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I am Australian and have an Olwen concert strung 36 although I usually play pedal harp now. Mine only just fitted the car so make sure you measure up before you order as mine was 36 strings. I know a lot of people with Thoms – all happy. They are very popular in Tasmania. The tiny ones are very good for little kids or for travel. It is very stable and stays in tune really well. Camac levers were my choice. They have great sound and projection. Very mellow and not at all tinny. They are very light – never let go in the wind or they will go over! Andrew was very helpful and worked to the time he promised and sent me colour samples on bits of card! I went for a greeny/bluey turquoise and its lovely. Any colour that you can spray a car in is on offer. The only thing I would have changed looking back is that he “carves” his initials in the lovely glossy finish but in a rather stoneage manner and right above the column Perhaps he might put it somewhere less obvious or make the AT (which is one over the other) more delicate! Its not as high tension as my pedal harp but converting was not a problem.
You wont find the same beautiful harp….almost certainly. But you can find your own beautiful harp. I once played 12 in a row in a showroom (well two rows to be precise) of the same make and style – all new – and all slightly different in sound and feel and evenness across the range. And they were my own make and style and none of them were quite like mine. It is personal though – my mum was listening and said that she couldn’t always hear the differences I could and nor could the showroom staff. If you can get to a big conference you can play the different makers one after the other and see the differences inter and intra makers. Then you might be able to narrow down what to go and see second hand. There are fundamental charcteristics to each maker though and some people tend to prefer one over the other. I find the balance points vary as do pedals, space at the top, how they feel against you – never mind the sounds….I have three all time favourite harps I have ever played – one of which is my own – but all three were by different makers so for me its not really about the maker but about the harp itself.
I played this on piano way before harp from what my teacher told me was urtext and agrees 100% with a newer edition of the sonata we have at home as well so I changed the harp to match. There are Dflat/natural differences too and I am not very convinced by the octaves even allowing for improvisations for the period or the little grace note that made its way in! But I am not playing it in a competition where the judges have a score in front of them….
That sounds great Elizabeth. Is Whistler nice in Summer? I am quietly seething having learnt two new orchestra pieces this week as requested (with a weeks notice) by one of the state youth orchestras. They both had quite hard bits in them and there was no recording of one anywhere at all. Then I get there all ready
to rehearse and they have cut nearly everything with the harp in it – it was a toddlers concert with lots of songs and stories woven in. All I got to do was play an arpeggio during “introduce the instruments”, a few chords in a few nursery rhymes and a very very cut down version of L’Arlesienne while they told the story of Goldilocks to it. Luckily I had played that one before so didn’t have to learn it from scratch. They didn’t even give me a kazoo for the Teddy Bears Picnic – all the wind section had one as they were not playing…!!! I think orchestral harp players must be very patient people. I bet no one ever wants Blakes Nursery Rhyme Overture or Quilter’s Childens Overture again too!I have played Tim’s harps and thought they were lovely. I have an Andrew Thom that was my first harp when I started and I love it although I play my pedal harp much more now. Are you only looking for Australian? If not I have only played a Starfish once but that was a great harp and I also liked the Salvi Livia. Hopefully there will be plenty to try out for you – make sure you get to the exhibition early!
Oh no. Sightreading in general on harp is different – many good players and excellent harp teachers can not sit down and play unseen intermediate/advanced repertoire at the sort of difficulty level an amateur pianist could do really well on first reading. My mum plays the cello for fun, turns up on 1st rehearsal, can play most of it sight reading and fudges the rest leaving out the really fast bits and shoving in the main beats then learns it later. There are a whole section of them – and its a one line instrument usually playing one note at a time in standardish finger patterns that only plays the odd chord (max 4 notes). Someone in the section has probably played it before if its standard repertoire anyway. The only time she says anyone gets fussed is if the leader is away and then no one else wants to step up especially if there is a big solo – even then it will usually only be a few bars or a line.
We have to play solos all the time. We are always the leader and if we get a second harp they probably wont be playing the same part! No one to point at the music when you get lost so I need cues all over my part to pick up from just in case and I print out bits of score for difficult bits. Ours are not one line solos – massive chords and impossible to read leger line tiny note fast arps and ripply bits with scary pedal changes that might make the whole thing sound really dreadful if you miss one…and your fingers hurt when they make you gliss a lot…and then they ask you to be louder even though the chance of being heard above a forte tutti is zero. I find smiling at them and nodding helps even you just play it the same again….
There are some things that I have done that I would never have sorted out in 3 days! I cant get speed up in that sort of time from nothing. I would just tell the conductor you cant do it as written if the worst happens and offer to stick in some nice chords that follow the harmony…If they want a professional job they will have to pay for one.
Oh dear, I rehearse tonight for an opera excerpt with one singer and orchestra for the first time….now I don’t feel so good! Lots of solo and rubato bits alone with as yet unheard singer….I do know it though I hope so I should be able to follow. Opera is full of rubato so you need to know exactly what the singer is going to do in your bits. I like to play from the score while I learn something – you need the singing line and the entries.
It’s a nerve wracking sort of fun….its worse than a solo where you can just go to a repair point and try again!
