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Well, I just don’t agree with that. But that’s your choice, and that’s why we can have multiple editions of pieces. I believe I also used enharmonic flats for the sharps in that section. I don’t find the number of pedal changes to be so daunting in that piece, but I was able to eliminate some, for certain. The best cure for pedaling challenges is to learn Scintillation. After that, everything else is reasonable.
I don’t think I have seen harmonics notated as sounding in orchestra parts, it would be a surprise there.
Carl and I are in agreement here. My major teacher was a soloist who also had a lot of orchestral experience, but more importantly knew how to teach parts, even those she hadn’t played. If you are a soloist and know how to prepare parts, that may suffice, except for a student who only wants to play in an orchestra-but good luck in finding a job! That being said, orchestral harpists are often called upon to be soloists or to do recitals or chamber music, so they should be fluent in those as well. However, I really respect a harpist who can say, I am just an ensemble player, and if you want
I agree with the idea of doing harmonics in scales, and you did get the good benefit of knowing where they are on the string. It is also important that they sustain, which you get by not pressing on the string, only touching the node and using pressure only on the playing finger. Please do know the harmonics of the twelfth, as Salzedo used them in his well-titled marvelous Poem of the Little Stars, and I use them in my compositions as well. They are quite useful. Interestingly, you can produce them by going in the direction of the sounding board, as well as the neck. That being said, they are not commonly called for.
Having unfortunately purchased this piece, I would say, don’t play it at all. It doesn’t even meet the basic requirements of a composition, a sense of line, a real theme, good form. I don’t know how it got chosen. While all new music should theoretically get played, “tonal” music can be just as bad as “avant-garde.” But, I guess you’re stuck with it. You are free to choose, but he would seem to have implied only the first chord should be flat, but I would assume it continues if the chords are similar. I always err for consistency within a phrase.
I think this thread has started getting ridiculous. Other instruments, to the best of my knowledge, such as violins, have their harmonics notated as sounding. Notes represent the sounds we are meant to hear, not finger patterns like the beginner piano music written out on a keyboard. They are an attempt to communicate the idea of the music, not the end result in themselves.
I don’t have to rethink harmonics written where sounding because I am focussed on how they sound, not sticking my finger on the string, but then, I don’t play much music that writes them as played. I think it encourages better sound to draw your attention to the result. I think Salzedo was a highly literate artist and made choices out of intelligence, consistency and taste. Commenting on his ego is pointless as none of us have even met him in person, and it is irrelevant. Grandjany invented his own notations, as did Berio and Boulez and a lot of other people. I think Salzedo’s notations tend to be the clearest and most rhythmically accurate. If everyone adopted them, which I can see will never happen, there wouldn’t be a problem.
It also helps when you are editing written music that when you want to switch a note to a harmonic all you have to do is write a circle above it, not a circle and an 8 or 8va.
As for the use of
Please don’t have it on Memorial Day Weekend, for that is when the Harp Music Festival of Philadelphia is happening.
You can use the right hand-type position to play high harmonics with the left hand. I always found that one painful. I like using the other version that omits that variation.
There is a big difference between broken chords and broken cords. One is desirable, the other to be avoided.
One more thought about broken chords:
We are the only orchestral instrument to use them, mostly, which provides a unique texture. Other than guitar, we are also pretty much the only solo instrument to regularly use them, so it is all the more unique for us to use them, and it would be a terrible thing for the art, if broken chords were to disappear altogether.
I played on a Venus harp with an extended extended sounding board, full size model, and it did have a deep plush tone. As it had Savarez strings on it, I couldn’t fully compare it to a Lyon & Healy sound, but I would prefer it to a Salvi or Camac. I don’t care for the design of some of their models, but some are quite nice. I would venture to say it is a big step forward for them, but would prefer to know what the differences are, if it is a matter of thickness and design, or if they are using different materials than spruce and maple.
My student and I have been observing how Salzedo’s Tiny Tales are really rather tricky for a beginner, and it became clear that his approach was to make comfortable the most challenging things about the harp such as unusual fingerings, intervals, raising, not connecting, jumping; and how much easier it makes that to play the typical pieces with scales and arpeggios. If one is too dependent on the idea of having security, how hard to leave it, but if you learn right away that there is no security in playing the harp, that you have to land where you need to go, how much stronger you are. So I mix them with Medieval to Modern and that sort of thing, for good results.
Karen Gottlieb, in San Francisco, would be one. She may still teach in Marin County. She is on the faculty of San Francisco State University, I believe. She can certainly refer you to someone if necessary. If you can’t find a way to reach her, email me.
Here’s something that explains the behavior of a lot of pianists: in Feruccio Busoni’s too-too popular edition of Bach’s Two-Part Inventions, he writes the following execrable advice: “The incomprehensible Arpeggiando sign, which one finds before this chord (the final chord) in many editions, is contrary to the manly style of this piece, and may be classed in Bach’s phraseology as “styleless.” Against such effeminacies in this and in analogous cases, the student is especially warned.”
Well, that surely scared a lot of piano-players straight. But a far better man than Busoni, Wanda Landowska, dismissed him outright as someone completely ignorant about Bach’s ornaments. So there.
I would note that the Bax is a Sonata for Harp and Viola. The harp part is mammoth, and even for you, might take six months or more to get a handle on. It is a great piece.
I would suggest:
Henk Badings: Cavatina, very difficult to finger, very atmospheric
Caltabiano: Lyric Duo,Very well written for the harp, rhythmically difficult, a lot of 5 against 4 or other combinations, somewhat tonal but extreme, dramatic, can be highly effective, was premiered by Catherine White.
Glazunov: Elegy, not easy, very lovely, hard to read because the print is too small. You might want to get the Belaieff edition for viola and piano.
Gounod: Hymne a Sainte Cecile, don’t know it, but if it’s Gounod, it must be goudenough.
Houdy: Suite, don’t know it, but he’s a pretty fine composer
Ravel: Pavane, needs no recommendation
That’s all for that catalog, so that leaves room for lots of Baroque and Classical pieces.
There are also the 24 Preludes for Viola d’Amore and Harp by Casadesus, in every key, which are very nice, neo-classical sort of pieces. They may be adaptable to the viola, or perhaps you can work with a violist who can play d’amore. In that case, you should get in touch with Joan Ceo, whose husband is a violist/d’amore-ist, and who have a lot of repertoire together.
