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I have found that while the typical, average “Style 23” (or Salzedo, or Salvi model, or Athena, or Atlantide) may have certain characteristics, there is enough variability even within each model to overwhelm the difference when you are looking at individual instruments. And there is enough variability in the technique of harpists that you will find some best suited for you (and your music), when another harpist finds a different “best” for them.
You’re really going to have to play them in person to pick what you like and which will respond to your playing and music. You will either play a lot of harps before you purchase, or you will buy and sell a lot of harps looking for the “right” one. Traveling a long distance costs a tiny fraction of what purchasing a harp you don’t love will cost.
You may be astounded if you go to a major harp event and hear how different two or three seemingly identical new harps sound.
There is a complete summary of college harp programs on this very website.
If you look through back issues of Harp Column magazine, also available online if you are a subscriber, you will find many articles on choosing schools and instruments.
(And if you are not a subscriber, you need to be.)
The 1894 date was engraved on the action place right next to the original purchaser’s name and city. So, there’s at least one data point that #128 was in 1894.
I didn’t get a look at how much the neck was pulled sideways, but there was a small crack on top of the kneeblock, and the board was pulled up a long ways. I’m positive it had modern bass wires, and without gauging it, it looked like standard modern gauge guts. Visually, I didn’t see any reason to suspect that all parts weren’t entirely original.
Unfortunately, the 9-year old student isn’t tuning yet. And her father was very resistant to any help offered by anyone at the camp. Apparently no one else in the family is a musician. They are renting to purchase. I’d love to have suggested to lower the tension with original gauges, so that maybe it won’t blow up quite as soon. When I even mentioned to him that her teacher might want to work with tuning some, he informed me that “that harp has been really stable and hasn’t needed much tuning”. Indeed, I hadn’t seen her tune once in the four days of camp, including after the harp was hauled 600 miles, and I was there before and left after her each day. When this conversation happened, we had all just listened to a performance where several in the 4th and 5th octaves weren’t even tuned on the right notes. We won’t discuss from second octave up.
It was really sad, because she has a LOT of talent. She performed the Susann McDonald/Linda Wood Concert Etude, Reverie, and Chorale (from Graded Recital 1) from memory, and apparently had only been working on them for two or three weeks.
Directly contact her teacher? Contact the harp’s owner that they rent from? All of that seems awfully like sticking my nose in. But it is such a shame to see that the instrument may not survive, and they won’t have the money to repair.
I think I recall hearing that Grossi has now been printed in English. Biagio is right, though, the Italian version works fine, especially with a teacher.
Biagio, I found that the Grossi didn’t work well going straight through, but was better when picking out the groups of exercises needed for the literature you wanted to play. Also, the Pozzoli works in parallel with the Grossi, not as a follow-up. Is that your experience as well?
Another couple of suggestions: Alfred Holy, op. 26 (available from imslp.org) and any of Kathryn Cater’s books — these look like they are aimed at children, but the music is well-composed, interesting, and leaves much room for interpretation. They are not labeled as etudes–but each typically does concentrate on one specific technique. Some of the books are beginner; others are advanced beginner or intermediate.
I have a good friend who also found Sylvia Woods’ book challenging. At my suggestion, she changed over to Kathy Bundock Moore’s Levers Up, Thumbs Up, which I thought was a really well-paced book aimed at the adult beginner.
Also, as an adult beginner, who has worked without a teacher, and with — you need a teacher, with you in person, to help get basic technique right from the beginning. Otherwise, you _will_ run into a wall about the advanced beginner/early intermediate level where you will not be able to progress further without going back and relearning basic technique.
My experience has been that the physiology varies from person to person, and hand, arm, and body position has to be subtly altered so that you can produce the exact sound you want. Without a teacher to watch, and more importantly listen, to the sound you are making, and coach to a technique that works for _your_ hands and body, you will end up in a dead end. They need to teach you what sound colors are possible on your instrument, and how to get them, and teach you how to tell when you are consistently making the sound you want.
