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How about a pedal sized lever harp? It would sound wonderful. But you would need extensions on the levers to be able to reach the lower ones. It would look funny. I would like to put levers on my 7th octave D and Cstrings. L & H doesn’t think it would work, but I can’t see why not, at least with the original type of levers. I guess I could just take them off my troubadour and screw them on the big guy.
Yes, so I would suggest adding to your criteria: beginners: playing in 4/4, 2/4; advanced beginners: 3/4, 6/8; 2/2, 6/4, 9/8, 12/8; intermediate: 5/4, 5/8, 7/8; advanced intermediate: other meters, shifting meters.
beginners: song form (aba), minuet and trio (aabbaa+c+aba), advanced beginners: rondeau form (aabbaaccaa), medieval forms; intermediate: sonata form, sonatina form, binary sonata form, fugues, inventions; advanced intermediate: full sonatas, theme and variations, fantasy, organic form
beginners: simple melody and accompaniment figures (basic); advanced beginners: alberti bass, arpeggiated accompaniment, harmonics; intermediate: long melody, sustained notes and chords, interwoven figures and arpeggios, melodic arpeggios, cadenzas, ornaments, trills, bisbigliando, idiomatic effects;
beginners: folk songs, simple classical pieces, simple early music; advanced beginners: short classical pieces, dance forms; intermediate: counterpoint, full-length classical pieces, elaborate arrangements of folk songs, medieval/renaissance pieces of all types, accessible modern and modal works, multi-voices (2-3); advanced: four voices, full counterpoint, modern music of all types, long forms (impromptus, ballades, fantasies, rhapsodies).What is also important to consider when “levelling” music is the musical challenge. Form, sophistication, emotional requirements, style, period are considerations. You mentioned Salzedo’s “Quietude”. While it is the “easiest” of his Five Preludes, it has very wide reaches, is in a challenging meter, and is compositionally sophisticated. I would not assign that until after a student had learned his Preludes Intimes, Preludes for Beginners and beginning solos.
I like to use the ABC of Harp Playing, and Betty Paret’s first book (lever harp), then introduce either Tiny Tales, Milligan material or something like a Dilling collection. Then, Lawrence’s French, English, German collections for beginners, Salzedo’s Art of Modulating, baroque and classical solos (Schuman, others, my own), then more advanced material by Salzedo, other qualified harpist-composers, good transcriptions, Solos for the Harp Player (Pavane-Corelli-Durand-Rameau-Debussy-Turina-etc.), Dussek Sonatinas, Handel Theme and Variations, Wagenaar, Ibert solos, Handel Concerto, Pierne I-C, Pescetti Sonata, bigger solos and Sonatas. That, more-or-less, would be one typical progression I would use.
If you will not be given a locked practice room to keep it in, your room is the only safe option, so housing must give you one large enough, or a single, or you might have to
I knew you loved my posts, too. The Damase piece is called Vitrail, and is lovely and interesting. I also played solos from Milligan’s Medieval to Modern collections.
I think it is a problem that you want to create a classification based on one set of criteria. What is so challenging here is that progress differs so much based on previous musical experience. A student with several years of piano and a couple of years of poor harp instruction who is 17 has been able to go from Pathfinder Studies to Salzedo’s Preludes for Beginners, Srebotnjak Prelude no. 1 and Durand Chaconne, to Ibert’s Fantaisie and we are about to start concerti. An adult student with piano background is working slowly through Tiny Tales and advancing more quickly with Bochsa etudes, and is very quick with the Conditioning Exercises.
Nevertheless, I think music can be graded, more-or-less, and let the students move about as they need. Lyon & Healy’s old troubadour repertoire guide by Grace Follet and a partner is helpful. There are a lot of newer publications by harpists that are, to me, lacking in sufficient musical interest to be included. I find many piano collections are viable sources of material. If you can find the collections edited by Bernice Frost, for instance, I think they contain a lot of good material.
Repertoire suggestions: Marie Miller/Bach Solfegietto
Miller/Haydn, Miller/Schumann
Salzedo: Solos from the Art of Modulating
Grandjany: Pastorale
that’s all I can think of for now. Compiling a comprehensive list will take several hours indeed.
Weird how all the dates got changed on this thread.
As you say Carl, it is necessary as soon as you deal with dynamics, to teach them how to listen to the harp, how to make it respond, and how to create crescendi and decrescendi with ringing or muffled strings.The problem is, there are so many. Tiny Tales are actually quite difficult, because of the fingerings. I hope to soon provide suitable collections. In Solos for the Harp Player, you can start with (my own progression) Pavane, Correlli Adagio, then Sarabande (?), Durand Chaconne, then the Correlli Giga or the Cabezon Fuga. Ellis Schuman’s Handel transcriptions are good. I think it is important at this stage to use as much baroque music as possible, and classical. Then there are the good old Marie Miller transcriptions. Grandjany Automne is a good transition piece, then the two folk songs Le Bon, Patapon. Some of Salzedo’s Sketches are easier to handle than the Tiny Tales. Depending on the student, one can go right into his Preludes for Beginners. Dussek Sonatinas, too.
I didn’t read your post in depth, but I do not believe it at all. I am very much right-handed, and my left hand is much more secure, has 96% percent of the facility of my right at least, is stronger etc. Having more facility is not an advantage. If my left hand played all the melodies, like your right hand might feel, it would be so eloquent and expressive. Perhaps you should watch the movie “My Left Foot.” It’s just not a big deal. I don’t think it affects anyone’s chances in competition. Most harpists neglect to develop their left hands enough anyway.
In that case, I would want a double-strung harp or something like it so I have lots of notes at my disposal.
Good training makes one ambidextrous. If I think about what I am doing, I am perfectly able to write with my left hand. So, I think it would be taking an easy way out to switch shoulders, and not favor equal development. The easy hand is the one that ends up not being as sure, in my experience. Once I have learned a piece well, it is the right hand that has to be watched the most.
The only thing is that to me, it is much harder to have to leave the strings to change levers than to use the pedals. The only pitch advantage with levers is having an f natural and f sharp at the same time in different octaves. While I am not big on the idea of progress, the improvements in harp-making that led to the pedal harp we have now are significant, and abandoning them to return to lever harps altogether would be regressive. Not that everyone is doing that. But when Peak Oil happens lever harps may be all that are left, so we should use our pedal harps to the hilt as long as we can.
Certainly they are more convenient to move. Compositionally, diatonic music is fascinating, but limiting. Live is very hard for pedal harpists so we should as a community be careful about drawing work away from that instrument or soon no-one will be able to afford them at all. We need to increase work for everyone and income, contradictory as that might sound.If they are not overripe, they are a source of quick energy that is very digestible. I prefer cream cheese sandwiches, myself. On date-nut bread is even better.
I was advised to strap my harp to the wall when on a cruise ship, so I think that would work for an earthquake if the wall is solidly built. Check your insurance for riders.
