Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I just thank God that somebody told me it was out there. I wouldn’t have known otherwise. I posted this because I’m assuming I’m going to have to make a huge effort to get people to believe that I was not behind this thing.
If you want to be able to play the instrument, stick to20th Century instruments(Lyon & Healy, Wurlitzer, Venus, Salvi, Swanson, Obermeyer, Horngacher etc.). Even a Lunacharsky(Russian) harp would be better than an antique instrument.
A small update. I sent an email to Judith Lieber, director of the Israel Competition, and received this reply:
Dear Mr. Swanson,
Thank you for your mail. I was shocked to read the anti-Israel, anti- Israel Contest diatribe being sent to our contestants in your name.I was greatly relieved to know that you are not behind this. There is a campaign attacking all Israeli cultural institutions and we are among them. Our policy is to ignore and hope that the strength of Israel’s cultural history will prevail over the aggressive hatred expressed on the internet.
On behalf of the International Harp Contest in Israel, I thank you for your statement. Rest assured that we consider you a supporter and friend.
I did not receive the email. I could probably get my friend who told me about it to forward it to me. If I then forwarded it to you, would you know how to trace this? I’m totally inept when it comes to computers.
Thank you Eliza. If anybody reading this knows how to trace the source of the diatribe being circulated, please let me know how that is done. I suggested to the harpist who originally emailed me about this that the Israel Competition organization might be able to go to the police and have it traced to its source.
Kim- These spam attacks always seem to happen on weekends. Is it possible that the spammers thing that if they post on a Friday night, it will sit there until Monday morning before it is removed?
I’m only going to state the facts that I know here, and not offer any opinion at all. I know at least 4 people who are still alive and who studied with Salzedo or knew him very well. What they have all told me is that: 1) Salzedo played with classic French technique(elbows low, palms more or less facing the floor, thumb horizontal), and never played with his elbows or thumbs up. One of these people told me,”He played the way he was taught.” 2) Salzedo’s own explanation of raising was simply that it drew attention to the player, either in an orchestra or on stage.
Aaron- Most levers push the string against a bar of some kind when engaged. When the lever is not engaged, the string should sit half way between the lever and the bar. If the column has warped a little, then the string may sit too close to the disengaged lever. If that is the case, then the adjustment is to hammer in the string post above the lever to move the string a little more away from the lever.
Look at the problem string with the lever in the “off” position and see how close to the lever the string is sitting. If it is too close, then hammer the string post in slightly and check the distance again. The string cannot be too close to either the open lever or the metal bar or you’ll get buzzes when the lever is not engaged.
Aaron- You have to give me some more information. Are the strings buzzing when the lever is NOT engaged? Or when it is engaged? What kind of lever is it? Does the lever, when engaged, push the string against a stationary bar or pin, like the Loveland levers?
No. It is not true. The regulator adjusts the mechanism so that when the natural disc is engaged, it raises the pitch exactly a half step, and when the sharp disc is engaged, will raise the pitch another half step. The mechanism will do this regardless of what the instrument is tuned to.
In theory-and this is stretching reality to the absurd-a higher tuning would pull the soundboard up slightly and the neck down slightly, thereby shortening the strings and throwing the regulation off. By this idiotic argument, lowering the tuning would allow the soundboard to flatten slightly, lengthening the strings and throwing the regulation off. But a difference of 2 beats per second is, in reality, not going to change anything about the string length.
Elinor- Your post is right on the money. I’ve had a couple of talented high school students in the last 10 years and I told each one of them that if there was something non-musical that they were interested in and could do as a career, then they should do it. They could always continue studying harp and take it as far as they wanted. They could also do jobs(weddings, functions, Christmas jobs, etc.) for which no degree is required. But by having a career in some non-musical field, the pressure would be off to take anything and everything to try to make ends meet. The real pleasure of making music and playing the harp would be able to take it’s place in their lives, without the pressure of making a living at it, and more importantly, of having to make the difficult decision, years out of college, to retrain for something else in order to have a livable income. The hard truth is that most music majors on all instruments are going to be making their living at something non-musical within a few years of graduating from college.
Martin- Whatever works for you is the best way to tune. You’ve described the dilemma very well. If you are playing in C, G, and F most of the time, and their related minor keys, then tuning in C is probably going to make the instrument sound most in tune.
Yes of course I’d consider that a lever harp. I suspect that there may have been a lot of such lever harps made in the 19th Century, but that they took a back seat to the pedal harp as it became more available. There may have even been a gap when no lever harps were being built before they started up again in the 20th century.
