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I can tell you with absolute certainty that Salzedo did not play with his pinky extended, nor with his elbows up for that matter. I never knew him. But I’ve talked to plenty of people who did, and they all said that he played the way he was taught. That photograph you are referring to was a studio pose.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that Salzedo did not play with his pinky extended, nor with his elbows up for that matter. I never knew him. But I’ve talked to plenty of people who did, and they all said that he played the way he was taught. That photograph you are referring to was a studio pose.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that Salzedo did not play with his pinky extended, nor with his elbows up for that matter. I never knew him. But I’ve talked to plenty of people who did, and they all said that he played the way he was taught. That photograph you are referring to was a studio pose.
Robert- Thank you so much for posting that. It is really impossible to assess the condition of a harp from pictures. The gilding on the most beat up harp in the world looks fabulous in photographs. You can’t tell how much the neck is warped, how much the board is pulled up, etc. It’s only by examining it in person that you can get an accurate idea of it’s condition. Thanks again.
I recently attended an orchestra concert here in Boston which Gunther Schuller conducted. After the concert there was a talk-back and someone in the audience complimented him on how quietly he got the orchestra to play. He commented that in his opinion most orchestras, and most conductors, play everything much too loud, and this was a real beef with him.
After the talk-back was over, I went up to him and told him a story that my teacher Pierre Jamet had told me years ago. Jamet was at a piano recital and Debussy was there too. At intermission Debussy came up to him and said, “You can always tell a good pianist by how quietly he plays.” Gunther said to me,”That’s exactly what I’m talking about.” The point is, you have more color and more dynamic range when you can play very quietly. I also think that a big crescendo coming out of that quiet fabric is much more moving than if it is emerging from an already loud context.
One of my complaints about virtually all orchestra harpists regardless of their school of playing is that, when they play solo repertoire, they play way too loud. They play as if they were doing Wagner in Royal Albert Hall. I realize that they have to play in a much higher dynamic range in an orchestra, but they need to learn to shift gears for solo repertoire. If I were to set up an imaginary volume scale, with 1 being extremely quiet, and 10 being FFF, most orchestra players operate in the 5 to 10 range in their orchestra work. But they need to dig into the range of 1 through 4 when they play solo.
John- Are you sure about the age of the instrument? Many of the older Daphne’s were made in Columbia South America. Salvi had a factory there years ago(he LOVES cheap labor and a total lack of worker benefits) and I was told that the harps were made from some cheap tropical wood that was very oily and didn’t hold a finish well at all. That may be the case with this instrument.
In the 18th Century that drab green was a common color for harpsichords. The color was called ‘Merde d’oie.’ I’m not kidding.
Do you mean that she performed as a soloist amplified? Or as a member of the orchestra? I think it is sometimes acceptable and even necessary to discretely amplify a soloist if the orchestration is very thick and constantly buries the soloist. If putting the harp on a wood platform doesn’t correct the balance problems, then go ahead and amplify. There is also the Florent Schmidt concerto for piano, harpsichord, and harp, and there is no way those three instruments are going to balance each other without amplification. It can be done so that the audience is not really aware of it. I know for a fact that the orchestra at the Opera Bastille in Paris is discretely amplified. I don’t know if the singers are too.
Steven- I’m assuming when you say you got both volumes, that you’re referring to the last set of 50 etudes(25 in each volume). Those are wonderful etudes and I worked on almost all of them with Jamet the first year I studied with him. I remember when I got to etude number 7 or 8(the one with the relentless FF arpeggios in the right hand and octaves in the left), he told me that when he did that one with Hasselmans, Hasselmans made him work on it until he could play it through beginning to end three times with no break. As soon as he told me that of course I made that my goal as well and I got so I could do it.
The vast majority of conductors of American orchestras have always been European. The American born and trained conductors have always been the minority. So any suggestion that European conductors aren’t used to ‘STRONG PLAYERS’ is absurd. if the conductor is telling the harpist to dial it down, it’s because he or she is playing too loudly, not because he or she is a ‘strong player.’
Sam Milligan told me that Grandjany would twirl the string between thumb and index finger as he was marking it with the other hand so that the mark was like a ring that completely encircled the string.
Paul- I think the decision to change teachers, and whether it’s the right move or not, has to do with where you are in your learning process. This assumes that you’ve had only good teachers and are not changing because your teacher is not teaching you anything, or is very destructive, both of which can happen and both of which are valid reasons for changing teachers.
I had 4 teachers total. My first was Lois Bannerman, an excellent teacher who had studied with Salzedo. I had her for one year before going off to college. My second teacher was Aristid Von Wurtzler. He was not a great teacher, but I learned a lot from him anyway and he really pushed me. The best thing that came out of my studies with him was meeting Pierre Jamet, who was my third teacher. I went to him because I wanted a complete technical overhaul, which delighted him. He was my main teacher and I studied with him privately(after my undergraduate work) for 3 years. My last teacher was Bernard Zighera, principal harpist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra(for 54 years!). He was a wonderful musician but a truly nasty and disagreeable person. It took several years of working by myself to undo the damage he did. I studied with him only because I wanted to get a Masters degree and that was part of the course requirement.
I don’t believe in jumping from teacher to teacher. Especially when one wants to build technique, I think you have to find a really good teacher of technique and stick with him or her. After that, you can go to someone for orchestra parts, another for musical coaching, etc. But when you’re in the development part of your studies, one good teacher is better than 5 good or bad teachers.
Jennifer- I was going to put this into my original post up top, but decided against it. Now, dadburnit, your question is too good to pass up.
Many of the proponents of a certain school of playing(which I will not mention) brag that they have a ‘big sound,’ when in fact they are simply playing everything fortissimo and overplaying the instrument. These same disciples of the afore mentioned school of playing ALSO demean and denigrate anyone who does not come from that school of playing, saying “you can’t hear them.” “They don’t have any sound.” I have listened to this for over 40 years, so please, don’t even THINK of telling me I’m making this up. BTW, people from this same school of playing will tell you(again, I’ve heard this for 40 years) that if you don’t play THEIR METHOD, you simply cannot get an orchestra job. Apparently the orchestras don’t know this, because since the early 1980’s, virtually every orchestra position that has come up has gone to someone NOT from this school of playing. But I’m digressing…
The problem is that if you overpull all the time, and play everything fortissimo, then that’s all you can do. You have no idea how to keep your sound and project at a lower dynamic level. And if you play a tightly strung instrument that has poor sound, you are limited to overpulling just to get any sound out at all. Stated another way, the more resonant the instrument, and the easier it is to play, the more color and dynamic variation you have available to you. The most resonant instrument I have ever played, bar none, is my antique Erard that I bought about 3 years ago. You just barely touch it and it sings. But many harpists, particularly of the afore mentioned ‘method’ would yank and twang on this instrument, for the reasons mentioned above.
Years ago I was at a harp conference and wandered into the exhibit room during a slow period when not too many people where there. As I entered the room, filled with harps and harp makers, I heard Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro completely enveloping the room. The sound was huge but not at all strident or forced. It was glorious and I looked around the room to try to see who it was that was making this magnificent sound. It was Elieen Malone trying out an instrument. Every once in a while I come across someone else who was there that day and they too remember that moment as one of the greatest sounds they have ever heard.
