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Jennifer, I highly recommend that you get some CDs of the complete ballet. I would consider just about all of the ballet “exposed.” Main numbers in Act I: The Pine Forest in Winter, especially the descending arpeggios at the end of that number and Snowflake Ballet.
Jennifer, all you have to do is try playing the Waltz of the Flowers solo hands together, and it will soon become apparent why Sara Bullen shows the cadenza edited with the hands alternating. This execution is much smoother and it is far easier to achieve a flowing, brilliant effect. I would venture to say that most harpists play it thus, with the groups in both hands descending. I like to play it right hand notes down, left hand notes up, then switch at the top and play both hand notes down as the line descends. Not sure which recording you are listening to, but Sara Bullen’s edition is a pretty standard rendering of the cadenza.
It finally dawned on me to look these up at Youtube. What an extraordinary resource on the Web this has become. Both works are there, performed by numerous ballet companies.
I’ve tried it both ways. There may be those who advocate placing the 1st harp on the “outside,” or right side of the 2nd harp, but I prefer to play 1st harp seated on the “inside.”
Kay, Yolanda Kondanassis book “On Playing the Harp” has some very good exercises for learning to use the pedals.
Carl, I only tried that once, and the story did not have a happy ending. The little boy’s mother was a Suzuki violin teacher and wanted him to play the harp “the Suzuki way,” i.e., without learning to read music from the beginning. Some early Suzuki advocates appeared almost “brainwashed” about the virtues of the method, and I think she was one of them.
She practiced and coached her son with his harp study diligently every day, and he did make good progress at the beginning. We then reached the point where he was
Patricia, I found this publication at http://www.sheetmusicplus.com and ordered it.
