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What is your question about? Arrangements of folk tunes, classical themes, etc., are merely that, arrangements. Simplified versions of classical pieces are not classical music in the full sense. Sylvia Woods is a folk musician from way back, a folk harpist. I don’t know the extent of her classical background.
Yes, it was for a documentary film on Niagara Falls, so it is a four-movement suite, very powerful music, maybe more movements, but I don’t remember the exact title. I heard some Daugherty music played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, also had big harp parts.
When I save a shortcut or favorite for a site, it sometimes then blocks the site from opening for some reason.
Sorry, I must correct someone. Classical was never the pop music of its day, in our sense. There was folk music, ballads, romances and dance music all along. Familiar themes from classical music and the most famous classical pieces made it into home music-making as long as that was popular. The romance genre is the closest classical historically got to being popular, in my view. One of the most famous romances is “Plaisir d’Amour”, and if you think about the melody with a simple arpeggiated accompaniment suitable to piano, harp or guitar, you can see how it blended into pop ballads and Broadway.
Casper Reardon, and Ruth Berman Harris, to be sure. I have never heard anyone approach what they did. If their music had been available long ago, I think everyone would be playing differently. Miss Lawrence endorsed Verlye Mills in every sense.
Did I say topless??? Yes, strapless, and also tube-tops must never be worn for concerts. When? Maybe a wedding on a beach?
The Angel recording by Annie Challan of the Debussy Danses, Ravel Introduction and Allegro, Faure Impromptu, and the Pierne Morceau de Concert convinced me that if those works were in the harp literature, then it was worth learning to play the harp. When I first heard Chanson dans la Nuit I was totally taken with Salzedo. If I’d had the opportunity to really hear the literature for the harp, I don’t know what would have been different, but I might have started sooner. I wish I’d been able to hear the Conte Fantastique and solos of Caplet at first, more of Salzedo, and a lot less Godefroid and such.
While ebony harps look great, I have been frequently told that they don’t survive cosmetic blemishes well. If you do get one, you need a strategy to protect and repair the finish. If you want a simple, plain looking harp, why not get an ebony style 30 or 100?
Yes, but those are the most difficult and trying sections of the Danses! I think it is important as a composer not to copy the exceptional or extreme examples, but to work from a secure place. We can catch at a string just played, but it is hard to make it clean-sounding, and doing it over and over is exhausting. This Little Babe is evocative, but rather a nightmare to keep clean, and the buzzing interferes with projecting the right notes. On the other hand, bisbigliando and trills are timeworn safe devices with repetition. Having space between notes so the strings can continue ringing is a sure way to have the music and the harp sound evocative and fully colorful. So, therefore, in general, I would allow at least one beat between repeated notes at 72 or slower to the beat, until you are completely sure of playability.
The important aspect of dress here is what it communicates, what it says to others. Self-expression is secondary, like accessories, I think. While I would like to see men have the same range of options in dress as women, we are not there yet. Why women would want to wear pants, I’ll never know. They’re hot and restricting. Anyhow, unless they are “fancy pants”, I think they tend to come off as either casual or underdressed, probably depending on the whole combination and situation. For women to wear pants on stage, there is also a risk of looking like a free-lancer, or orchestral player and not a soloist. I think we must need a tv show all about musician’s wardrobes.
I’m not offended. I think any and every teacher should ad-dress the issue. Why not an official guide to wardrobe for the harpist? Calista’s list is a great start. I hate spaghetti straps and topless gowns. Why? Every man in the audience is thinking, is a strap going to fall, what keeps it up. Believe me, we do. And I still don’t know the answer.
I saw a young male violinist wear a long black shirt with a straight-across bottom, no tails, and buttoned up to one below the collar, with black pants. It was okay, though dull. Since he had wild curly hair, there was a balance achieved. He certainly had mobility, which we need. At my festival performance, I wore a black t-shirt under a silk light purple short-sleeve shirt (it was summertime already). I need an open neck to breathe, so I look at what conductors wear, sort of like Nehru jackets with envy. If only soft, unstructured jackets like we had in the 80s were still around. A men’s jacket, at least in my case, has to be custom-tailored to have enough room in the sleeves, so I don’t think we should have to wear them. But the alternative is? The only solution I’ve come up with is layering, using a large silk shirt as if it were a jacket. It’s good to play in, and looks pretty good. However, jackets do a better cover-up job when you sit down, but if the shirt is loose you can open it to hang loose.
My tux when I was finishing school was black velvet, which was smashing, but is long gone.
Yes, that is just what her mother said. Thank you for the term tea length. I presume that is about one-third down the calf, between midi and just below the knee.
I gather that pump means a low-heeled shoe like a small high-heel. What do you call loafers with one-inch heels or other shoes like that, is it block heels?
“In this day and age” really bothers me. People are far too ready to censor others in the name of “sensitivity” or “correctness.” There is absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t discuss clothing. I’m not talking about singling one girl out in a group, anyway.
Now, what about hair and make-up?
I wonder how Salzedo dealt with all this. His students were impeccably groomed and presentable, very photogenic.
If you want to write well for the harp, avoid repeating the same string within two beats. The more you keep your line moving around the instrument, the better it will sound. In time you will master the subtelties, but in learning to write for the harp, do what you know will work and build on that. You can make an excellent piece out of the same resources that Tchaikovsky used: scales, arpeggios, glissandi, melody and standard patterns. It’s all in what you say with them.