I am a student too and I get asked to play by 6 different orchestras -you have to be selective and say no when you have too much on once they all hear about you. I just say I am already committed for that concert date….. It is very hard to pin down whether you are not getting a part because they haven’t got one themselves and are waiting to get the whole lot at the last minute from a library (in which case they pay for the time they have them so they wait til the last minute if possible) or if they are just disorganised. I usually make 2 weeks a condition if I accept an offer but they just seem to ignore that. It gives you a back out though if its a nightmare handwritten new work you cant fathom at all when it turns up.
Firstly if its old you can find it on the IMSLP and work on it. If it’s famous it might be in the two volumes of Sarah Bullen. Then you need some good harp friends with vast repertoire experience. If this is an amateur group then I ask for it several weeks before and if they say no then I will come to the 1st rehearsal, pick it up and then either leave again or mark my way though depending what it looks like! I warn them first. If its a new or unrecodred work then stay, listen and record it. It will come in hand to practice. You don’t have to play what is written! Just the gist of it in one hand if necessary. Arrange to meet someone with the score and your part early and highlight your exposed bits. Beware a work no one has recorded – its much easier to rehearse with a you tube or an ipad/pod in ear and a score to read while listening.
Mark your pedals enough – they keep going back to awkward spots…
We have a Subaru garage within walking distance of the house. Didn’t get one. We are right hand drive which makes it easier for a harp – you can push the passenger forward for the longer side. My harp is a Camac Atlantide and it did not fit in a Forrester at all in 2010. We wanted something that you can just lean it onto and slide straight in without a struggle onto a flat (padded) surface. Then you also need your trolley, a stool, your bags, your stand and your passenger to have leg room. It JUST fitted into an Outback and Liberty wagon but very little room for anything else (a Liberty is the 2wd version of an outback – not sure you get them though in US) and mum said they felt like driving a hearse. It just fitted into a Passat wagon but very tight. Much easier into a Mazda 6 wagon, a Volvo wagon or 4WD, a RAV4 or any of the bigger Toyota 4WDs. Then does the car fit into your garage? We couldn’t get a high car or the automatic door hit it. If you can find one, a sideways opening boot door stops you having to line up at just the right distance to get your harp under the open door when you lean it over. And no steps to drop down is good at the boot entrance and floor although you can fill a gap with foam mattress if you have to.
I got my pedal harp when I was 10 and was about 5″5 but am now about 5″ 10. I took a long time to decide what I wanted. I could play all the concert grands OK but had trouble getting my arms round the Apollo when sitting low enough to reach the pedals. That’s a fairly expensive harp anyway! I would let her play everything you can find in your price range and she will probably find one that she loves that feels and sounds right. As they vary a fair bit from harp to harp even in the same style it is best to go in with an open mind. Some people are very determined on a colour and style beforehand but that limits your choice quite a lot. I ended up choosing sound over colour in the end when deciding between my final two of the same style. Many wait and see which one they fall in love with. There is usually someone available to play them for you blindly (you cant see which is which and just listen) if she cant make her mind up. And its good to hear a pro on them too. They give you a better idea of the tone and evenness over the whole range. Perhaps wait until there are some interesting ones in the preowned section before you go? The widest top to bottom top end space are Camac. It is unlikely your teacher is talking about actual string spacing – very, very few harpists play special models ordered with the strings further apart than usual. Camac are really nice and comfortable to play at the top end but I can adjust to any other harp OK and I have pretty big hands for a female. Just make sure she tries playing scales and arps up to the top as a lot of intermediate lever repertoire doesn’t actually go that high. You may have to ask around to see who has a camac you can try if you are interested in that. Will your car fit the harp? Most fit people can move their harps single handed but if you have stairs it gets harder. My mum often moves mine several times a week and is glad its one of the lighter concert grands.
Thanks you very much Elizabeth. That’s much easier to read – it is also differently arranged in other sections with the left hand octaves. See you soon in Sydney! Love Philly
oops, forgot this one. This is pretty good too…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCjNfPrMTz4Try this one….
I love my Atlantide. I like the hand spacing at the top, the clear but not metallic top octaves, my lovely rich bass and it is really comfortable to play.. I am 5 ft 8 as well. It was a very wide balance “point” so it never feels heavy even as you move back and forth. An Atlantide doesn’t sound like an Athena (I have an Atlantide) but all harps vary from model to model. I played about 10 Atlantides side by side in France last year and they all had their own characteristics. I love the camac pedals but do not have a problem changing from harp to harp. I think people who don’t play camacs take a while to get used to their pedals. I have also played a really lovely Apollo but they are really heavy to move if you have to do it single handed. I also couldn’t get my arm round one when I was younger. I think it very unlikely that either company would treat you badly if you had problems…..they wouldn’t want the adverse publicity. I have never heard anyone from the two actual companies say anything bad about their oppositions business practices. I would choose on sound and feel personally but that is hard if you cant try an Atlantide. I would try and track one of those down too.
Mum says look up Raynaud’s phenomenon/disease. Even if you haven’t got it the suggestions to help it might help you. She says she had it for years and it was precipitated by both cold and nerves and it actually got very severe so she would get totally white numb fingers just picking up anything out of the fridge. She tried calcium channel blockers and alpha blockers, got side effects and stopped them both, considered and rejected sympathectomy surgery and eventually it went away when she was pregnant and never came back. Hypnotherapy is also a possible pathway.
