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Just to let everyone know, I got a telephone call from Basel this morning. He’s back home and the harps are fine. He has to be very careful going out and sometimes has to stay home for days at a time because of the violence. But he managed to get to an internet cafe today and call me.
I had a friend years ago who had gone to the Juilliard graduate school in the 1940’s and studied with Joseph Levine. She was an incredible pianist and she was a very good sight reader. I asked her once how far ahead of what she was playing was she scanning with her eyes. She thought about it for a moment and then said to me, “When I’m sight reading, I see the whole page.” I don’t think I could ever get to that point.
It’s unfortunate that the harp manufacturers didn’t agree on a standard spacing like the piano makers do. The result is a lot of variation in the spacing on harps from one make to another and even from one model to another within the same maker. That’s the bad news. The good news is that with practice you can learn to adapt almost instantly. Try to play as many different kinds of instruments as possible on a regular basis. Just sit down for a few minutes and play an instrument that you haven’t played before. With time you’ll learn to adjust immediately and won’t have any problems.
Angela- Those are great ideas, and are along the same lines as I was thinking of doing with her. Thanks.
I suspect that the thirds were handed over to the strings early on because many people can’t play a one handed trill. Not well anyway. Jana is the queen of the one handed trill. I’d love to hear her play that.
I mentioned in another thread, an old one about one handed trills, that even Xavier deMaistre told me he can’t play a one handed trill and yet he won the U.S.A. competition with the Boieldieu. His “cheat” was to strum the strings in a 22332233 fingering. He demonstrated it for me and it was gorgeous.
Bob- So you’re saying that the left hand thirds are original to the harp part AND THEN were later added to the strings?
I don’t have the music in front of me right now and I haven’t seen La Desirade since I played it 45 years ago, but Salzedo had this hairbrained idea that harmonics should be written where they sound, not where they are played. So on that basis, the note written in the music is where the note should sound and should therefore be played an octave lower than where it is written.
I’m really concerned for Basel. He usually calls me once a week or so. But I haven’t heard from him in maybe a month now. The last call he told me that he and his sister and their parents had left Homs and were staying in a friend’s vacation villa(if I remember correctly). He was sick with worry for the harps, because he had to leave them at home. After all the work it took for him to get two good harps, I’m praying that they don’t get damaged, destroyed, or stolen in all of this upheaval.
Kay- I actually asked the mother that and she said that no, there was no problem and in fact the girl is quite bright in school. I think the core problem is that the piano teacher never really took the time to teach her to read music properly, so she came up with her own hairbrained system for figuring out notes, which worked well enough when she was dealing with one note at a time but not when the music got more complicated. And now I’m the one who has to untangle this mess and get her to read correctly so she can advance on the instrument.
-Something my teacher told me once: “I’ve noticed that harpists who can easily memorize a piece generally have a harder time sight-reading, and harpists who are good at sight-reading generally seem to find it difficult to memorize.”
So maybe your difficulty memorizing just means you are more likely to be a great sight-reader! –I’ve noticed the same thing. People who read really well can’t remember 2 notes in a row. I can only use myself as an example of memorizing, and I don’t have an easy time doing it. But memorizing for me is much easier than reading.
I am soooooo glad I make my living repairing harps! I can’t imagine what it’s like making a living as a freelance musician in this economy and also in this changing environment.
A thought did occur to me. When you wedding harpists advertise(on your web site, print ads, wedding industry shows and catalogues, etc.) do you play up the visuals of the harp? Do you have pictures for example of a bride and groom standing next to the harp? I would think that the visual aspect of the instrument might attract a bride or bride’s mother to hiring a harpist.
-The last time this happenned, was for a promotional/non profit food and wine festival some 120kilometres away from my house. I told them, “i’m having a party next month, drive 120kms to my place with your food and wine. you can hand out business cards and you might get some bookings out of it”.=
That’s a great response.
It was the girl’s choice herself to play the harp. She dropped piano and is playing harp only, and actually seems happy with the harp. The problem is that her system for figuring out lines and spaces has brought any progress on the instrument to a dead halt. She expends so much effort in just trying to read the notes that she accomplishes nothing when she practices as far as improving the piece is concerned. Reading the notes relative to one another I think is more or less what she is doing now, and that requires calculation. If she could just look at the notes and know instantly what they were, she could focus her attention on actually playing the harp instead of what she is doing now. As it is, the 10th time through a short 2 line piece from the Mildred Dilling book is no better than the first.
I agree with you all. I would only add that under no circumstance would I get into haggling or explaining myself to the organization involved. Many fundraisers and charity events are run by wealthy people who use the charity event to write off the expense of throwing an expensive party. I’m sure they are paying the going rate for the caterers to supply canapes, for the wine and other drinks, for the decoration, and for the servers who keep the whole thing running. So they can also pay for the music. I would be tempted to say to one of these charities “I’d love to play for your event for free, if you would pay my mortgage for this month.”
