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Dear Atsuko,
Please contact the AHS Executive Secretary, Ashanti Pretlow, execsecretary@harpsociety.org. If you continue to have a problem with Registration please contact me, memilym1@aol.com. Also, my telephone number is listed on the hard copy and online registrations.
Sincerely,
Emily Mitchell
Chair,
50th Anniversary
40th National Conference
@Steven-I’ve heard from other harpists who place only one whole step upwards in order to have SLIGHTLY thicker gut strings in the 2nd octave. Cs and Fs obviously have to retain their present gauge.
I don’t have a problem with the gauge of the gut strings BELOW the 2nd octave. 3rd octave gut tend to go up false, but the gauge is fine. 4th & 5th octave gut, no problem. I even put gut up to 1st octave C. No prob with 1st octave gut strings. I don’t have a problem with breakage. However, it gets expensive when I go through two sometimes three lengths of gut strings in the 2nd and 3rd octaves only, effectually going through my entire stash of 2nd & 3rd octave gut strings, looking for a string that isn’t false and doesn’t ping from thinness.
Several people have commented on nylon strings. Perhaps nylon has improved. I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but maybe I’ll try nylon. What’s interesting is that my original comment written in utter frustration prior an important recital seems to have opened a major concern about a major tool of our trade.
Classic gut are, were, more substantial in the 2nd octave. This is the way they’ve been sold in the US as thicker than Bow Brand with a more mellow, less strident sound. Over the years I’ve noticed Bow Brand thinning out in the 2nd octave producing that ping-y, residual sound, and I have wondered if the varnishing is causing the strings to go up false. This is why I stopped using Bow Brand and started using Classic. I do not expect to keep 2nd octave strings for long on my harps. They’re not meant to last, not with the amount of playing I give my harps. I remember the days when varnished Cs and Fs would flake off their varnish which resembled plastic coating. I don’t use nylon in the 3rd and 2nd octaves.
I have purchased Bow Brand from numerous harp string companies in the US. There is no option to purchase thicker strings with less varnish. Ordering directly from the factory will mean a long wait for strings via snail mail. Will there be the option to order thicker strings with less varnish here in the US?
Presser published Garden in Harp under its original title Four Preludes for Harp before edits. L&H will publish the edited version Garden in Harp. This is the version that is recorded, to be released this fall.
I ended up taking off the Pirastro 3rd & 2nd octaves I’d put on my 1950s L&H 23 the Saturday night before the Monday concert at the Denton Institute. They were worse than the Bow Brand! Fortunately I was able to return the strings to Harp Connection for a store credit. I replaced them with the freshest Bow Brand I could find. Several of the 3rd octave went up false and the top of the 2nd octave had that annoying ping, but I was able to get through the concert.
Something has got to change here. We have to let the string companies know that their product is unsatisfactory. I used Bow Brand before they were Bow Brand when I lived in the UK back in the mid-70s. The strings then were great, good weight, not false with minimal coating. A far cry from what is being produced now. (Carolyn, I would dearly like to discuss harp strings with you! Thank you for your email address.)
Not being able to find good strings is like not being able to find gas to run the car. It just stops you dead in your tracks.
@Sarah – just put the Pirastro on my harp and I have to say I’m not happy as well as poor. $500. The strings still sound false and ping-y. At least the strings are all healthy amounts of double length. I’ve been changing strings for two weeks trying to find strings with a resonant, clear sound in the 3rd & 2nd octaves. Have a solo recital to play on Monday at the AHS Institute in Denton, TX. Gotta stop changing strings at some point so the pitch will hold.
@ Sarah – probably will only use the Pirastro for important concerts since the strings are so expensive. It’s maddening that there’s no middle ground. It’s either cheap, poor quality strings or really expensive good quality.
Just spent $500 on one set each 2nd & 3rd octave Pirastro oiled strings. Hopefully the cheap strings in the other octaves will blend. We’ll see.
Most competitions are set up so that the First Prize Winner takes all. This is the nature of the beast. That’s why so much emphases is placed on the First Prize Winner being the best performer to emerge from the group at that time and moment who will represent the competition as her or his potential is expected. If you’ve ever been on a competition’s jury you would understand that usually one person emerges as the top performer. This is what the jury is looking to find. In my participation on competition juries, the First Prize Winner usually has that something extra, sometimes heads above the 2nd and 3rd place winners at that time and moment. All the performers are good and have good credentials. It’s a cold process at this top level of performance. There is no room for generalities.
When a jury doesn’t choose a First Prize Winner it’s usually because there isn’t that one person who excels above the rest.
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition does a great service to its 2nd and 3rd place winners by providing a concert schedule for those winners as well as its First Prize. Harp competitions have not yet reached this platform.
Apparently through voting. In 1998 the jury listed the finalists in the order of their preference. If my memory is correct I believe we kept voting until we had a majority on the listing of the prize-winners. No deliberations and the voting did not have to be unanimous. Also, the conductor of the orchestra for the finals was on hand to cast the deciding vote in the case of a tie. It was surprisingly quick and harmonious because after two weeks of listening to the competitors perform, the majority of the jury had a sense of who’d be the top winners.
Ah. Doubt you’ll ever know. The Israel jury does not deliberate. At least they didn’t when I was on the jury in 1998. Votes are tallied and that’s it.
