Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Also, like Kreig, not harp related, but several years ago I went on a caribbean cruise with family and friends. At the last show someone from the crew told us some of the questions that people had asked them over the years:
Is that island completely surrounded by water?
How far are we above sea level?
What do they do with the ice sculptures after they’ve melted?
Does the crew sleep on the boat?
Stupidity is not limited to questions about harps!
Is it possible that it is from winter dryness? I get these cracks in the corners of my fingertips that are so painful, and have to use an ointment and bandaids to get them to heal.
I think maybe your not exerting enough pressure. The disc is brass, the screw is steel. They don’t corrode together.
Sylvia- Start by unwinding the string and moving it out of the way. Then put a screwdriver crossways through the prongs of the disc and rotate the disc in a counterclockwise direction. That will loosen the grip of the screw. Then unscrew the screw in the same direction, counterclockwise.
Scott- What you seem to be referring to, in playing from memory, is muscle memory. With muscle memory, you just sit there almost like someone in the audience, and watch your fingers play the piece. That’s a very dangerous way of performing, because if you make a mistake, you break the sequence of movements and your lost. If you’re going to play from memory, at least take the time to study the music, preferably away from the harp, so that you have an intellectual memory of the music as well as the muscle memory.
Sid- I’m assuming from your post that the pedals that are there are wrong, and not simply not the way you write them. It certainly is awful to play a part where the pedals have been put in incorrectly. it’s just as bad, or worse, when a rental part which has been used by 50 harpists has the pedals written in 50 different ways: one harpist likes them in red pencil, another in green, another between the staves, another only below the bass staff, another left foot above right, another visa versa, and on and on and on… I wish harpists would a) find a standard way of writing pedals and stick to it for parts that are going to be used by other harpists, and b) that harpists would just suck-it-up and learn to read other peoples pedal markings, even if they are not written the way that harpist writes his/her pedals.
I’m sure the SATB arrangement was made at the insistence of the publisher in order to sell more copies. Just look at all the French publications. In the lower right hand corner of the title page is a list of arrangements that are available. For the Debussy Danses for example, there are arrangements for harp and piano, two harps, piano, two pianos, etc. I really wonder if they ever sold copies of those ‘other’ arrangements.
Repairing the gilding on a harp is time consuming and therefore costly. Most of the time is spent preparing the surface to take the gold. The gesso may be there but not adhered well. It may be flaking off. If the gilder has to repair gesso, then he/she has to take that area down to bare wood. New gesso will not stick to old gesso. Even if there are traces of old gesso on the area, the new gesso won’t stick and will ultimately come off. After the areas have been repaired and the new gold put on, it then has to be toned to match the old gold. Gold doesn’t tarnish or darken, but the finish on to of it to protect it does. So the gilder has to match that. My gilder in Boston is a genius at repairing gilding on harps. When she’s done, the harp looks like the old instrument with no damage ever having happened. I honestly don’t know how she does it but she does. If you go with the cheapest gilder, then it may look like radiator paint on the instrument.
If the harp is in good condition then you should give it serious consideration. A lot depends on your own height as well as what you want to do with it. I sell a lot of used pedal harps on my web site, wwww.swansonharp.com, and many of the people looking for, and buying smaller harps are professionals who want it as a gig harp for weddings and background music, because it’s easy to move, looks good, and has enough range for what they will be playing on it.
Yes it was Ginger’s harp. The whole episode is so sad. But her husband Robert and I want to see it go to someone who will love it as much as she did.
Charles- I do love all the models we came out with. My personal favorite is the fully gilded Empire in an Antique Maple stain. But I adore the Art Nouveau model too. When I showed that instrument at one of the AHS conferences, people loved it and they particularly loved the color. I had many people say to me “Don’t ever loose that color. It’s gorgeous.”
The insurance value is what it would cost to replace an instrument with something similar to what you lost. If you are insuring a straight soundboard, 45 string instrument with bronze and gold decoration, then you insure it for what similar instruments are being advertised at. You should not be insuring it for that particular decoration and carving, which is no longer made. That’s absurd. Contact Anderson Insurance or Clarion and tell them how many strings your harp has, straight or extended soundboard, etc. They shouldn’t care at all what kind of decoration is on it. Most importantly, if you paid $17,000 recently for that instrument, then that is what it is worth.
I forgot to add that it is currently in a museum exhibition of masterpieces of Massachusetts woodworkers, which is taking place at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton Massachusetts.
I rented her one of my Swanson Empires, which she said she liked. It was just to have something to play on vacation.
