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I would add the Pathfinder to the Harp by Lucile Lawrence and Carlos Salzedo, pedal or lever harp, which uses simple but modern music, not as difficult as that in the Method for the Harp. The Art of Modulating is good for the third year or so, to teach pedal sight reading, and it has some excellent solos in it as well. I, too, like Betty Paret’s first book. I have never explored her other material. It was the same for me with recorder books, I liked the ones with a lot of folk songs and baroque music. Purcell for the Harp by Dewey Owens is a good collection of fairly easy solos.
I would add the Pathfinder to the Harp by Lucile Lawrence and Carlos Salzedo, pedal or lever harp, which uses simple but modern music, not as difficult as that in the Method for the Harp. The Art of Modulating is good for the third year or so, to teach pedal sight reading, and it has some excellent solos in it as well. I, too, like Betty Paret’s first book. I have never explored her other material. It was the same for me with recorder books, I liked the ones with a lot of folk songs and baroque music. Purcell for the Harp by Dewey Owens is a good collection of fairly easy solos.
I think the Salzedo edition is the most impressive, as it is quite elaborate and has a smashing cadenza, very showy and brilliant. Yolanda Kondonassis was on the Young People’s Concerts with Leonard Bernstein playing it.
I do not believe in mixing editions and cadenzas at all. The Grandjany edition is very warm and French 19th century sounding, which has its charm. I think you should consider which one your teacher can teach the best.
For example, I can teach the Lawrence or Salzedo best because I know them well, and I have not played the Grandjany edition very much, so I would have less to teach with it. I can coach it, but that’s not quite the same as having it in your fingers.
The Lawrence edition is the most historically apt and stylistic of these editions for pedal harp. It keeps some of the voicings and color and phrasing from the Salzedo, but has appropriate ornaments and touches. It does not have a big cadenza, though. It is not nearly as elaborate. I do not find it any easier to play because of that. It is hard music, however you do it. In a way, I think the Grandjany might be the easier, if you are comfortable with his fingerings and chords. He had big fingers. I don’t know the McDonald at all. You can also do an unedited edition from the original score. If you choose that option, I have an original, period-style cadenza you could use.
It also depends which competition you are entering.
I don’t mean that as a tirade, nor as a rebuke, but as a guideline to being what most informed people would call a substantive musician.
How does this reflect on the plethora of publications by players of all levels? I saw a website by harpers who can just barely play, and they have cds, books, products galore. I’d like to say leave it to the experts, but can they afford it all?
Since I published two pieces, I sold maybe a dozen copies, maybe I barely covered the printing costs, and the dealer who took several copies apparently threw them out.
The 15’s have less bass without the extension of the soundboard. That makes them more in line with Erard harps. They can sound wonderful and like dreck, depending on the instrument. They are very individual. The Chicago model harps have the same quality but are uniform and good in sound. There is a clear difference between the straight and extended sound-board. The extension gives it the pear-shaped tone we strive for. With a straight soundboard, you have to work harder to project your bass tones. The harp then favors the middle octaves.
The original Salzedos had very wide sounding-boards, so I wouldn’t say they were smaller, and they usually had wide string spacing in the bass. They may be shorter. All the harps are now bigger and heavier than they used to be. My harp has gained weight from 78 pounds when I ordered it, to 81 when I received to 84 pounds after rebuildings. I think lighter is better, even if it means replacing the neck.
It’s all about the wood. I once did a harp and piano recital on a style 16, straight sound-board and gilded column, and that harp was hard to play. I had to really push to get the sound out of the tight response, but it projected extremely well, and balanced against the piano as well as a 23. Some of these older harps have a more piercing tone than the rounded one we are used to. A 14 is very small. A 12 is almost tiny. I have played the 19 for sale now at LH and it is a magnificent harp, not rebuilt. It may last a good while yet.
Really, the competition in the 70s and 80s was fierce. There were few openings, and a huge generation of harpists jostling each other for a position. If anything, the level of playing has not risen, but dropped at the high end. Young harpists seem to know little about music and history and style, and just waggle their fingers any self-entitled way they feel. (Based on YouTube observations, which is probably not representative.) But I have heard that from harpists who have heard many young players.
Baby boomers had strict teaching and high expectations to fulfill. The only thing that has grown is the size of the literature. How much repertoire you are perhaps expected to know has grown. Sometimes a harpist may be hired for more political than musical reasons. Some orchestras are very competitive with each other.
