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Barbara- Maybe I’m misunderstanding your post. But I thought that tuning in E flat meant that with none of the levers engaged the harp was in E flat. Stated another way, with none of the levers engaged, C, D, F, and G are tuned to the natural pitch, and E, B, and A are tuned to the flat pitch. Am I wrong about this?
I agree with Kay. Unless the ring is made of rubber, you run the risk of it scratching the finish, even if it’s completely flat with rounded corners.
Kim Rowe asked me 8 years ago to write an article about preparing for a performance. Any performance: final exam, student recital, entrance audition, competition, etc. She told me she wanted to call the article THE BIG DAY. The article I wrote was published in the March/April 2002 Harp Column. You can find it by going to my company web site, http://www.swansonharp.com, and click on the ARTICLES page. It deals with all of the problems mentioned here. I’ve never heard of people getting nervous in a lesson. But the problems are the same as for any performance and the suggestions in the article should help.
I seem to remember that Hindemith gave a brief description of the 1st and 2nd movements himself. He said that the image he wanted to convey in the 1st movement was that of standing in a European plaza in front of a large church or cathedral and hearing the organ play. He said that the second movement was an image of children playing in the same plaza.
I think there was an analytical article on the Hindemith Sonata on the American Harp Journal. You might want to look for that.
Lever gauge Carbon Fiber strings are going to be higher tension than lever gauge gut or nylon strings.
Carbon fiber strings are very high tension and will over time damage the soundboard and neck. Gut strings are somewhat less tension, and nylon are considerably less tension than gut.
You don’t need a harp repairman to fix those dings. Just someone who is very good at finish and refinish work. There’s no way of saying how much it will cost until he examines the instrument. He may not be able to make them disappear, but rather make them less obvious. As an old finishing mentor of mine said”…take their trumpet away.”
Dawn- yours are the newer kind that can be adjusted. You have to be very careful not to over-tighten them or the bolt will snap. That’s because one half of the piece, which threads into the other, is very thin and can easily break. Your teacher has the old type on hers. The bolts that I had made for my harps and which I use to fix other makes of harps are much sturdier and would take a lot of work to break.
Marti- the brass pedal on harps older than 20 years or so is held to the steel pedal bar by means of a large bronze rivet. The rivet is inserted and then the two ends are mashed out to lock the rivet into place. Over time they seem to get either too loose or too tight.
The fix is to have a qualified repairman remove all the pedals from the instrument, drill out the bronze rivet, and use a nut and bolt system where you can control how tight or loose the nut holds the pedal. I do this repair on a regular basis. After I have removed the bronze rivet I coat the hole with graphite grease before inserting the bolt. This system works very well.
All of the above advice is excellent and should help you make your way through orchestra playing.
One thing I would add for opera in particular which you said you’d be doing is to think of each beat as a point to coordinate with the singer. In other words, the singer is going to stretch the beats from time to time for the phrasing, expression, etc. The conductor is going to be following that, and so you have to know the vocal line very well and be able to stretch or shorten what you are playing so that your beats are in sync with the singer. An example of this is the big tenor aria from Caveleria Rusticana which occurs right in the middle of the overture. it’s for tenor and harp. Nothing else. Usually once it starts, the conductor stops conducting and lets the tenor and harp do their own thing. There are places in that aria that slow down drastically and abruptly and then speed up again, and you have to know where they are and know how to stretch what you are playing so you land on the beats with the tenor. Many opera parts are like this. Ballet too. So while it’s important to practice with a metronome, the most important part of that is to memorize the vocal line and know where your part fits into that line.
Jessica- You have it exactly right. The problem with most 20th century harps is that the lower edge of the action plates in the first octave are basically parallel to the soundboard. On the Erard Gothique actions, and the CAMAC actions, the lower edge of the action plate in the first octave is angled up away from the soundboard. Think of a triangle, and then imagine the soundboard surface and the lower edge of the action plate as representing two lines of the triangle. This gives you an enormous amount of space for the right hand in the first octave, and is the reason why so much 19th century repertoire, particularly that of Parish-Alvars and Renie, has difficult technical work for the right hand right up to the last string on the instrument. It was never an issue on those instruments.
I have a 45 string Lyon & Healy that I rebuilt for myself about 23 years ago, and it has an enormous amount of space in the first octave(which I put there when I engineered the new neck). There are some pieces that I play that I can only play on that instrument. On most other harps I would have bleeding knuckles and still miss a ton of notes.
I would ask them what the next least expensive item is on their wedding. Probably the flowers, for which they are spending several thousands of dollars. Point out that your fee for the music is about one tenth of the next cheapest item. Then ask them what they are going to remember in 20 years, the flowers or the music?
