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You can see the intro by searching for this arrangement at the Harp Connection website – it is definitely a pedal harp intro. I don’t know this arrangement, so I don’t know what else lies in store, but the accidentals in the original version aren’t very difficult to accommodate on lever harp, I imagine. (I don’t play the tune, but a quick listen, it sounds like you’ll flip a C to sharp for the occasional A major chord and back again. The bridge might involve another borrowed chord, too.)
One more thing – I find that the cleaner the part, the easier it is to learn, and have found that 15 minutes or so typing out a passage in finale eliminates twice that in practice time. Thanks to those who came before you, this part already looks harder than it needs to be. Once you find your solution, if you can rewrite in and tape it in the score, you’ll save your brain from trying to decipher an gaggle of harpists’ markings.
I’m giving myself a day off from the harp, so I don’t have my harp set up to play, which hampers things a little – hopefully I don’t have you stepping on wrong pedals with the following ideas.
What precedes this passage – and does that interfere with any efforts to preset a couple of the pedals? If you started the measure with D, C, B, and F’s sharp, E, G and A’s natural, that would be ideal – you wouldn’t have to move anything during that measure. I’ve only looked at 2 mm, but maybe this can be a start for you:
Pretending that you could have a D# preset, everything else natural, move F&C to sharp beat 1, move B to sharp beat 2. On this beat, LH plays a B# instead of C natural, RH plays a D# instead of E flat. No more pedals in this measure, still use a B# for the C natural. Measure 2, beat 1, move G to sharp and back to natural before beat 2, on beat 2, move your F to natural, use F natural and an enharmonic in RH as you’ve indicated. If the conductor is open to you reducing notes, get rid of the RH F# on beat 3, and if you were already planning on dropping whatever note that is on beat 4, go with that and move your G to # and your D to natural. Without a harp handy (or footy, as it were), I’m bailing out at this point. I think once you get through the 1st 2 beats of the third measure, things calm down, relatively speaking. If you wanted to drop more notes, maybe get rid of the B flat in the LH, beat 3 of the 5th measure – that will eliminate 2 left foot changes in that measure.
Yes – in a Dodge Caravan. It’s been a while, though. I think the harp was in flat, loaded first, probably angled to maximize space on the right side. Bass was on its side to the right of the harp, with its neck pointing towards (and through) the gap between the two front seats. It may have had to rest a little on the harp? But the weight distribution would have been such that the neck of the harp wasn’t bearing the weight.
When we tune with a lever or pedal engaged, we’re really just shortening/lengthening the string between the tuning peg and the lever or disc, so when either is released, so too will be any additional slack or lack therein through the “open” string. Or worse – you keep trying to bring up the pitch of the string but it doesn’t rise so you keep turning the peg, and then SNAP!!! Tune with levers down/pedals up. If your harp is not in perfect regulation and you really need oh, say, your 3rd octave F# to be in tune, play the string as an F# and disengage the lever/pedal for any adjustments, toggling between open and sharped position.
With a beginning student who isn’t ready to comprehend keys, whose harp is tuned in E flat, I’ll write out the enharmonic equivalents that their particular tuner displays, and teach them to welcome their Aunt BEA when playing in C, which helps them remember which levers to put up.
One idea varies slightly from your instrumentation (by 2 musicians) and that is Crumb Madrigals. It’s a four part work, all four parts feature percussion and soprano. The first 3 parts are trios, adding in double bass, flute or harp. Part 4 is a quintet.
At the 2012 AHS conference, we heard the premiere of Cenzias y Fuego (Ashes and Fire) by Jose Miquel Bevia, written for harp and percussion.
I thought i’d chime in here just to add some balance in case people who haven’t been to the new site are reading this first. I’ve been playing with the site since July and can see so many positives about it. And Hugh has been an amazing web master, listening to our endless critiques during the beta stage and making tremendous progress in its appearance, ease of use and content, so know that your input will help this new version grow into something really wonderful.
