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That sounds pretty accurate. Concerning my Swanson action, we completely took apart an action of a Wurlitzer Orchestral Grand and copied the parts, linkage, and action plates. We also copied the critical dimensions of the frame of the instrument. There was no need to reinvent the wheel. All of the hard work had been done by Wurlitzer and it was all public domaine. After the first run of action plates I recalculated the position of the screws that hold the adjustable nuts to the plate. I moved all of those screws lower so that on a brand new instrument the adjustable nuts would be as high as possible, because as the instrument ages, they are going to slowly come down. That was the only change I made to the original Wurlitzer design. Just to clarify, I do make the actions for my harps.
Forgive me, but your question makes no sense at all. Pedal harps have an action, and the action is designed to have very specific string lengths in order for the discs to be able to raise the pitch exactly 1/2 step, and then a second half step. In designing their harps, each maker has to figure out how long the string lengths have to be and engineer the frame of the instrument accordingly. They might do it the other way around and design the frame of the instrument, and then design the action to accommodate the resulting string lengths. The angle that the strings enter the center strip on the soundboard is not even on their radar screen. They don’t care.
I suspect that most of the newer harp companies copied the critical dimensions of existing harps, in particular the action, in order to come up with their own instruments. I know I did. My harps, in terms of critical dimensions, are copied from the Wurlitzer concert grand.
I think he has sporadic phone and internet service. He told me the other night(we talked on the phone) that all the streets in his neighborhood were blockaded, that several houses on his street had been destroyed, that there were dead bodies in the street, that many people in his neighborhood had left, and that soldiers had tried to shoot their way into his house, but thank God failed. He has called me before when I could hear gun fire in the background. Why doesn’t the international community, NATO, the United Nations, or the Arab League do something????!!!!
it’s unfortunate in a way that harps have traditionally been priced according to their size, when the fact is that the production cost is virtually the same regardless of the size of the instrument. Costs like action plates, linkage, discs and other hardware, column, body, pedestal, and neck construction don’t change at all because 95% of the cost of a harp is the labor involved in building it, and the labor is the same for all size instruments. So a small carved instrument is as expensive to build as a large one. I don’t know of any repair shop or repair facility that charges less to build a new neck or soundboard for a small instrument than for a large one. I certainly don’t.
Tacye- It was originally intended to be a handle for lifting and dragging the harp. But I wouldn’t use it for anything like that. There simply is not that much holding it in place. I usually find when I repair a harp for anything at all that the two screws holding that handle in place are barely threaded in and could pull out very easily. It’s mostly a decoration.
Basel called me tonight. I’m not going to put anything up here until this whole mess is over because I don’t want to say anything that will get him into trouble. But I’m sick with worry over his situation. It’s dire.
Diane- Thank you so much for the update. I was really worried because Basel usually called me about once a week, and I haven’t heard from him in a long time now. This is just awful. His whole life has been disrupted and when this is all over I’m afraid he will have to start all over again finding another harp. But thank God he and his family are safe.
I don’t think there is any plan to publish them at this time. But next time I talk to Catherine I’ll ask her.
How interesting. I never knew that the last measure of a piece, any piece, was supposed to make up the missing beats of the first measure. What’s the point of that? So the last measure is also an incomplete measure?
Irene-Go to my company web site, http://www.swansonharp.com, then click on the articles page, and print out the article called A PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS. The article deals with what you have to go through to get optimum benefit from beta blockers. Show the article to your doctor when you talk to her.
I wrote the article with the help and advice of a medical doctor who was the husband of one of my clients. After the article was published, I gave a copy to my personal physician. She called me a few days later and asked if she could keep the magazine and if she could print copies of the article. She explained that she had lots of patients who had this problem. One was an architect who had to give presentations and was undone by nerves each time. She herself was plagued by nerves anytime she had to speak in public. So it’s a very common problem.
You asked your doctor what people did before beta blockers. In the case of musicians, many of them gave up professional music as a career because they could not control the nerves. I can’t tell you how many stories I heard like that when I was researching this article.
You’re absolutely right Elizabeth. The advice you give is excellent and necessary for any performance. I would suggest that anyone with a stress inducing performance coming up go to my web site, http://www.swansonharp.com, click on the Articles page, and read my article The Big Day, which was published in the harp column several years ago. I go into many of these issues there. But even with all of the correct preparation, some of us just crank out so much adrenaline under stress that no amount of preparation can adequately overcome the symptoms it produces. That was certainly my case. I tried everything I could think of to control the nerves before trying beta blockers. The effect of the beta blockers was miraculous. For the first time in my life I was able to perform in a way that totally satisfied me.
Irene- Different people present different symptoms when performance anxiety strikes. Your ‘mental fog and forgetfulness’ is one of the main ones that hits me. I’m hyper aware of everything around me and unable to focus my concentration. Like you, I don’t get shaky or sweaty hands. Instead, my hands are freezing cold because the adrenaline rush I get constricts the blood vessels in my hands. No amount of warmup exercises can overcome this, because the adrenaline is still there. Beta blockers eliminate these symptoms for me without making me sleepy or groggy.
Kay- I think if anyone asked me to play a job for free I might respond “Why I’d love to, provided you pay my bills for this month.”
Rod- I’m really surprised to hear that it makes you sleepy. I take a much higher dose than you and I don’t have any problem with that.
You’re right. Beta blockers don’t change the fact that you are mentally nervous. But without the physical symptoms of performance anxiety as well as the racing brain that many of us go through, you at least know that you are in control.
