting used to doing both things at the same time, and that will take time to adjust to.
At the very least, the owner of the instrument should have asked you if you needed a tuning key. I rent harps, both pedal and lever, all the time, and I don’t like to include the tuning key, because most of the time the renter forgets to give it back to me when they return the harp. I always ask them if they need a key and a lot of times they don’t because they were renting something else before mine, or they have another instrument already and so don’t need a tuning key. Since all my harps use the standard pedal harp tuning key, they can buy a standard tuning key at a number of places. Your rental lever harp may have odd size tuning pins, and therefore need a special tuning key for those pins. You should sort this out with the owner of the instrument.
I can tell you that, in my case at least, the trigger finger had nothing at all to do with playing, because I haven’t played to any extent in years. I’m not sure why it developed.
I developed a trigger finger(index finger, can’t remember which hand!) about 2 years ago. I tried some exercises and physical therapy, which really didn’t help. Then I got a cortisone shot, and it immediately went away completely and has not returned. I wonder if the shot in your case didn’t reach the affected area.
Saul- My first choice is to put the pedals between the staves. But sometimes there just isn’t room. In that case, I’ll put them below the lower staff. I never put them above the upper staff. I don’t know what you are referring to concerning “better printing style.” I don’t believe they or anyone else for that matter has ever printed pedals larger than 12 point font(which is microscopic), and that is the problem. The production manager said to me that he had never seen pedals printed as large as I wanted them. I told him he was absolutely right, he had never seen that. But it’s time to print them the way harpists can use them.