I’ve also gone from avoiding exercises and etudes to loving them. In pieces, you get a few measures of a particular technique. Unless you stop and compose an extemporaneous etude on that technique problem on the spot, that is not enough to learn how to play that technique. An etude works in many different variations on the same technical problem for several pages, at different positions on the strings, and with both hands. I’m not to the Bochsa/Swanson op. 318 yet; I’m still working through Grossi/Pozzoli. There are others, many out of copyright and freely available.
By the way, @CarlSwanson, has a release date been announced for the second half of op. 318?
This post reads like flame bait, but I’ll assume it is meant seriously.
No one harp model by any maker always has the “best” sound. Each harp will be an individual. There will likely be great instruments and terrible among both model lines. Both are made by well-respected and experienced manufacturers.
Never buy a harp sight unseen (heard?) They do not come off an assembly line, and are not interchangable commodities.
If you have specific questions regarding how the sound or action might differ, someone might be able to help. Otherwise, you’ll just have to play and listen to some examples (live, not recorded) and see which one inspires and speaks to you.
The last time I find your requested arranger (Dulova) printed was by Lyra Music.
BYU (International Harp Archives) has a copy for loan, but apparently not digitized yet.
I guess the obvious would be: have you called Vanderbilt Music, who now owns Lyra? Maybe they have an old copy still around.
You can change them, but– a new set of levers will have significant cost. All the strings will have to be removed and replaced. Generally all the old screw holes will have to be filled, then sanded level and stained. This will almost always require refinishing at least the neck of the harp–so the harp has to come apart. The old filled screw holes will still have some visibility, regardless.
This assumes the neck has sufficient room for the new style of lever. Some take more room for mounting below the bridge pin than others.
All together, the cost is likely to be a major part of the value of a used harp, and probably won’t increase the resale value of the instrument. Economically, it is likely better to sell the instrument and buy another with the levers you prefer.
But it usually can be done.
Good for you for learning how to do some minor adjustments. Every harpist should know. Actually, I think that the more you try it, the more you will want to leave a full regulation to a professional.
I’ve worked for decades with slotted screws. There is no such thing as an angled screwdriver that will actually work. Changing the angle to transmit torque through a bend will _always_ cause the blade to “cam out” of the slot. Generally it damages the screw in the process. Generally the screwdriver will slip and gouge what you are working on also. (There is a ratchet-type driver, but that won’t fit under the string.)
Pull the string to one side with a thumb or loosen it. Particularly since you are just starting, having an exactly fitting screwdriver is essential. You will need several sizes. The blade should just slide into the screw groove and be very close to the full width of the screw or a little wider. A hollow-ground blade will greatly help slipping out. You cannot find these at your local store. Gunsmiths use them, and other who do precision work with slotted screws. I use drivers made by Wiha tools; they have a US office, and sell over the internet.
Also be aware that anything you grap with standard steel pliers of any type will have a mark or burr left on it. You must pad the tool every time, or you will forever be filing and polishing out marks. If a burr is near a string, it will also ruin the string. Jewelers use pliers of many types with smooth and polished faces. Those will save a lot of time.
You will also need spare screws in every size. You will break some getting them tight enough to hold properly. If you don’t have Carl Swanson’s book on maintenance, get it. Steve Moss’s video and website, as well as Mike Lewis’ website (harptech.com) all have excellent information also.
For you to think about:
1) you can purchase a pre-owned 40 string pedal for about the same money as a new 38-40 string. With any harp, each instrument is different. A warranty is no substitution for a good inspection and listening to the instrument.
2) you will find that string spacing and tension will be different from your Ravenna to a concert tension. Even different sizes of pedal harp will have a different feel when playing. (One tends to sit farther up the scale on a smaller harp. A lower bench would help, but not when you have pedals.) You may have problems with muscle memory causing stumbles when playing on instruments from different “classes.”
3) can you rent/borrow a harp to use where your parents live?