There have been many occasions where the needs of the harp column community exceed the parameters of this site – I’m thinking about things like sharing fingerings, getting various bits of information about a piece in one place (like is it in print, which edition(s) are available?) etc… which the new site handles beautifully. And there is more user control with edits, too – something I really appreciate! Additionally, some of the threads that get started here – like “what’s on your stand” can really be developed so fully on the new site, away from the forum.
Ultimately, we all love Harp Column for so many different reasons, but with this new version, some of the users are going to find new ways to love it. The forums will be there for those who only want to use them, but I think there are many in this community who have been the inspiration to expand the notion of an online harp community and I can’t wait to see this new site serving everyone in the future.
In a very grey area like students performing in professional capacities, I like to look for any traces of black and white, starting with the notion that any time a person receives compensation for their time/talent, regardless of the pre-existing status as a student or amateur, in that situation, they are professionals. A donation to the school as compensation for a performance by the student choir distances the performers from the money, but the venue itself chose to value the performance monetarily, so they appear to be willing to show a similar valuing to other performers.
We all make decisions about what a professional wage is for any given situation, and you’ve probably read my thoughts on this in previous forum postings as well as in the Harp Column magazine – I’ll lay off of that today. I think it is both responsible and reasonable for you to have quoted a professional rate. I also think an argument can be made that they are not permanently locked into hiring only students – they did spend money on the previous performance. But that issue will only become relevant if you look to be hired to perform there on your own in the future.
I played my first harp ensemble concert when I was 8 years old and had been playing for about 6 months. I was paid $10. My teacher had a floating scale for what the student/amateur performers received based on age and level, but I do not know if she chose to receive payment, and if so, how much.
Being married to a bassist (but not the kindred spirit re: tuning who inspired this topic), I look on in envy at his collection of basses – the orchestral bass, the solo bass, etc… My orchestral harp IS my solo harp, but I’ve reached a point where I don’t want the same things from my harp in both scenarios. Bass dudes even have this whole “solo tuning” thing going on. It really comes down to keeping my harp at what is a stable pitch choice, suits me as a soloist, plays well with others, etc… and 440 wins out in the majority of situations.
My nightmare days are when I play with an organ tuned below 440 early in the day and play with an orchestra that tunes to 441 right after. Yikes! Worse than the concert where I played the Ravel Pavane and the Cav Intermezzo back to back – who can retune a 7th octave C that fast, asks the short harpist?
Ray Pool’s Winter Wonderland is a real winner. 10 secular holiday classics beautifully arranged.
Or something like this: http://www.samash.com/p/Hal%20Leonard_Ultimate%20Christmas%20Fake%20Book_-49992312?cm_mmc=Froogle-_-Holiday-_-Ultimate%20Christmas%20Fake%20Book-_-H240045&gclid=CMP_sof2-LECFYNM4AodxCYAvA
Much of my secular holiday rep comes from fake books or piano/vocal compilations.
I have a framed quote in my teaching studio – which is also my own practice room – that I found in an essay written in a business magazine, intended to motivate corporate types using athletes and musicians as role models.
“Deliberate Practice: An activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.”
As for personal experience: the hardest part of practicing is the first 15 minutes. Just get over it. I love the quote I’ve shared because that’s our job description while practicing. When I sit down to practice, I don’t have to waste time wondering what I’m supposed to do. I spend those sketchy first 15 minutes warming up, reviewing my previous practice session and voila! Every weak finger, every hesitancy to remember a note I thought was memorized, and I have a complete, and for me, friendly and reassuring to-do list.
What it comes down to is that practicing is a job. Some like it, some don’t. Musicians who like the job of practicing are more likely to be devoted to a lifetime of making music at the highest level possible for them.
Sounds like you earned the pain. I remember getting cramps in my quads and calves while preparing to play the collected opus of a graduate composition class a few years ago. Which makes me think of David del Tredici, who was on the faculty at this college, who describes the harp as “a slow piano.” Too bad not all composers follow that concept. What other instrument induces injury when put through the paces of a chromatic line?
