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I use oils, but only at night. As water and soap soften the skin, I theorize that oil reinforces it. As Nivea no longer makes their oily liquid lotion, I would recommend Bag Balm, as it contains lanolin. You could also use very fine sandpaper to stimulate the development of callouses, but playing is the main thing, just increase by five minutes a day.
What exactly are they made of?
I have no problem using high-quality nylon strings in the 0-3 octaves. They require the least pressure and are the most responsive, with completely pure harmonics. With Bow Brand heavy-gauge gut strings in the 4th and 5th octaves, and silver and bronze wire strings, I think I have the closest approximation to the balance between treble and bass that you hear on a piano. I would like to be able to compare the different materials now used for strings, but it is hard to compare them as each harp is a little different. I did try going back to gut strings in the third octave, and they were so muted, it was like playing with mittens on. I had to take them off. The advantages of having nylon in the third octave includes having melody lines happening on the same material, and not having an awkward switch in mid-line. But I cannot stand gut strings in the second octave, as they do not sustain at all and have so much less projection. The harp needs the glamor that nylon gives the high treble. The harp also needs the touch of gold, which I obtained by adding a gold crown to my 23.Yes, they need to use a different organ or have him transpose, rather than re-tune. Or play everything in a key a half-step higher, if you can. If the music is in A, play it in A-Sharp?
A gushing chord includes many more notes and is a literally gushing sound. The rising and descending aeolian chords are only three or four notes or so, in which the fingers brush through those strings in sequence, like the strumming of a guitar. The gushing chord is usually spanning an octave or more, and the strings are all brought into flux at virtually the same time. He indicates to use the third finger going up because, as the longest finger, it gets the most resonance from the string, or rather, from the sounding board. They also differ rhythmically. The gushing chord is a single sound event, and the aeolian chords are a sequence of rhythmic events occuring in a pattern. They are used differently in repertoire. The Aeolian Chords became popular among Italian composers. Their effect is parallel to a tremolo. Most harpists may tend to play a gushing chord too slowly, and make it sound like an aeolian flux or glissando, but it must be much faster and richer in sound, like a geyser suddenly springing in the air. It is perhaps the ultimate in harp color.
You use groups of three notes per hand, or four, or a comfortable mix of three and four, whichever is more secure for you. But if the tempo is much too fast, then you play the right chord-tones, but where possible, such as a B-flat on the bottom and four notes in each hand so the top notes are as written, or more widely spaced. But the upper notes are the more audible ones, usually.
There are formulas for 9-10-11-12-13 note arpeggios I don’t remember off-hand. But they are well-worth memorizing. You need them in Sibelius Symphony no.1, and Tchaikovsky parts as well.
I would not count on the second harpist as they have their own part to work on, unless you have a lot of rehearsal time. Acquiring a well-marked part from an experienced harpist will help the most, particularly one who studied with Chalifoux or Lawrence, as they have the best-marked parts.How far north are you? Sunita Staneslow lives on an island north of Scotland and is an excellent harpist. I recommend the Salzedo/Lawrence Method as it is concise, has excellent photos and exercises. Fortunately, Scotland is not so terribly large that you can’t travel to a teacher at least once a month.
Here’s another sighting, this time it’s Handel’s Passacaglia:
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/200210148If canvas covers are still available, especially with zippers, I find them preferable to nylon covers.
I think Washburn was the name of either someone at the company, or a company that they took over. The early history of Lyon & Healy is very interesting and contains some surprises. Just as now, Lyon & Healy is not just a division of Salvi, but Lyon & Healy Corporation, which makes several lines of guitars and other things, which maybe what they needed the new building for.
I have mostly heard the Apollos. They definitely have a much bigger sound in the 3rd, 4th and 5th octaves. I have not heard one with nylon strings in the treble, but without them, the treble suffers in comparison with the mid-range and bass. Any harp I would buy new I would want to have made with a stirrup, a metal brace in the 7th octave on the center strip, which gives focus to those notes and projection to the 0 octave. My information is that the changes Salvi made were in accordance with Lyon & Healy design. They stopped using polyurethane finish, lightened the weight and planed the sounding board more. I believe they also widened the sounding board as Venus was, I think, the first to do. I do think that any new harp you order should have the glossy finish, as the extra polishing likely thins the finish so the sound is not inhibited, and the harp is formally presentable. With a matte finish, they look dusty. There is a problem on many harps now with the sound being inhibited, 5-10%, but enough to take the leading edge away that is so important. The “french polishing” is worth paying extra for. The question is, since they now use a water-based finish, will it have the same sound benefit?
As I recall, in the Philadelphia Orchestra recording under Ormandy, the harp doubles the flute with harmonics, or the flute doubles the harp. It has the right sound. Non-harmonics do not blend with the flute, and sound wrong.
I have two approaches: one is to be too busy to even think about it, and to only go on stage just as you are to start playing. The other is to have the music by heart. One does have to learn to be fearless in front of an audience and to connect with them. Experience works wonders; repeated performances of the same repertoire. Once I had performed pieces several times, I found there was a “performance zone” I could enter into, and play a piece I had performed before with no preparation.
