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There was once an underwater harp made, and they photographed a model playing in a swimming pool, and she said “I love its liquid tones.” This might have been in a Life magazine. I think the harp was made of plastic, or lucite/acrylic. Whatever became of it? I often wonder what became of all those harps that appeared in the movies? Some were just gorgeous. By the way, have any of you heard the Angelaires cd yet? It is astonishing.
I know we went over this before. It is only in “The Big Store” that Gail Laughton is visibly dubbing Harpo’s playing, and the two men have completely different sounds. One thing Harpo did to be so relaxed is to lower the tension on his strings. Notice how he can pull them out of position and then play on them? He either used thinner strings, or a different weight, or tuned much lower. He had one or some lessons with Salzedo, who declined to try to change his approach. After all, Harpo made far more money than he did. Harpo was also known to take lessons over the telephone, probably with Mildred Dilling. I never cared for his musicianship so much as his personality and humor. I have two lps he made, one kind of stinks, and the other is terrific jazz/pop playing.
And one more reminder, the very point of many of our posts is that the gestures are in no way extraneous to the note production. The whole point is their integration. I was far more disturbed to watch a French harpist gesture and wave her arms about with gestures that were not integrated to the notes. And how about those harpists who rock their harps up and down while playing, like inducing motion sickness is more expressive? It always makes me think of a ship deck, bobbing up and down in the waves. I have seen them lose control of it too. It’s a bad idea. Or rather, tasteless.
Gefilte fish.
Other instrumentalists, not to mention singers, certainly do use gestures. Watch Artur Rubinstein at the piano. Pianists who use the space above the keyboard definitely get more sound. How string players remove the bow is a controlled gesture. Singers gesture to help their tone. I’m afraid you’re wrong there, or just haven’t been exposed to the right performers. Because the harp is performed in such a large space facing the audience, it is that much more visual and benefits from an esthetic approach. And remember that the gestures were developed with the aid of Nijinsky, the God of the Dance, so they go back to 1916 or earlier! Sure, many musicians don’t think about them, but they might be a lot better if they did.
That is the same advice Miss Lawrence would have given you. But you do have to re-learn old pieces, lest you slip back into old habits.
A “blind test” does not necessarily prove anything. Who was listening? There is an obvious difference between silver and nickel strings. Maybe they were using old silver strings. They are far brighter sounding.
As for physics, I remembered an example I heard from a physicist. When one object is divided in two and sent into an orbit, if something affects one object, the other object is also affected. I probably am not remembering it exactly, but it proves that there is a perceived delayed effect on objects in transit and it is possible to affect their transit after they have left. It’s like the difference between a pitch and a spitball. If you put a spin on the ball, it starts out straight and then curves its path. Also, regarding Salzedo, even if he himself played one way, it is what he taught that is more significant, because that was what he wanted others to do. I listened to the Angelaires recording, and the quality of their playing is magical, and on a much higher level than I anticipated or have heard in any other ensemble. They rehearsed all day for six weeks before touring, AND THEY PLAYED ALL OF THEIR TWENTY OR SO PARTS FROM MEMORY!!!! Isn’t that unbelievable? But they did it.
“And as far as raising extending the actual duration of the sound, any first-year physics student would laugh that out of court.
Most of my landmark recordings are on vinyl and not cds. The standouts are by Carlos Salzedo, Heidi Lehwalder, Costello, Otis, Wong, and of course, Zabaleta.
I have used a system based on dance classes in which the student prepays for a certain number of lessons to be used up within a certain amount of time, say 4 lessons within a 5-week period, after which it expires. We each have a card on which I can mark off each lesson as it is given. I find it difficult to get adults to pay for more than that in advance, and many don’t want to even pay one week in advance. It is difficult. If you are in a position to turn them away, you have more leverage. Any dance studio, if not by the semester, will sell a ten-class card with an expiration date. If you look at one, you will see how you might design one of your own and print it on card stock so it is durable. The alternative is to simply write out a receipt when you receive payment, keeping a copy, and noting the number of lessons it covers. It is easy to get confused. Week-by-week students have no incentive to make up missed lessons, unfortunately, and care little for your time having been set aside.
I have started on such a project, but it will be a long time in finishing it. I haven’t seen anything I would really recommend. I think composers should start with Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy and perhaps Puccini; and make sure of what they know will work, and start from there. Most orchestration books give bad examples it seems, like in Walter Piston’s, every example is an exception, like Stravinsky’s Orpheus, and not a good example of writing for the harp. But even in Tchaikovsky and Debussy there are errors of judgement. I think Rimsky did the best overall, and has many pages of wonderful writing. Ravel, also, took some chances and made some errors, as well as Strauss, so I think composers should be guided carefully through those scores. I think they should be required to take a full-semester course in writing for the harp only, as it would seem to require at least that much study. I might suggest they try writing parts for existing works such as Rite of Spring, which should have had harp and certainly could. There’s nothing like walking in another composer’s shoes.
