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Avoid playing pieces with overly repetitive patterns too much for too long. Do conditioning exercises religiously, build your strength. It shouldn’t be a problem for a non-professional. You might have fleeting irritations, but I can’t imagine you’d be playing enough to cause something. You should do exercises on the harp for at least 15 minutes a day.
I think they were so well-trained in music theory, that double-flats and sharps didn’t bother them at all, and when you are composing, they make more sense than writing notes as played.
Most great harpists write what they can play, and leave it to us to catch up to them if we can. Salzedo’s Ballade is full of huge chords, but your hand can stretch to accomodate them with the right exercises. Or not. Then you don’t play it. I find pieces that lay too easily in my hand to be boring. I can almost sight read much of Tournier because of that.
Basel, you are just beginning to realize all the frustrations and annoyances of a harpist’s life, I suspect.
I have been thinking about the musical differences between the standard pieces by harpist and those by composers. The harpist-composers tend to be more repetitive, and composers tend to vary more or come up with new ideas. If you compare the left-hand parts of Dussek (Sonatinas) to Krumpholtz, you might see what I mean. The composers don’t settle for less, but aim higher. It is hard, I can say for myself, not to be satisfied with the first way a piece seems to work out, and to keep searching for improvements.
I just spoke with my physicist friend. Atomic theories aside, the reason the gestures affect the tones produced is because we make the tone with the concept of the gesture already formed. Because the follow-through is part of our concept of the tone, the duration of the tone is affected by how we play the tone. When a golfer conceives of the entire swing and where they want the ball to go, it affects the result more than if they simply hit it and hoped. I hope that is a clear summation.
Then I guess that Gretchen Van Housen obtained it from Robles, as she recorded it, though I don’t remember a marimba part. Another concerto that vanished into private hands is the one by Roberto Caamano, even though it was commissioned by Edna Phillips. I have a trio for flute oboe and harp called Rosa das Rosas which migh suit your competition. Yes, it is the variations I am seeking, but also his concerto, Concerto Capriccioso, I think it is, someday. When I get home I
Each harp string produces several overtones, each of which has a node. Each node is geometrically spaced on the string, the first node is at the halfway point, the second node divides the remaining string in half.
If you are conscious of where the exact center of the string is, you will always find the harmonic there. You have only to stop the string
When you need to change the felts, when they are packed down, and the natural or sharp notes sound out of tune, even though you have tuned carefully. You should start learning how to change the felts yourself.
Here’s one that just came today. Be wary, as they are starting to catch the grammatical errors. The errors in this one are capitalization.
Hello ,I disagree with everyone here, it seems. Majoring in biology because of your family is the worst reason to do it, at least in American culture. It is time for you to begin your journey into what you are interested in most. If it is music, so be it. Music can provide a reliable living, through education, for one direction. Church music is another. You can go to any college with a music department, which most have, and preferably one with a good harp teacher who will give you a good foundation. You can also transfer to a music school after two years, or go for your graduate studies. If you want to play professionally someday, you need time to practice, three hours a day or more. Therefore, you need a light course load. I avoided classes with a lot of papers required. No, you probably can’t go to a conservatory right now, but in five years, yes you can. While making a living is important, education is important for its own sake, detached from practicality. That’s what the Liberal Arts are about. Sure, a lot of us came out not knowing business, but we were intelligent, employable people. An education taken solely for one type of job is narrow and unfulfilling. Of course, you have to have talent. I don’t like the idea of trying to be a harpist without an education in music. There are too many harpists with low standards and knowledge about music, not referring to anyone here. If I knew where you were I might be able to recommend a teacher. I will recommend Karen Thielen, who teaches at San Jose State and Santa Clara Universities in the San Jose area if you are anywhere near California. You can’t go into music and only be concerned about money, because then you will not be a good musician, in my view. You can keep harp as an avocation if you
I utterly reject that sentiment. It is diminishing to the harp.
I have composed some music for flute, oboe and harp. If Debussy was going to write a trio for the combination, he must have thought it a worthwhile group, and I have never known of such a combination. While flute and harp duos had a major heyday in the 1980s, there are very few duos touring or actively concertizing on a “high level” these days, or recording anything other than encores and tidbits. It’s a very large literature, and I think it is still ripe for development. It is a classic sound combination, one of the most ideal. I’m not sure a cello doesn’t sound better with it than a viola.
I think we need more harp and string quartet ensembles, or harp and string trios. And harp and wind quintet, even brass quintet. What we don’t need is a harp, marimba, trumpet and bass clarinet quartet. We also don’t have an all-male harp ensemble.
What is probably significant is what the return policy is. Can you return a harp merely because it is not quite what you were looking for? And what time period are you allowed to do this in?
I believe I have an unplayed lp of Gail Laughton’s Harps of the Ancient Temples. (I have one well played.)
What was so revelatory about Ruth Berman’s swing sets was how far she went with her arrangements, using cadenzas to modulate between songs, quoting pieces by Salzedo. If she were studying with him, I would bet that his hand was in them, and this is how he would have played pop music had he done so. They are far more imaginative than the many players who were basically making “muzak.”
