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Rose, I have no experience teaching with Harpsicles (TM) but on their web site: harpsicleharps.com, the FAQ heading will take you to questions and answers. To the question: Can I get a quantity discount—-if I am a teacher? The company answered: Yes, harp teachers, we have a special discount program just for you Please inquire to receive the details.
Since you are the teacher, perhaps by ordering the minimum number of harps to qualify for the discount, you could let the school buy a discounted harp from you, and use the rest of those harps you ordered, in your own teaching. To see and try harps before purchasing, there are many dealers in the U.S. and around the world, all listed with contact information on the web site. Perhaps other makers of small harps would also offer a discount on a quantity purchase; it doesn’t hurt to ask. 🙂Not knowing where you are located, and whether the new place will be hotter or colder than where you are now, I can’t help much. However if you (or whoever is driving the harp to the new place) are comfortable in the car, your harp is likely to be also. A “Space Blanket” of some silvery heat-reflecting material is sold in places that sell camping gear, and used to be available from Sylvia Woods’ Harps. That would keep extreme heat from damaging your instrument. Because of possible sudden stops a large harp might slide if not tied and cushioned preventively. I don’t think loosening any strings would be necessary. If your new city or the area you travel through is much cooler in temperature, make allowances for perhaps bundling up the harp in an unzipped sleeping bag or two. Put more detail into your question for more help, because no one wants your harp to be damaged : )
Greta, “Hymne A Sainte Cecile, Meditation Religieuse”, by Charles Gounod is out of print but I have an old, yellowed edition for Violin published with accompaniment by harp (or piano.) I played it in church as the Prelude, 2 weeks ago. On the elaborately decorated cover (Leduc, Paris, publisher) is listed all the editions that were available and apparently there were 15, from quartet to Orchestre Seul. The voice edition is listed thus:” CHANT, paroles francaises et paroles latines (Ave verum), Mez,, Sop. ou Tenor, Violon ou Violoncelle, Orgue, Harpe ou Piano (et. C.- Basse ad lib.” It is a beautiful melody, in A major in my sheet music edition, but in my copy of “A Method For The Harp” by Kajetan A. Attl, (pub. 1924 by Carl Fischer, New York) on pp.234 and following, it is published for violin and harp in E flat major.The only You Tube performance I found is by solo pianist Leslie Howard of Australia playing a Liszt arrangement of the piece,but so much embellished that the melody is hard to find.
In the U.S. many of us are familiar with, and admirers of, Alfredo Rolando Ortiz, who recorded many albums of Latin American harp music. Of several books he has written, “Latin American Harp Music and Techniques for Pedal and Non-Pedal Harpists, copyright 1979, has the first 32 pages devoted to technique. The remaining 50 pages contain music. Page 22 has helpful information for filing the fingernail , and an illustration, so that one could either use the pad of the finger for pedal and non-pedal harp, or the nail for Paraguayan harp or possibly guitar. Perhaps these pages will enable you to be successful enjoying both guitar and harp. His web site offers both his recordings and his books. Enjoy!
What a generous offer! 85 pages, and some of the turns in the harp part have continuing eighth notes; impossible to continue if both hands are busy. I would greatly appreciate whatever you care to send to me, David . My street address is in the AHS Directory of Feb. 2013, on page 138. Let me know the amount to reimburse you.
Elzbieta E: The excellent 5 1/2″ by 8 1/2″ yellow booklet HARP SCORING by the late Stanley Chaloupka, longtime harpist with the Los Angeles Symphony (pub. Salvi, $5.00 in 1979) is a wonderful resource. On page 20-25 he describes the use of pedals , mostly so composers for the harp will have a clear understanding of how a harpist uses them. Then in the Appendix at the back, page 45 to 47, he shows how to construct a “pedal tracker”which is a “movable pedal diagram” so useful for demonstrations, or for a composer to use. Materials needed for construction are corrugated cardboard ( or wood for more sturdiness); round elastic cord (hat elastic); 7 flat-head shank buttons. If you are unable to get the actual harp parts from manufacturers for your project, I suggest reading both of these sections and be able to make use of much of the information he has so generously provided. He encountered so many poorly arranged harp parts in his long career he decided to educate others in this way. The book is a gem and I hope it is not out of print.
Sylvia , there is a web page listing many harp technicians, their contact information, etc. You could try to get a good answer from one of those listed, at:
http://www.lyonhealy.com/techguild.htm. Robert E. Hohlbauch, in Vancouver Washington, trained on Aoyama harps in Japan,, for example. Some harps from other countries are manufactured with backward screw thread direction in their screws, from the direction used throughout the U.S.A. so it is important to check with a technician for an operation such you wish to perform. Good luck!When harp strings are prepared to be sold as such, I understood that they are passed through a diamond die so that they are perfectly cylindrical and therefore the sound vibrations they produce are more perfect and regular than would be the case with fishing line. Will someone inside the string industry comment here?
