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It depends a lot on the orchestra you play in and the acoustics of your hall. Alice Chalifoux’s tone worked perfectly in the Cleveland Orchestra, which is rather dry sounding, and the extra edge she puts on the notes so they cut through are not harmful to the overall sound. That has a lot to do with their hall, I’m pretty sure. It wouldn’t work in the same way in a lush hall. There are things you can do to alter your tone to affect its projection. It would be wonderful if we could easily study the shapes of our soundwaves if our tuners had oscilloscope functions. Soundwaves can be altered in their onset as well as decay.
Carlos Salzedo’s Scintillation would head the list, followed by his Variations. Other highlights have been his transcriptions of Mendelssohn and Debussy, the Faure Impromptu, the first Prelude by Alojz Srebotnjak, the Hindemith Sonata. That doesn’t mean they are necessarily the best pieces. The hardest to perform have been the Pescetti Sonata and the C.P.E. Bach Sonata (Lawrence edition). I have performed a lot of solo literature, and the way that Salzedo has of making the harp so sonorous is of great advantage to the performer. I have some unusual repertoire, but I’m not revealing my secrets.
I tried a couple of similar services, and all I ever got was spam. In certain areas, like Silicon Valley and D.C., people use the internet more to find teachers, but not here, it seems.
Dewey’s version is based, I think, on Faure’s own reduction. He has so many extra voices that, though I will play them, most harpists won’t. It’s a gorgeous piece, though, and the more you can fit in, the better. Music is not supposed to be convenient for us.
To go on, I am finding more and more that Debussy is the most demanding composer to play. The closer I get to perfecting his music, the more exhausting it is, emotionally and physically. Difficulty is not always measured in the number of notes.
It is very difficult, I think, but one can learn it in time. The hardest technical passages require a long time. I would expect to spend a minimum of one year studying it thoroughly before rehearsing it. Then you could easily spend another year rehearsing it.
Well, I could suggest all of Carlos Salzedo’s transcriptions. I’ve never heard any better duos than those.
This is bizarre to me. Hot water makes my fingers soggy and I can’t play with soggy fingers. Or oily. I guess I can’t imagine having totally different skin. I have to sand mine once a week to keep good tone.
As a first book, the ABC of Harp Playing has some memorable tunes, much like “Big brown bear likes to eat, honey is his special treat, my favorite.”
As a first book, the ABC of Harp Playing has some memorable tunes, much like “Big brown bear likes to eat, honey is his special treat, my favorite.”
