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Only Jane can tell us when they were born, it must have been after February 19th, or somebody is embarking on a career of copyright violation/plagiarism, it would seem!
It’s not a question of quickness, not in learning notes, I don’t think, but the fullness of their understanding of the music and sensitivity to it, and what they bring to it. If you play an Irish tune, and in doing so, you don’t just play a cute tune, but put in it all the feelings you have ever had about Ireland, your understanding of it, your sense of its culture, then I would say you are very gifted. And if each piece acquires its own unique flavor, color, tone, and seems to come from its own place inside you, then you are born performing artist, if you can perform. Those are the essential things I demand from performers beyond any technical considerations, along with a sense of style and interpretive authenticity, which I have more-or-less described here.
If you feel you are
Lucile Lawrence taught her students to always slide onto the next string and not play it to finish an upward glissando/flux. It phrases the top note as part of the whole and not as a sudden separated event, which is what I hear when someone slides up and then plays the top note with the other hand. You can accent the top note this way, but it won’t stick out like it wasn’t part of the phrase. When you are coming down with the thumb, you place the second finger ahead and finish 12, or place 234 and finish 111234. I’ve heard no better way of doing it.
Fax me the facts, and I’ll discuss them. Only I don’t have a fax, so let’s have the facts fax here, and only the facts. Pax.
Yes, that is interesting, and makes sense of the design. The overall harmony must come from the single creator of it. And it is a tour-de-force.
As for Salzedos, for the record, Lucile Lawrence never approved of any alteration of the design of the Salzedo model, design maven that she was, and I have to say that as interesting as the variations may be, they don’t make the statement the original does and was designed to do. What would be nice is to have them made in the original specifications, with an extra-wide sounding board and wide-spaced strings.
There is one with Stokowski and His Symphony Orchestra featuring Lucile Lawrence in the Salzedo cadenza if you can find it. You can also listen to any of the Philadelphia Orchestra recordings. I haven’t made a point of collecting that piece. I also have a complete ballet recorded by Ansermet, and I think I could hear the harp. The first one I ever got was a seven-record set of ballets on London, with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestre under Cluytens, I think, with someone on a straight-sounding board harp.
Don’t bother. I don’t want to know such a fool, who deserves to have bad and smelly harp. If it has been a joke to you, it has been a failure.
I think the 24 is much more beautiful than the 26, though it has been a while since I have seen one. The elements of the column design are so harmonious and beautifully proportioned. I also prefer the 3 to the 26. I have never taken to the Gothic style on harps, too cold. I don’t think ornament or decoration should be thought of as not being masculine, I think that is a mistake. And, curiously, I’m pretty sure all the harps have been designed by men. It’s what you do with it and bring to it. 23s have always reminded me of an English manor home, with wainscoting and heraldry like a fancy dining room. If only I could get hold of my ancient heraldry, I could have a harp designed with it.
The double safety loop is simply another loop after you have tied the knot, and it secures the knot and the string piece so it doesn’t fall out. Just make a loop, slip it over the piece and the knot and pull it tight.
I have had some luck with stern lectures, followed by gentle coaxing, but the string has to really, really want to change.
It sounds like she needs to be given privacy by her family: that can be a serious problem. I would try to address that. In my experience, theory skills don’t help if the desire to use them isn’t there. I wonder if she will be different if she is away from home for camp.