Playing bigger, longer transcriptions is not in itself a mark of high achievement. I think, for harpists under 40, the biggest achievement is in tone quality, sense of style, interpretive knowledge and creative thinking, integrity, authenticity, and deep background. You should know every recording ever made by Salzedo and Grandjany, Lawrence, McDonald and some other harpists. You should know the recordings of Erica Goodman and Judy Loman and the Salzedo Harp Duo, to name a few of today. You should know the great musicians of the early and mid-20th century, such as Casals, Rubinstein, Piatigorsky, de los Angeles, de Larrocha, Sutherland, Caruso, Landowska, and the recordings of the playing of the great composers. You should be able to distinguish between the major schools of playing and the national styles. You should be able to read and correctly interpret baroque and classical ornamentation in a harpistic way. You should be able to create an idiomatic continuo harp part for a baroque sonata that is harpistically possible. Who is playing a lot today, who won a competition is nice to hear, is fine to support, but will not educate you much at all, I think. Music is transmitted from generation to generation, from culture to culture, and if students do not strive to learn from the past or abroad, then they make music that is more and more lacking in value. Music is not about self-expression and success. It is about learning to express the music, universal thoughts, feelings and emotions grand and subtle. It is hard work over many, many years. You must never stop learning and growing. Those of you who want to compete to see what you can win, and only want a few years in the spotlight should not enter. Don’t take the places of those who really care about music.
I think colored harps are tasteless, and the coloring must affect the sound, being an additional layer that maybe equivalent to polyurethane in being absorptive of sound, or inhibiting its transmission. The Salzedo model was specifically designed by a renowned fine artist with Salzedo to look as it does. I don’t think anyone should ask to alter that design at all. I think color is a distraction. I think we should all be more respectful. If a new harp is designed to come in stripes and all colors, then that is suitable to that model, if it works esthetically. If you’re playing commercial music like rock and roll, it doesn’t really matter. What would a blue piano be like?
Instruments are naturally finished to call attention their wooden nature, which is essential to musical expression. A man and his hand-made instrument making hand-produced music is what it is all about. What you can do with your hands and wood. Even a black finish is somewhat of a departure from that, unless you have a solid ebony instrument. Black is a formal color, and the most unobtrusive, so it is acceptable.
Electrified instruments are no longer natural in that way of thinking, so do what you will with them. They are about artificiality.
I suspect there are hundreds of such works. I went through an old ASCAP catalog, and there were lots. I don’t know if you can search their online catalog by instrumentation, but you might be able to go composer by composer and use harp as a keyword.
I think it is perhaps overpriced at $1,000 though I am no expert on it. My original troubador, fortunately, still stands straight and true, and has gorgeous tone quality, even with the levers up. The levers can be regulated, but only so much. If you have to have a harp to start right away, and there are no others around for that price, go ahead and buy it if it has no cracks or warping. Just don’t plan on using the levers a lot if they are out of tune. It is just fine to have nylon strings on it down to middle c, and they are better as the levers will slowly shave down the string, and gut strings will break much sooner, I recall.
I was not advised to have new levers put on my harp. Still, if I had the money, I would. The old wood sounds magnificent. It has always had a crystalline quality. Sam Milligan was quite impressed with it.
Such a troubador can serve you well for two years or so. You can learn your technique on it and how to play musically on a harp. It will not be hard to switch to a pedal harp, but when you get one, get the very best one you can.
I’m sure the order of announcing is the same every year, whether there is a winner or not. A competition certainly isn’t run to spare anyone’s feelings. The worst story I know of is a harpist who saved and saved to be able to go, took the money out of the bank to go buy his plane ticket, and was promptly robbed of all his money, and so, never got to go at all. Or the harpist who was disqualified for tuning the harp before performing. If the film on their website is any clue to how effectively their office is run, it sets the tone. If I can get the competition going that I plan on, it will be quite a different story. Now the big question is, who will buy that specially-made harp that wasn’t awarded? I can bet it is of L & H’s
I disagree, it is no worse than how it has been every other time. It is wrong to assume that not winning implies that they are not “ready for a concert career.” I had that applied to me once, and it was not true. A phrase like that can kill a career, though. Grace Wong, a superb harpist, was given second place. Heidi Lehwalder, a true phenomenon, the likes of which has not been seen since, was given a special prize rather than first, because of her age (twelve). No, there is really no fairness or logic in who wins, except to the judges, as in most competitions. It will be interesting to see if the different approach in the Netherlands Harp Competition will yield a different kind of result. The fact is, an artist should not be made to compete for a prize. That is for athletes.