4) more harps=more string sets and more regulations. The ongoing expenses of keeping multiple instruments in good condition adds up to more than the purchase price. I often see people with many harps, none of which have been restrung or regulated in decades. Their choice, but I’d rather have one or two that are well-maintained and concert-ready. Why spend all the effort practicing while listening to a poor instrument?If you have a score in 5-flats, whether the key is Db major or Bb minor, you can usually play it in 2-sharps (D major or B minor). The entire piece will be transposed up a semi-tone, which makes no difference for a solo piece.
I’m also assuming there are not many accidentals–probably not if you are considering it for lever harp. Any accidentals you may have move in the direction of the transposition (up). So, accidental flats in the original become naturals and accidental naturals become sharps.
This works for any key signature–just make the total number of flats and sharps in original and new equal 7. It also works the other direction (down a semi-tone) to play E major in Eb major.
On pedal harp, one of the most common uses (for me, anyway) is to play C major pieces in Cb major.
A little personal experience that may (or may not) help. I have always had soft hands. Even though I work in a wood shop daily. Even though I’m gardening and doing outside stuff every weekend. Even though I still do the same kinds of things outside all winter. I virtually never need any lotion, etc–my skin never cracks in the winter, which is a blessing.
I play pedal harp nearly every day and have calluses, yet, even so, more than three hours in the same day will reliably produce a blister, usually deep underneath the callus.
If that is what she is experiencing, the only thing I have found that works is to not play loudly except when dynamics is what you are working on. Also, it works better for me to take it in short doses, not more than 30 min at a time.
If she uses lotion or any moisturizer, suggest she stop. If the calluses are too dry, I sometimes use just a tiny little bit right on the callus only. You also mention washing dishes. If I wash my hands immediately before playing, they will also get sore quickly–so I wash then wait 5 minutes or so before playing.
Just saying fluorocarbon, gut, or nylon will tell you nothing about the sound of the harp without information on tension, diameter, soundboard construction, and string length.
Gut is said to be warmer–and the nature of the material is to have a more “fuzzy” overtone content–but it can still be bright if scaling and tension are light. Today, though, most people experience gut on high pedal tension, with large diameters.
Likewise, fluorocarbon is said to be always thinner. This is true only when comparing changing over a given instrument with set tension and string lengths. It has to be scaled thinner for only one reason–so that the overall tension will not break the harp–because it is a denser material than gut. (Nylon is much less dense than gut, so it is a larger diameter _given a set string length and tension_ If one took identical harps, one strung with gut, and then modified the other to reduce the string lengths, one could string it with fluorocarbon of the exact same diameter.
String materials do respond differently to humidity changes. Each material has a vastly different propensity to absorb water vapor from the air, which changes its density, which makes the pitch change. Nylon (somewhat surprisingly) absorbs a _lot_ of water, making it the most subject to going out of tune. Gut absorbs much less–but gut strings do weaken at high humidity, which can lead to breakage at high tensions. Fluorocarbon absorbs little moisture. Metal strings absorb near zero. I don’t know the absorption on silkgut/nylgut.
Pop/jazz covers a lot of territory–but I second wil-weten–playing that genre on levers will take a lot of flipping, and some creative arranging. You will likely have to do most of the arranging yourself.
Since you’re experienced, forget an idea I had that it is the tuner acting stupid. You couldn’t make a mistake about a semitone flattening.
Do both strings pass through the levers the same way? Do both levers do the same kind of thing to the strings when engaged? They should both hook the string at the top, and force it against the fretting part of the rotating disc at the bottom.
Failing that, can you post a picture of the general area at the top of the strings?
Just like a piano (or an organ) if it is made shorter, (with nothing but the length changing) it must go sharp. No exceptions to physics.
The lever could move sharp more or less than a semitone, but it would have to move sharp.Could it be upside down and on the wrong side of the string? So that when up it was disengaged, and engaged flipped down?
Grasping at straws, here.
