Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Seattle harpist Alison Austin runs Pacific Harp Institute, and that is her son, Patrick, playing the violin. I am sure she could tell you where to get the music. I will email you with her contact information.
Are you holding your breath when you play? If this is the case, then your extremities are being starved of oxygen. Remember to keep breathing deeply as you play, practising deep breaths at the beginnings of phrases. If you are very conscious about it, and breathe deeply whenever you feel tightness, you would be amazed how it releases tension.
There are lists of orchestra excerpts required in auditions.
Here’s the list from St. Louis Symphony’s harp auditon:
BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra
BERG Violin Concerto
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique
BRITTEN The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 8
DEBUSSY Afternoon of a Faun
DEBUSSY La mer
MAHLER Symphony No. 5: Adagietto
RAVEL Alborada del gracioso
RAVEL Tzigane
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G Major: Cadenza
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Capriccio espagnol
SMETANA Vysehrad (The High Castle), from Ma vlast
STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration
STRAUSS Dance of the Seven Veils from Salomé
STRAVINSKY Symphony in Three Movements
TCHAIKOVSKY Nutcracker Suite No. 1
WAGNER Magic Fire Music from Die WalküreHere’s another list, which shows some of the same pieces:
Bartok- Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, Violin Concerto No. 2
Berlioz- Symphonie Fantastique
Britten- Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
Bruch- Scottish Fantasy
Bruckner- Symphony No. 8
Chabrier- España
Debussy- La Mer
Donizetti- Lucia di Lammermoor Cadenza
Dukas- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Mahler- Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 5
Ravel- Alborada del Gracioso, Daphnis and Chloe (complete ballet), Mother Goose Ballet, Le Tombeau de Couperin, Tzigane
Rimsky-Korsakov- Capriccio Espagnole
Strauss- Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, Ein Heldenleben, Salome’s Dance
Stravinsky- Song of the Nightingale, Petrouchka (combined part), Symphony in Three Movements
Tchaikovsky- Nutcracker (cadenza and excerpts), Swan Lake (cadenza)
Verdi- La Forza del Destino Overture
Wagner- Das Rheingold, Magic Fire Music, Liebestod, Siegfried’s Rheinfahrt, TannhauserJudy Loman taught me this: playing very slowly, relax the hand completely in between each note, while still placing normally. Using a scale as an example: place all 4 fingers for the scale. Play the 4th finger, bringing it all the way into the palm, then relax the entire hand, but do not fall off the strings. Then play the 3rd finger, also bringing it into the palm, then relax completely, but keeping the 2nd and thumb still placed, etc. Any time you are learning a tricky passage, use this technique. I can tell you from experience, it works.
Also, practice placing your hands in a very relaxed manner. Drop your arms. Then raise the hands very slowly, with the thumbs up and ready, and plop the hands onto the strings, in perfect position. Drop your hands again and repeat this until you always arrive on the strings perfectly positioned, comfortable and relaxed. Your shoulders should be down, never hunched up.
Let me know if this helps you.When you have a glissando of a chord, it is implied that you use enharmonic notes to fill in the gaps. The setting for these glissandi is D#, C nat., B#, Eb, F#, Gb, A nat.
The VSO moves my harp to any run-outs from its usual place in the Orpheum Theatre. The crew will also move the second harpist’s instrument.
I am looking at the part on the IMSLP site, and I don’t see a trill, but rather, repeated G naturals. You could either use alternating hands to play on the same string, or do the G one octave down every alternate note.
I would imagine that they do give private lessons. You could call the Toronto Symphony to contact Heidi van Hoesen Gorton. I have an email address for Janice, but I don’t know if it’s current. Email me, and I will send you what I have.
The big difference is in the amount of academic work, but this varies greatly among institutions. They should all have course information on their web sites. When I got my degree from University of Toronto in Performance, I took electives (French conversation and literature and psychology), and courses such as composition, music history, ethnomusicology, theory and conducting. At the time, I could not have imagined how useful it all turned out to be. Some classical music programs also offer things such as jazz and career-management. Wherever you go, look for a school which will offer playing opportunities in ensembles.
Toronto is full of wonderful harpists, so you should have no problem. There is a very active Toronto chapter of the American Harp Society.
Here’s the web site of the Toronto chapter: http://www.torontoharp.org/
Judy Loman teaches at the Glenn Gould School, and many of her students teach. Sharlene Wallace, Andrew Chan and Janice Lindskoog are experienced teachers. Joanna Jordan specializes in jazz and pops pedal harp. Heidi van Hoesen Gorton is the harpist in the Toronto Symphony.Thanks for this article, Carl! I just finished performing the Debussy Trio, having made those corrections after consulting Anton Sie, who had a sheet of errata. He had made this sheet after looking at the original manuscript. There was one spot where I was afraid to make the change for fear that people would think I was making a mistake (where the chord is supposed to be one beat later). I will be very interested to see your further articles. I will send you the errata sheet as well.
I don’t have the part, but all I can assume is that he means not to use a “trino” effect, strumming with the front and then the back of the finger. I would probably just do a two-hand trill effect.
