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Stephanie, I just listened to your Carol sound clips and I was impressed with your arrangements, especially Shepherds Shake Off Your Drowsy Sleep. You have a very fresh approach to the familiar carols and there are many I did not know. Thank you for adding more and different music to the Christmas harp repertoire. For those who like Kim Robertson’s Christmas music and Bernard’s Christmas, you will enjoy these, too.
I would like to add on your behalf that these carols are for lever harp as well as pedal.
I dug through my Christmas music and came across an arrangement of Ukrainian Bell Carol (Carol of the Bells ) arr. Darhon Rees-Rohrbacher. It is in her Christmas Classics book for lever and pedal harp. Megan Metheney has an arrangement in her Bernard’s Christmas collection titled Rimbell #5/Carol of the Bells. Louise Pratt has an arrangement for lever or pedal harp.
I would appreciate suggestions of other carols appropriate for a Christmas cantata setting. And, if anyone has suggestions for other showy Christmas music, feel free to join in.
Balfour, the Salzedo carols are too short. I need 3 -5 minutes. The only long carol arranged by Salzado is Adeste Fideles and I don’t have time to get that up to speed. I play the first page of it and half know the rest. Great solo. BTW, there is a clip on youtube by Josh Layne. Thank you for the good idea about Ukrainian Bell Song.
Carl, now you have motivation to get your arrangement made of Carol of the Bells. Congrats on the Debussy Danses. Quite an undertaking.
I deleted the VHS emails and like you, cannot find the info. There is a Facebook page. Ask there or send an email to Diana Rowan. Her website is http://www.dianarowan.com.
Sounds like progress:). By chance, I saw Atlanta Harp Center has a 2001 Salvi Sinfonietta harp for sale. It is the harp replaced by the Arion. I do not know anything about that particular model but it appears to be in your price range (check to see if the price is firm) and comes with a 3-piece transport cover. A cover set is $600 new. Not having to restring saves you about $600.00. It said the harp is due for regulation so if it was done at the store, that is another $300 not to worry about. This semi-grand model weighs 75 pounds as opposed to a concert grand that weighs 85-90 pounds. Something to think about.
Why don’t you let this forum know where you live. Perhaps someone may contact you privately. You may also want to put a notice in your area chapter of the American Harp Society newsletter or ask if a notice can be sent out on your behalf seeking a rental harp. You could also try the Harp Column classifieds.
Also, there is a huge difference between harp ensemble and orchestra. Thank you for clarifying that point. I can understand your daughter feeling overwhelmed by orchestra. It would be a good idea to encourage her to play with a student taking lessons on another instrument such as flute or violin. Discuss that with her teacher. It may give your daughter more confidence and motivation if she has a music buddy or two, or three. She could get started now to play Christmas music. It’s great you were able to send your daughter to harp camp. I hope she enjoyed the experience.
I had the same thoughts as Alyson. If your daughter seems to be more worried about how the harp looks, isn’t committed to practicing or moving forward to ensemble work (which forces her to play at a higher level), complains about the weight of the pedal harp after only a little bit of trying, I would be holding off on buying a pedal harp. Her resistance and reluctance, as you describe it, would give me pause. She needs to beg to move on to a pedal harp, IMHO. At the ages of 11-14, that is when children either lose interest or make the move to become accomplished on an instrument – just an observation.
Out of curiosity, I just checked the Camac, Lyon-Healy and Salvi harps. I noticed the Camac Clio comes with a straight soundboard or extended sound board. You definitely want the extend soundboard. It does add $2,000 to the cost. I noticed Salvi has the Arion model. It is $2,000 more than the Clio but it has 47 strings. In full disclosure, I have 2 Salvi harps that have the “new concept” soundboard mentioned in the Arion description. Both my harps have incredible sound. I am not familiar with the Arion, though. Perhaps someone else who plays the harps you are considering will add his/her opinion. The Arion is the lowest priced of a full size harp even though it is advertised as semi-grand. If you are interested in the Arion, I would ask the Salvi rep if the string spacing is the same as a concert grand. The same Lyon-Healey Chicago model as the Arion is, again, $2,000 more than the Arion which is why I would consider the Arion over LH. In addition, Salvi uses a polyurethane finish on their harps while LH uses lacquer. Poly is much more durable and easier to clean – something to factor in with a young student.
BTW, I was 5’6″ when I was 12 so a concert grand was a must for me (although I did not start to play until I was 18 and in college).
You may want to ask around in your harp community to see if your daughter can rent a pedal harp for a while. Perhaps because the harp would not be moved and is rented to a young student, you could be given a discount. Then you will not be rushed into making a very expensive decision.
Personally, I prefer Salvi harps and would consider the Daphne over the LH Chicago harps. But, the Camac has an advantage of having 44 strings. Camac is a quality harp and your daughter is less likely to outgrow that harp. In the long run, you may even end up using as her school orchestra harp and buy a second concert grand. But that is way in the future. In the scenario your presented, I would go with a harp with more strings.
Another option is to take out a small loan and put down as much money as you can on a concert grand. I ended up keeping my first harp, a Salvi Aurora, for 35 years. A concert grand will keep its value better than the harps you are considering.
You may also want to consider a used harp. There is a lot to think about, though, because you cannot be certain how well someone took care of the harp and what repairs could be needed. There are a lot of excellent used harps but you would definitely want guidance from your daughter’s instructor or make sure that a harp tech checked the harp prior to purchase. Make sure you factor in the price of a new set of strings and the cost of a regulation if you decide to go with a used harp.
I am sure others will have a lot of good advice for you on making such a big decision.
Your son looks taller than in the last video. Along with lessons, make sure he can play just for fun and the happiness of making music with his family.
Finding it “tedious” to learn new music: If you love what you are doing, it is not tedious. Frustrating at times. Yes. The more you practice and play, the better you get. The better you get, the easier it becomes to learn new music. I cannot emphasize enough how important developing good technique from the start will help you in your overall music development. Also, when you start to play, learn a very simple piece(s) you can play for others. Add a few glissandos for effect. Instant gratification is a good motivator and will give you confidence.
Meantime, go to Sylvia Woods harp website and read her newsletter about music apps. You should continue to work on note reading and look at rhythm apps. Learn what the notes mean. This will save you months of lessons to learn the music basics. Watch tutorials on youtube, too. You may want to set aside a certain block of time to do this. Then when you get your harp, you already have a set practice time.
Are you planning to take harp lessons (I hope you are because most people do not do very well self-taught)? You could look around for a harp instructor and perhaps rent a harp while you wait to get one. You could also consider Skype lessons although it is preferable to have an instructor by your side. I think using a keyboard would be very helpful. The more about notes, clefs, time signatures, etc. you can learn now makes playing any instrument easier.
If harp lessons and buying a harp are not affordable or a harp instructor is not available, you make want to consider taking piano lessons for a year and then start playing harp. I started with piano, and I think it helped. By the time I moved to harp I could concentrate just on technique.
