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It may be worth pointing out that in the Salzedo school, the normal way to play a descending two-fingered aeolian flux (glissando) is to play with the thumb in normal position, and the second finger curved under as if you were going to play a harmonic, and using the back side of the finger, the nail to play, so you are actually combining a normal aeolian flux with a falling-hail aeolian flux. If you play with your fingers pointing up as many European harpists do, you get the wrong kind of sound, and don’t have a smooth turn-around from up to down. The sound of that two-fingered glissando is suitable for other things, not Salzedo’s music.
Sliding onto the next string and not playing it is our formerly secret (thanks, Jordan) way to play a glissando/aeolian flux clearly with a distinct top note that is integrated with the lower notes. Ending with the left-hand thumb on the top note produces a glissando with a loud top note that is not part of the glissando, or the phrase. I’ve rarely heard anyone do it so well that all the notes are phrased together. Sliding onto the next strings allows full control of all the notes with one hand.
The fugue is absolutely the hardest variation. Except for the trills, maybe. Or the Papillons. Or the Bourree. Or the . . .
If you are really stuck, someone who is ready to change strings that are old but not broken could send you the used ones for temporary use. Nylon strings should be changed long before they break, every twelve months at least, if you play an hour a day or more.
If you play lower on the nylon strings than normal, you can get a tone much like a gut string. There is no problem with putting all nylon strings on your harp,
Thank you! I think. I turned them down when they asked me. I’m much too shy to pose in a tuxedo…(unless you look at my facebook page).
I don’t trust in blind tests. I hear a very clear difference. It may be less when the strings are new, but I greatly prefer the silver strings. The copper strings are still better than nickel alloy or whatever you want to call the tarnish-resistant. The only thing you can do about the difference between wire and gut strings is adjust your playing, or use nylon instead of gut.
There are no cuts. There is the short ending, which is clearly marked, but not to be used unless forced to by a competition or something.
I would prepare much less repertoire and prepare it as best as you can.
Well, I would be more worried about protecting the harp from the floor, than the other way around, and I wouldn’t attempt any kind of modification. You can get a rubber welcome mat to put under the harp.
It definitely improves my technique each time I work it up. It took me at least three years to get it up to form. Three separate years, not contiguous. The style of the variations, until you get to the Barcarolle, is classical. They are all rhythmic, with virtually no rubato, and little “interpretation.” The trill variation in particular is completely rhythmic, with four trill repetitions to each beat. It has to be completely steady. The trills are decorating the melody that has to be as clear as in any other variation. The Prelude, on the other hand, has tenutos that are exaggerated, they have the value of at least three sixteenth-notes. If you want to master this piece seriously, at some point, you must contrive to study with a Salzedo teacher.
I know a piano teacher who lets them play, make up stories, he follows their lead, initially. I think an hour is probably too long unless you spend a lot of it doing games and things, unless the student is like a little Salzedo and is ready for serious study!
I know a piano teacher who lets them play, make up stories, he follows their lead, initially. I think an hour is probably too long unless you spend a lot of it doing games and things, unless the student is like a little Salzedo and is ready for serious study!
I know a piano teacher who lets them play, make up stories, he follows their lead, initially. I think an hour is probably too long unless you spend a lot of it doing games and things, unless the student is like a little Salzedo and is ready for serious study!
How much of that force came from 8-plus cups of coffee every day? When she told me how much she drank, I know my jaw dropped. I think she had so much in her, it kept her going and going and going… and of course, she loved and believed in what she was doing. I wish I could have been at the memorial.
