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I have see many harpist rely on this method. They play very softly and hidden and look busy. I much prefer to play audible and be asked to play quieter than be barely going thru the motions.
I have had a conductor call out the a harpist for this saying – If you make a mistake we can fix that but you have to play.
I have also played in pits at shows or subbed in orchestra concerts where after the rehearsal the other players came up to me and said – wow you played all the notes!
So would never tells someone to fake it. For opera parts especially if there are singers involved, harpists need to know the music well enough to stretch in places and follow that conductor and singer wherever they go.
If you don’t have the music yet, you can get the score and a recording and know what is going on before going into the first reading. This is invaluable.
I went thru this in college many years ago. I made it to the finals of a national competition held in Los Angeles. I was a senior in college, competing with a 12 yr old in the finals. I played the Salzedo Ballade, Faure Impromptu etc and I know she played La Source Hasselmans. All of the judication sheets were in pen – virtuoso playing, excellent across the board. All of the #s were in pencil. There were multiple erasures on the numbers. I was scored 85/100 – how can you be a virtuoso and it be 85! The 12 year old won – she was also a local girl.
I took it that youth was in. But that was the last competition I messed with. Just not worth the amount of work for that kind of slap in the face for me.
Previous to that competition I did another one where the judges bashed the edition that I used more than my performance. And I found it curious that the edition that I used was published, while one of the winners used an unpublished transcription from her teacher. They did not specify the edition to use. I will also say this, part of this was purely political – I was the only Salzedo player at this comp and was advised that it was not worth even bothering. I naively thought it would be remotely fair. The comments were not useful, and when compared with the winners – most were left wondering what they were looking for.
I heard horror stories of some competitions where the judges clearly cheated even to go so far as to use a mirror to distract the performer.
If they truly want it to be about the music, they should do them like orchestra auditions – usually first rounds are behind a screen and you don’t speak at all.
My approach starts with fingering as this is our first line of phrasing and trying to get across our interpretation of what the composer has written down. We get different sounds with different fingers and different places on the string the note is played. It is also my belief the the gesture goes hand in hand with the sound and phrase I am creating.
I have one pet peeve with musicians coming out of some major conservatories (lots of pianists) that seem to get confused by the difference between playing in time and playing in rhythm. A waltz doesn’t have 3 equal beats etc.
Also – part of musical intention is making the effort to learn about the piece of music or dance that the piece music is based on.
