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Ah, yes, I forgot about Salome!
Several of the parts you mention, Clint, are available for purchase from Lyra, or were when I needed them. We would have been in real trouble without them!
Opera parts can be particularly demanding.
I have compiled some data from the auditions I have participated in or monitored, all in the U.S., including at least one for a foreign orchestra, and this is the most frequently called-for repertoire in order of appearance:
12 times: Berlioz Symphony Fantastique THE CHAMPION!!!
9 times:
Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnole
Carolyn Mills performed it and may have a recording of it. It was required for Israel in ’85 or thereabouts, so some contestants must have recorded it.
For the harp, you may want to read the ABC of Harp Playing, the second part of which is on arranging, and Beatrice Rose’s book on orchestra parts.
The best education comes from playing (and comparing) the best quality editions with others, and with the originals.
If you’re asking about harp arranging.
For the harp, you may want to read the ABC of Harp Playing, the second part of which is on arranging, and Beatrice Rose’s book on orchestra parts.
The best education comes from playing (and comparing) the best quality editions with others, and with the originals.
If you’re asking about harp arranging.
For the harp, you may want to read the ABC of Harp Playing, the second part of which is on arranging, and Beatrice Rose’s book on orchestra parts.
The best education comes from playing (and comparing) the best quality editions with others, and with the originals.
If you’re asking about harp arranging.
Yes, I’m aware that you invented that repair, and it actually was your Chicago shop that did that repair.
What is spotify? The link doesn’t seem to bypass anymore.
Do they really pay for rights? It doesn’t sound like it.
They can be defective. If there isn’t a problem with the knot you tied, and you didn’t get grease into them or ink or another foreign substance, then they may be from a bad batch of strings. If you are having trouble getting them to stay up to pitch, then that is definitely the case. Be mindful, though, that in the fourth octave, nylon strings have a different quality, not like gut and not like they do higher up, so it may simply be that. Are they a little dull, or really dull?
I consider the Rota to be moderately difficult, technically speaking, but rather more musically challenging. One needs sensitivity, but also good taste, and sense of classicism to do it well, I think. There are subtleties that easily escape notice, and passages that might lead one in the wrong direction (like the mid-section of the Sarabande–it is not suddenly a romantic rhapsody in my thinking, he is just using the rippling figures as a way to build intensity). The ending is very hard to pull off effectively.
It was surprising to me, but when I did auditions at Juilliard for orchestras or summer programs and such, we actually played on Mr. Grandjany’s harp, which had a peculiar vibration on one or two notes, which were so distinctive in his playing, and there it was when I played the same notes! (I’m thinking of the 6th octave A possibly, and 3d octave f.)
I also had the distinct pleasure of practicint on Mr. Salzedo’s harp one summer, at the Curtis Istitute, and it was quite wonderful and informing. Now it is at Lyon & Healy, but sadly, not kept in concert tuning.
I never thought of changing both discs in different ways. By the way, the neck is a pretty recent one, the third one. (The first was replaced at five years, then second at about 20-some years, and I have also had the bottom-body-frame replaced, the base replaced (thank you W. for making me need that), and a refinishing, followed by a base-board replacement! I hope to never have any more work done. Thankfully, the sound has only improved. Now that the board has pulled up, some of the sharps are getting very tricky to improve.
While I don’t have all the parts, tools or skills, I have to do as much of my own regulation as I can, and so far, I can get it within a few cents.
The distance between flat and sharp is, I think affected by the felts, because it alters the distance the pedal travels. It definitely affects the grip of the discs. When the felts are new, the discs need to be gripping more tightly, and as they pack down or wear away, the discs need to be loosened. So, it seems to me I need either more or less felt to counteract that effect.
The natural to sharp doesn’t change, that’s right, so that is the hardest to fix. One little trick I have just used is to slightly flatten the natural to bring the sharp within reason.
I certainly would like for Lyon & Healy to hire you to improve their mechanism, because certainly you want the stationary nuts to be adjustable and the discs, too. Why aren’t the screw holes in the disc repositionable so you can slip the whole disc down an eighth of an inch? It seems to me that is possible, or could also be by having a replacement disc with the screw hole off-center.
I can’t afford regulations these days, but I also like to do it myself, and get it as I want it. I have not often had a regulator who understood my needs. (I have not had the pleasure of Carl’s expertise.)
When you bend the string, you bend the pitch. Over-pulling the string will produce that effect. Generally speaking, it is not really desirable.
If your harp has time to dry out gradually, I think lower humidity in the winter is not such a big problem as long as you have some. My harp started out in Minnesota, and it survived.
