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If you brought your Christmas music to your conductor, she wouldn’t be able to do much with it apart from allow you a solo in the program. Is that what you had in mind, or playing with the orchestra?
If playing a solo, it seems appropriate to ask for help selecting something appropriate that meets the conductor’s approval. Depending on the general level of the orchestra’s playing, it is possible that you aren’t ready to play something that would fit into this concert, and you shouldn’t take offense of that but keep playing when you can.
Chamber music is a close option, one where you wouldn’t have the burden of the entire piece. Something like “Greensleeves” with a violin or flute would be appropriate. The variations by Fleury and Dewey Owens are playable on lever harp. One of the variations might have a pedal change and you could leave out a couple of notes or skip that variation. It’s not too difficult a piece. The harp plays mostly chords.
If playing with the orchestra, it would be possible to write a simple harp part for a couple of pieces, but that can be time consuming depending on the pieces. If your teacher is coming up with it, probably the simpler the better from the standpoint of not taking up too much time and having a part that can be written and taught easily. Your teacher would need to know what the concert program is, titles as well as composers and arrangers, and maybe borrow a score. Writing a part would take time, probably more than the length of a single lesson. Some teachers could whip something up but others might need more time. Because of the time commitment, I would suggest only asking your teacher if you think your teacher would feel comfortable saying “no” so that your teacher doesn’t feel obligated to agree to it.
One failsafe Christmas piece is “Silent Night”. If the orchestra or just a solo instrument plays the melody or leads the audience in singing it, the harp can accompany. It has only three chords and is playable on about any lever harp unless they’re playing in G-flat or another very rare key. Most of the time it’s in b-flat, and the chords are b-flat, e-flat, and f (or f7 if you want to be really fancy). You can just play eighth note arpeggios and it will be beautiful. In fact, it’s better with a simple harmony, since according to the story it was first played with only a guitar.
I have a Harpo harp cart. They’re more expensive but I think worth it. Since I use ZipCar and have access primarily to midsize vehicles, the removable wheels and collapsable frame are terrific. In addition, I like that when the cart is not leaned back the wheels are well off the ground, preventing unintended rolling.
I’d suggest finding a buddy and dueling progressively cheesy but virtuosic variations on “Anything You Can Do”.
I don’t think a RAV4 will be very good for a tallish person like you. A Highlander would work, however. I liked the test drive of a Honda Pilot I took a couple of years ago and that’s also big and reliable.
Passats don’t seem to have good owner satisfaction from some of the research I’ve done. Jettas seem much better, but not as large unfortunately and you probably wouldn’t want one as your permanent vehicle.
You’d probably have the most room in a Tribeca, though it is also somewhat more expensive than the Outback and Forester. A friend once gave me and my concert grand a ride in her Tribeca and it fit easily.
From what you describe, the fourth string from the bottom is red. That would make it a C string, and the lowest string on your harp a G string. The previous owner might have tuned them down so they wouldn’t break while shipping, or if he or she hadn’t tuned it in a very long time perhaps they went flat, or they were just tuning it too low. Just make sure you know what octave they’re supposed to be on that harp, in case they happened to have tuned it too high instead of too low.
Elizabeth has a point. Breathing is important, and people often don’t do it if they’re experiencing stress. They often hold their breathe instead. While practicing a demanding passage, experiment with consciously blowing air out throughout the phrase, as if your harp is a wind instrument and needs air to play. Years ago, my viola teacher made me do that, and my hands opened up and relaxed more almost immediately.
You’d likely need permission to provide a copyrighted glissando chart as a handout. Instead you might create a couple examples of your own. They should get the idea from one or two examples, and can always get their own chart later if they really need one.
If moving it, I tape the jack to the inside of the soundbox (make sure you’ve dusted the inside first where you want to stick it), then when I get the harp out, I move it to the outside. But since I don’t have the pickups permanently affixed, they’re also easy to pop off with a credit card or driver’s license, and I can just stick them back on while setting up. The poster squares are around $3 or $4 for a large set of them. You can buy them in art stores or most general stores with an arts and crafts section, like CVS or Target.
Gaffer tape is used more on the stage to secure cables, so I’d look in a store that sells audiovisual equipment or electronic music supplies. Guitar Center or a local music store that includes electric guitars and amps, or maybe Radio Shack. I kept a roll of it and a pair of scissors in the bag with my other supplies.
I’ve attached a photo for reference. Unfortunately the jack is in shadow but I think you can get the idea.
I take it out the bottom sound hole, and put it against the back of the harp with gaffer tape. The tape comes off easily and does not harm the finish. In fact it falls off on its own after a couple days. When I plug the cord into it, I run it horizontally until it’s just behind the soundboard wing, and keep it in place (above my feet) with a couple more pieces of gaffer tape.
Me? The K&K Twin has two contacts, one that you place down low and another higher up. The one they sell for harps and other large instruments is the Big Twin, since the chords are longer and the pickups can be placed further apart. I placed the upper one probably not quite halfway up, and the bottom one probably about six inches from the bottom of the board, basically wherever it extended comfortably. I used Scotch poster squares to pop them off easily after I was done. They include a more permanent adhesive but I expect to only need amplification a few times a year.
For me, it seemed like a better option than a regular mic. Because I play in a very large ensemble on a fairly crowded stage, I was afraid a mic would pick up other nearby players as well as be at a high risk of getting knocked over. I was very happy with how well it picked up my harp’s sound.
Jennifer, it’s good to hear about the problems you’ve had (you know what I mean). A lot of rechargeable batteries need to be expended and recharged frequently to keep functioning well (they always say this about caring for an iphone, for example). I’ll try to use mine regularly, even if it’s just at home on a minimum setting, to hopefully keep the battery working well.
Because so many of the cadenzas (I’m looking at you, Tchaikovsky) have long stretches of cascading arpeggios, I looked at some pieces I’ve played in our concert band recently for inspiration for you.
Copeland’s “Quiet City”, for string orchestra and winds or for small wind ensemble, includes an interesting harp part. The harp is not featured except by virtue of it being a small ensemble, however it serves an important role in helping to define certain attacks and also provides an important texture to the background, and the harp has a very interesting tremolo in the bass strings toward the end that would only be useful in a thinly scored section but is quite effective.
“Pines of Rome” has a beautiful harp accompaniment in the third movement Nocturne as well as a solo using harmonics, plus brilliant glisandos in the first movement.
Michael Daugherty’s “Niagara Falls” is a very interesting and fun harp feature, largely because it is a very loud and raucous piece. After some solo arpeggios and glissandos that are eerie (think Hitchcock – the piece is partly a tribute to American Film Noir) rather than delicate, followed by pages of very loud glissandos using picks, which enables the harp to cut through the very loud happenings around it. The parts are only available on rental but I believe you can purchase the score separately.
