Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
OK. Here’s the skinny on string spacing. First, unfortunately, it was never standardized. Even over the history of Lyon & Healy, there were different spacings at different times. Lyon & Healy made “wide spacing” at one time, which made the spacing in the 4th and 5th octaves wider, but no where else on the instrument. But there were other spacings as well. In addition, most companies have used a “graduated” spacing, meaning that the higher you go on the instrument, the narrower the spacing. But the graduation can be more on some instruments and less on others.
Us older harpists, and the generation before us, who are mostly gone now, had to play whatever was available. We had to just deal with it. My advice to everyone who plays pedal harp is to make a point of playing as many different instruments, and different makes of instruments as you can. I promise, you will learn without too much effort to adjust instantly, so that nothing will throw you.
When I started practicing again after a hiatus of more than 20 years, I practiced on one instrument exclusively for probably 2 years. When one of my concert grand rentals came back(it had wide spacing) I couldn’t play a thing on it. Every octave I reached for was a 7th. My first thought was that I have to play more instruments. So anytime one of my rentals was here, I’d practice on that one for a while. I learned quickly to adjust to whatever I was playing. If you can’t play any instrument but your own, the answer is to play many different instrument, and DIFFERENT SIZE INSTRUMENTS.
The nice thing is that, once you get it, it becomes automatic. You no longer have to think about it. One of the hardest pieces I’ve ever played is the Parish-Alvars Serenade, and in that piece there are several looooooong melismas, where the right hand plays say 27 notes against the left hand which plays 6. I had to go through each one of those with a pencil and put a line from each left hand note up to the right hand note I had to hit at that point. Then I had to practice these melismas literally one beat at a time so I could get the feel of both hands getting to the same mark together. And each of these melismas was different. Another one might have 39 notes in the right hand and 7 in the left, then 34 in the right hand and 6 in the left, etc. So each one had to be learned the same way. But once I got it, I could just play each one of these without even thinking about it.
Two against 3 is not that complicated. In this particular case, the right hand is playing 3 and the left hand 2. If you think of it as the right hand playing triplets, both hands play together on the first note of the triplet. The second note of the left hand comes exactly half way between the second and third notes of the right hand. If you want to see what is happening, write out on a piece of paper 3 groups of 16th notes, 4 notes in each group(for a total of 12 notes). Put up stems on all of these notes. Now put down stems on the 1st and 7th notes. The right hand plays the first note of each of the 16th note groups, and the left hand plays the two notes with down stems. Count the 16th notes aloud, counting 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 at a fast tempo, and slap your right hand on the table every time you say 1. Slap your left hand on the table on the first 1 and the second 3(where the down stems are). That’s 3 against 2.
You should put some electric fans on aimed at the harp and leave them on for several hours minimum. That’s the best way of thoroughly drying the instrument.
Oh my gosh Patricia. I didn’t realize those clip on things were still being made. Do they clip into two of the pedal slots? If they do, that’s not a good idea. There are only 4 bolts that hold the pedestal onto the instrument, and the pedestal is not a particularly strong construction on any make of instrument. I would use a trolly that stresses the pedestal as little as possible, something with a shelf for it to sit on.
As far as “stair climber” trollies go, meaning the ones with a triangle of wheels on each side: I’m not crazy about those because there are always two wheels on each side on the ground, and as a result, they don’t go around corners very well, and they tend to snag on carpets, particularly throw rugs and oriental carpets. In addition, if you go over a small step with one of those, the triangle of wheels turns over and slams the harp down hard. I much prefer just two large wheels.
IT’S FINALLY HERE!!!! I just got my copies of the new Carl Fischer edition of the Sonate pour Flute, Alto, et Harpe, based on all of the research that I did for the three articles in the Harp Journal. It’s just gorgeous. They did a fantastic job on it. I’m selling it on my web site.www.swansonharp.com. Within a couple of months it will be available everywhere. But you can get it from my web site now. It’s so great to see this come to this completion.
Competitions of any kind- single instrument(i.e. harp competitions, violin competitions, etc.) multiple instrument competitions(i.e. concerto competitions where several types of instruments compete for the same prize) and orchestra auditions-should be completely held behind a screen, right through the final stage. The jury should at no point see any contestant until a winner is announced. Competitions held in this way will be as close to fair as one can get.
As the rods exit the column at the lower end and connect up to the pedal bars, they all bend outward in order to reach the connection point on the pedal bar. The ‘diaper’ is there to support the rods through that bend so that they don’t flex every time you move a pedal. It does that by pushing the curved area of the rod against the outside wall of the hole in the column. The felt diaper also helps to prevent noise or vibration of the rods when the instrument is being played.
Brittany-I think the internet is wrong here. I would think that duets with mixed instruments would say “harp and flute duets” or “Harp and violin duets” and that harp duets would automatically mean two harps.
I like that Dewey Owens/Caesar Franck arrangement of the Prelude, Fugue, and Variation. And Kim, 2 harp duets is redundant! You only have to say harp duets.
Eleanor- Unfortunately I’m not going to be at the conference. I hope i get to meet you someday elsewhere. The price for the new Carl Fischer Edition has been set at $39.99, which I think is a bargain. I’m expecting word from my editor at Carl Fischer any day that the edition is back from the printer. As soon as it is, I will have a new page on my web site, http://www.swansonharp.com, where it can be purchased. It will eventually be available in all the usual places where harpists buy their music, both in the US and Europe.
What nobody seems to be taking into account in this string discussion is the tension on the soundboard and the damage that higher tension strings will do to the life of the board and neck. Given the three choices that every harpist has on the strings they use, nylon, gut, and composite(Savarez): nylon strings are the lightest tension. Gut strings are higher tension than nylon, and composite strings are much higher tension than gut. I would not recommend composite strings on any harp because of this, and it would not surprise me if builders and repairers put a clause in their warranty that use of composite strings breaks the warranty.
They did not ask me to use cotton gloves! They just brought it out and plopped it on the table. It was the engraver’s copy of the manuscript and had pencil markings all over it to instruct the engraver how to lay it out. The manuscript of the Sonate that I’ve been working from is not the engravers copy because there are no pencil markings on it at all.
Hello everybody! I’m in Paris at the moment and have spent the last week going each day to the National Library of France. I just had to do some bragging before I got home. The following should be on every harpists bucket list, and you should all get this opportunity at some time. This past week, I held in my hands the original manuscript of the Debussy Danses Sacree et Profane AND the Sonate pour flute, alto, et harp!!! I’m never washing my hands again!!! I also had a chance to examine a set of photocopies of the original working manuscript of the Sonate, and learned a lot which will appear in the last article about the third movement that will appear in the Journal next winter. In the mean time, the Carl Fischer edition of the Sonate, the result of all this work, will be printed and available by the conference in New Orleans. Vanderbilt will be selling it there, and maybe others too.
The people at Carl Fischer have told me that they are still on target to have it available the middle of June. Michelle Abbott, the owner of Vanderbilt Music Co. is planning on having copies at the conference in New Orleans. If I’ve done this right, when I hit post, there should be a photo of the front cover.
