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Why would you think to arrange music for the harp when you have not even learned to play it yet, albeit well? That is a very difficult thing to do. Buy a second-hand pedal harp and take lessons. It will humble you quickly, dare I say.
What do you mean, you want to sell it, but you have to buy it first? The sounding-board is exceptionally dark for a harp from the 1980s. The gold appears to be in very good condition, but that’s only cosmetic. If it has never been rebuilt, it is possible it will need a new neck and baseframe repair, and a new soundingboard. I would hazard a guess that it is worth no more than $20,000, if that, as those repairs are expensive. But I’m not an appraiser.
They should listen to the great works for harp, to learn them. But videos are too distracting. They need to hear the Debussy Danses and the Ravel Introduction and Allegro.
I tend to agree on the Magic Fire Music, the solo harp version. The original is not nearly so hard. Tzigane is not so terrible. Bartok’s first Concerto for Violin is a massive part, with a passage that was unplayable until re-edited by Peter Bartok.
Lucile Lawrence said that when you are going to leave a harp unplayed for a length of time, you should lower the tuning to save pressure on the sounding-board, thus extending its life. The challenge is in bringing it back up again. I would assume that the string life would also be extended.
Students should be listening to as much music as possible. Cds or Lps are preferable, because they have program notes and other information. At a minimum, they should know all the great classical symphonies, Brandenburg Concerti, foundational listening. As their ears develop, add in more styles of music. You should not be lending your own cds, they should either buy them or use the public library. They can also listen to the radio.
Style 15s vary greatly in quality. Manhattan School of Music has one that they’ve had since the 1960s, and it is a truly great harp. The other one they had was miserable. I had one in college, that later pulled itself to pieces. If you’re not going to be moving the harp, and it is shipped carefully, that it has held up this far, makes it a possibly good choice.
Oil of frankincense may provide some topical relief, as well as lidocaine patches. An interventional ultrasound radiologist is your best friend. The ultrasound will tell him exactly where your problem originates, and there are at least two treatment options, cortisone or lidocaine injections, and needle therapy. Other doctors can only guess.
You need to have strong arms to play the harp. Doing push-ups or planking exercises will help if you don’t have any weights around.
Lucile Lawrence may be seen on YouTube. There is a short film of Carlos Salzedo playing, which is silent, yet utterly phenomenal. I believe he is playing an excerpt from (“Flight”) though others have said it is Whirlwind. It is top-secret who owns it, apparently, but it was on display at the 2004 AHS conference.
I would look into Baldwin-Wallace, University of Michigan, any other school in Ohio, the schools in Boston, there really are quite a few choices besides the “obvious.” One of the questions to consider is, where do you see yourself living and working in the future, and are you likely to get a degree beyond a master’s? If you are focused on teaching, do you want to go on to a DMA?
I don’t know that there’s an art to it, but if someone is selling a harp, they probably need the money, and trying to get the price down is not the most considerate thing to do.
