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I would like to add something else. My rule in writing pedals is that they should be put wherever space permits: sometimes between the staves, and sometimes below the bass staff. Having a hard rule of using one space or the other exclusively is just unworkable. For those of you who have used these editions, were you bothered at all by the placement of the pedal markings? Thanks.
Back when I was giving recitals, always without music(i.e., from memory) I was frustrated that all of the strings, from 7th octave C to 00G, were not in focus. The ones in the middle octaves were clear, but everything else was fuzzy. So I too brought my harp in to the optician’s office. He fitted me with a pair of glasses in which the left lens was for the lower part of the instrument and the right lens was for the upper part. It worked perfectly, and I could see all of the strings clearly with those glasses. They worked for reading music as well, since the left lens was for seeing the lower strings that were about the same distance away as the music stand. It may sound unworkable to have two different distances in one pair of glasses. But your brain reads whichever image is in focus and ignores the out of focus eye. That’s the whole premise of a monocle. You only need one eye in focus to see.
I guess there are not any smaller pedal harps being made now. I’ve heard this a couple of times from several different people. That’s too bad. The alternative is to buy a smaller used harp in good condition. Keep an eye on my web site(www.swansonharp.com) for used harps that I have for sale. I’ve got to put some more up there soon, and later in the year, or the beginning of next year I’ll have another 6 to put up there. So you might find something there that meets your needs.
Your comment that “the strings ring beautifully in the flat position” tells me that the problem is with the action, not the wood harp frame. Normally when there is a dead sound of a string in either natural or sharp position, it means that the back plate screw for that disc is not pushing the spindle hard enough against the front plate. If the back plate screw is too loose, the result will be either a dead sound to that pitch or a kind of buzzing, especially if it is on one of the wire strings. If the back plate screw is too tight, then it can bind up that chain and prevent the discs from moving at all. So it’s a tricky adjustment. I don’t understand why the technician has not tried that already.
I just would like some clarification. Do the second octave strings sound fine in flat(when the action is not engaged)? Or is the problem there in all three positions(flat, natural, and sharp)?
Elizabeth- Retuning between pieces in the middle of the concert is going to be useless. It will be impossible to keep the tuning where you put it. Strings want to go back to where they were. If you tune a harp down a quarter or half step, a couple of hours later it will be sharp of where you put it. If you tune it up, it will go down very quickly. So really the only solution is to have a second harp that has been tuned for several days the way the composer wants it.
Clinton- Did Debussy make the revised score? If so, why did it take 12 years after his death to get it printed? In general terms, what’s the difference between the original version and the revised score? Were there big changes? And what do most orchestras play today? The original or the revised versions?
Elizabeth- I just checked, and you can go on the Biblioteque Nationale de France web site(National library of France) and see the manuscript. Why don’t you look there and see what he wrote.
It’s very easy. Start by googling National Library of France(BnF). Then click on COLLECTIONS AND SERVICES(It’s all in English by the way). In the COLLECTIONS AND SERVICES menu, go to DIGITAL LIBRARIES – GALLICA and click on ACCESS TO GALLICA DIGITAL LIBRARY.Up at the top of the page where it says TOUT GALLICA and there is a box that says Rechercher, type in Nuages Debussy. The first item that comes up says POUR GEORGES HARTMANN. Click on that. That’s the manuscript of the entire Nuages in Debussy’s own hand.
It will take you a while to figure out where the part you are looking for is. There are of course no rehearsal numbers. This particular manuscript is NOT the engraver’s manuscript, from which all of the parts and the full score were engraved. We know that because it(the manuscript) is completely clean and not marked up in pencil by the head engraver as he planned out how to engrave everything. So just like my research on the Sonate, there may be discrepancies between your part and the harp part in this manuscript. But it would be interesting to see. If you look down this list some more, you may find the engraver’s manuscript. Good luck!!
I should add here that I’m working with Carl Fischer Music to get these corrections into the new printing, whenever that is.
Most of the Gargilesse festival is over now. There are only a couple of days left. I’ve been observing the fantastic teachers teach, and have been watching my student work with them. Her level of playing has shot up enormously in the short time that she has been here. And her concept of sound has risen to a new level. I think that what Gargilesse has to offer is intense input from very high level teachers, and the fact that all of the students can listen to each other and each other’s lessons. One of the people here had been a student here about 15 years ago, and she told me that her level of playing shot through the roof from the work that she had done here. That’s what I have observed as well.
Jerusha- I would be worried too about squeezing the strings closer together. But the old style 17 had 46 strings, so it’s just a matter of adding the bottom C, which never engages with the action. I think it probably took just a little finagling to make room for the bottom C without altering the spacing. That’s my guess.
Use the method I described. Here’s an easier way of writing it out. Write out the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6. Put a vertical line under numbers 1 and 4. Now put a vertical line above numbers 1 3 and 5. Now count aloud the 6 numbers, and tap the left hand when you say 1 and 4, and the right hand when you say 1, 3, and 5. That’s how you count 2 against 3.
