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Jessica, my great grandfather once said that the best part about being old is that you can say whatever you want and people will think you’re just saying it because you’re old.
The BYU Harp Archive has a large collection of harp music that is in the public domain.
@http://lib.byu.edu/sites/harp/The Internet Sheet Music Project also has public domain music, though not specific to harp. It’s important to know, however, that because the US and Europe have different copyright laws, some of their pieces that are in the public domain in Europe are NOT in the public domain in the United States.
@http://imslp.org/Many of the sites with free arrangements of more popular pieces might not be using legeally licensed music. Some artists might make their original compositions publicly available on an individual basis. Many search engines, including Google, have an advanced search feature for license limitations, which might help find music with a Creative Commons license, though you should always make sure you can find explicit permission on the page to use the piece for whatever purpose you have. For example, some public licenses allow commercial use, while others prohibit it.
Teva, for advanced beginner/intermediate, you might try Nancy Gustavson. I don’t think I saw her mentioned on this thread, but on other lever harp threads her pieces have been mentioned. She wrote some gorgeous beginner/intermediate lever harp music. She also wrote a couple collections for pedal harp, so check that before buying. Pacific Sketches and The Magic Road are two collections of lever harp music. Most of the harp music stores already mentioned would have her music.
I’d assume it’s not much more difficult than qualifying to buy a new car, but perhaps a bit more, since there are established procedures for registering car titles and electronic registration, so it’s a better asset to secure with a lien. At any rate, it comes down mostly to your credit rating, including income you can prove and debts you already owe and your history of paying them off. Since everybody’s credit history is different, it would be hard to say how well it will go with another person. If you don’t know your credit history, you can get your credit report for free. A lot of sites you’ll find it you search the internet for “free credit report” are for services that give you a free report but in the process sign you up for a monitoring service you have to pay for. @http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0155-free-credit-reports has information on where to get a free report without the strings.
That’s too large an interval for me to play comfortably on those two fingers. When I have to play it it, I don’t really place the third finger firmly until the last instant; it’s by the string but relaxed, and I place at the last instant, as I’m playing the note on the fourth finger. Or is Patricia said, see if you can finger it differently.
It’s not an incommon interval, because the first and fifth in the bass are a chord voicing, but not all harpists have the giant mutant fourth finger to play the interval comfortably without adapting in some way.
The Virginia Harp Center in Philadelphia is about as close as the Midlothian location, at least if you’re in the District itself and want an excuse to make a day trip to Philadelphia (or if you don’t have a car). Otherwise you can also keep an eye on their web site. They have a lot of music when they come in for the MidAtlantic Harp Festival and sometimes a couple other times, usually somewhere in northern Virginia.
I was watching “Lost Girl” on Netflix the other day, and there was a banshee playing the harp. The actress was faking it but not terribly.
A large loan with no credit history or cosignature will likely be quite difficult, at least without a very large down payment. The pending move to another country doesn’t help, since it would be very hard to enforce a loan contract with the borrower and the financed item outside of the country. I wish you the best luck. Fortunately being gone only a year shouldn’t completely derail any lifelong plans for an instrument, especially if you can at least bring a small lever harp over to keep your technique in reasonable shape.
Since a lot of soft foam will flatten out, especially with the pointed edges concentrating the column’s weight on a smaller area, I wonder if something like a gel pad, like a computer wrist pad, would work as extra protection for the crown. The pointed edge will sink in, but the pad will keep to the carving’s shape more and hold it up evenly, and protect better against shock and the pressure from gravity. Maybe you could make a sleeve of a soft fabric of even a sock of appropriate material, sew it shut along the pad’s edges so it doesn’t move, then tie the sleeve around with the pad on the bottom side of the crown, underneath your transport cover.
I have a Venus that is nearly 40 years old and is still sound structurally and has a beautiful tone, and I know a professional harpist who has two Venuses and loves them both. A few months ago I went to a concert where the performer had a Venus and I didn’t particularly care for that particular harp’s tone, though I can probably say the same about most makes of harps. Don’t rule them out. If you’re ever going to Chicago to visit Lyon and Healy anyway, it would certainly be worth your while to visit Venus while you’re there.
I have no advice on eyelets, but I can emphasize on the DC – Richmond corridor. Even on off times like a Sunday evening it’s packed, and much of the trip it has few enough lanes that a minor accident somewhere really grinds everything to a halt.
One thought is that if harpists had to blow their harps, I bet they’d tend to push on those long adagio lines as well, and flutes are among the most air intensive instruments.
Well, most carbon fiber violins still adhere to the basic Strad pattern. People are fond of the look they’re used to, and if the overall shape changes too much there would be an adjustment playing, especially if one switches between instruments.
In addition, while I’ve heard some carbon fiber violins and cellos with amazing resonance, sometimes it seems like the wooden instruments have more warmth and character. The carbon fiber is almost “too perfect”. I think for the harp, the weight is a huge advantage of carbon fiber. A wooden violin is still quite light, and even a cello or bass isn’t particularly heavy, but a harp’s physics, the strings pulling it instead of compressing it, and so much more tension, require a lot of thick, solid wood and make it extremely heavy. With time, I imagine carbon fiber harps will gain in popularity as portable instruments and school instruments (for the durability), though people will still use wood for many performances where they want the tone or even the appearance. On that note, I would expect to see more things such as veneered carbon fiber to give a more traditional appearance but keeping many benefits of synthetic materials. I think Camac does this with their columns already.
We ‘ve talked about carbon fiber harps, MIDI harps, electric harps, as well as the possibility of motors here. You might search around in the forum archives to find the discussion.
As Tayce pointed out, there have been many innovations since the invention of the double action harp that have been in use for quite a while. Strings of nylon, metal, fluorocarbon, and so on are standard on so many harps they barely merit mentioning. In addition, Camac has been using carbon fiber to lighten their harps for years and they also use a fairly different action design. Several makers reinforce the necks with Carl Swanson and Camac have both taken nearly ten pounds off the weight of a concert grand, just over 10% of the weight, Andrew Thom has been making harps from aluminum and carbon fiber for years, some makers use other materials to make a more thinner, more resonant soundboard that withstands the pull of the strings. Heartland Harps have been making very light folk harps entirely of carbon fiber and are now working on a pedal harp.