Elizabeth, If a composer who died in 1857 (M. Glinka) would not be considered contemporary, then I guess your group would not consider Der Zweifel, a trio by him for flute, violin, and harp, that I have. You can find a complete list of his compositions at http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/7393.html.
More possible might be works by Philip Glass Kepler , born in 1937; Benjamin Britten (d. 1976) who has Folk songs on Hyperion CDs scored for harp, guitar, two sopranos, and 1 tenor. Also consider Luigi M. Tedeschi (1867-1944) whose 8 chamber music compositions, many with harp are on Tactus CD: TC862001. Find him at http://www.classicsonline.com where the audio can be previewed and even downloaded at $.99 or $1.99 each, I have his Fantasia Opus 48 for harp and violin, published in Padua Italy by Zanibon and it is very harpistic.Assuming you already speak and write very good English, I think music and a foreign language would be a good double major because so many terms on pages of music, are in Italian. The whole field of music is becoming more globally oriented all the time. My personal experience in a music conservatory in New York was that along with my music major I chose Italian for three years and loved it, opening up my understanding of texts in opera, opportunities for overseas study in Italy, and on and on, You could broaden your English experience on your own time, through reading some Great Books, and viewing offerings from http://www.thegreatcourses.com which has a free catalog of its many DVDs and texts.
Alison, in artist supply stores, at least here in the USA on the west coast, I use Artist Tape (trademarked) because it is pure white, rather than masking tape that has a yellowish tint. It is so useful to attach a third page of a composition so that on your music stand you don’t have to turn any page to finish the composition. It is a handy 3/4 inches wide, and $8.00. per roll. It may be available online also.
Louis, there is still another choice which was not mentioned here. The Douglas Harp, reasonably priced and made in the Sarasota area of Florida ( dharps@juno.com ) has 33 strings, and 7 levers that activate all strings of the same name at once. This makes it a single-action harp with the action built into the harmonic curve of the harp, enabling much more chromatic music to be played. The Tyrolean harps which have 7 pedals for the feet instead. can also produce a larger amount of music with assorted accidentals. Fine pedal harpists Mildred Dilling, DeWayne Fulton, Paul Hurst, Emily Mitchell and others often chose to concertize and even record on the Dilling (now called Douglas) harp especially when transporting the heavier pedal harp would have been a problem. The maker of these harps holds the patents to this technology and you could look into whether it is right for you.
The contract used by professionals in the music industry, members of American Federation of Musicians, with offices called Locals in every major city in the U.S. (for example, New York City is Local 802) is ideal. Just about every professional musician who made it into earning a good living, whether classical, jazz, etc. belongs to this organization. There are dues to pay each year but you are well protected from non-payment of wages etc. as you would see from the contract. Find your nearest Local on the internet and ask questions. This same contract is hard to beat and is printed on both sides of a sheet of paper. I’m not famous, but for over 50 years of my musical life it’s nice to have all those benefits provided with a contract, just as for Kenny G, Frank Sinatra, and prominent conductors, pianists, violinists who have made a name for themselves.
I have never needed to column load, but rather have a 5″ thick foam mattress, from a foam shop. This I covered in heavy black shiny vinyl yardage taped over it with duct tape. The harp, in its travel cover, slides into the rear easily, in flat mode. With car keys in your pocket, there is no lifting going in: pull the mattress about a foot out from the open tailgate, Let the column and the whole harmonic curve of the harp fall gently onto that safe flat surface, once you have judged that the distance of the harp standing from the back of the car is just right. Then take hold of the base of the harp and leverage the instrument carefully into the car, flat and probably at an angle, leaving room for your harp trolley. To get the harp out again, once you pull the harp out again with a portion of the mattress, far enough to settle the harp base on the ground, make a judgment about when it would be safe to raise the column and top half of the harp to a vertical position without striking the top edge of the tailgate as it leaves the car. That will take some muscle, but not so much with medium-sized harps. Strong hand-holds of webbing material sewn onto your harp cover, are essential for safety. Once it is vertical, try never to let it out of your hands as you reach for the hand trolley and ease the harp safely onto it, then strapping it on so it is stable enough to push it to a destination, after closing and locking the tailgate..
A few ways I have adjusted what is on a page, for older harp students: Less notes in left hand, by possibly playing on first beat only, or first and third beats in 4/4. Slower tempo than normal. Right hand smaller leaps, or changing the voicing and putting a needed accidental in the other hand. Emphasizing practice of one hand only until very well learned before joining both hands. Changing fingering from any arpeggios that are requiring the same hand to pass 1/4 upward or downward 4/1, to use the longer finger 3 instead of 4. Watching the student’s hand from both sides to determine where it is awkward for him/her and making appropriate adjustments (we are too often always teaching from another harp, as we are seated on one side: get up and watch sometimes what the hand is doing from the other side to find more clues!)
