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I have not liked anything I have seen published about this Sonata that I can remember. Most people seem to get the tempo and transition wrong in the last movement. My theory/composition teacher in college was a Hindemith pupil, so I felt that gave me some insight, also because I read up on him. He studied medieval music a lot, so the markings at the end of the third movement show that the beat remains the same, constant. The ritardando is conveyed in the enlarging note values. If you slow down, it loses all its momentum and dies before it ought to. If you know what I mean. The harmonics are played where written if not notated otherwise, unless impossible to play. But if they sound better played lower, you can opt that as a personal choice. But not in Hindemith.
I can’t go into great deal without it in front of me. No chords should be played flat on the harp unless absolutely necessary. It is not a romantic tradition, it is an acoustic necessity. You cannot hear the component notes of a chord when it is flat. There is something about them that conveys a lack of forward movement. A broken chords enhances the forward movement. It is also more natural. It goes back to before Bochsa. Keyboard players of yore regularly broke chords, they just stopped doing at the same time they stopped playing ornaments correctly.
The rests are critical in Hindemith. If you can obtain Salzedo’s markings, his fingerings and muffles do much to clearly outline the music. Critics have
I remember that Professor Elizabeth Richter did an extensive editing of the harp parts for that. We used copies from the Metropolitan Opera House in harp class, and they were a complete mess, with so many decades of fingerings and pedalings. You could never get a clear view of it that way.
I’m trying to remember if Miss Lawrence found it acceptable or not. She did really like the Cavatina by Henk Badings. I have my own markings, I know.
You might be interested to know that Fly Me to the Moon was originally published in 3/4 time, not 4/4 latin rhythm.
I think of learning music as being like starting a relationship with a person. There are layers and layers, and time reveals many things. Even with hymns. Particularly the layers of associations and experience.
There will be a “new” biography for you to purchase this summer which should help you with that, being published by the American Harp Society.
That’s a very good fingering to be comfortable with. A good one for playing five notes in the right hand is 43221. The second finger skips to the next string.
Carbon fiber strings are definitely different. I practiced on a harp with them for a couple of weeks, and I was quite sore afterwards, it did some actual damage. They are much more resistant, and the tone is unattractive compared to gut or nylon. They sound like flouride for some reason. And then, you are likely absorbing flouride through your skin. How risky that is, I don’t know. I did have copper poisoning at one time, and the only likely source was harp strings. Fortunately, it has not recurred. It is not uncommon, apparently, for that to happen. I did play a wire-strung harp at one time, and it was so weird to go back to the regular strings.
Homeopathy is not exactly based on herbs. You are taking a distillation or reduction of an infused solution that is reduced sometimes 100,000 times. Is there any kind of imprint of the original left? On the other hand, arnica gel is accepted in hospitals, I hear, though it may work differently.
I did try some remedy that sort of worked, but also made me burp. Anyway, if you are serious about homeopathy, then you need to consult with a professional homeopathist, who will diagnose what you need and give you the proper dosing. An over-the-counter remedy will not be just what you need,
I don’t recommend shipping any harp in its trunk. They are not adequate protection. The carton from Lyon & Healy has much more padding all around the harp and is infinitely safer. The bigger problem is local transfer people, so rather than have door-to-door pickup, you should drop it off at their main shipping office, and try to pick it up yourself. I don’t think one company will be better. Unless there are specialists in moving instruments or antiques, and you can find one, I wouldn’t do it.
You don’t need nine notes when one of them is doubling. Leave out the repeated pitch and you will have 4 notes for each hand. It does go fast, too fast to reliably cross over and over again. That’s how we do it, as I was trained. Miss Lawrence would say, “speculate on the harmony”, meaning, read the chord and play the notes you can reach well, rather than read each note and try to get what is written exactly. It’s either not practical oftentimes, or badly written. As a rule, if you have the fundamental in the bass and the third above, leave out the third so you have an open fifth on the bottom. Unless you are playing third, fourth, fifth intervals chords, as in f, a, d, a.
Jewish music is usually in d minor or a minor, so you might have a transposing cantor. And there are some who transpose while singing.
I can quote or paraphrase my teacher, Lucile Lawrence, who frequently stated, it’s equally as important what you do NOT transcribe, is it is what you DO transcribe. Not all music is suitable to the harp. Many pieces are 96% suitable, but that other 4% is going to kill it. So, you might look at what sorts of pieces you don’t find transcribed, as well as which ones you do.
