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You can double harp parts so they can both play. I think you could add a harp part to Fingal’s Cave by Mendelssohn. His Overture to Athalia has a nice harp part. All harp parts are difficult for first-year orchestra players. I would not recommend ones with long periods of rests, and cadenzas. The Poet and Peasant Overture is good. Faure’s Pelleas et Melisande is great.
If you live anywhere near a harp music dealer, such as Holywell, or Lyon & Healy West, go there and browse. There is nothing you can do online that is comparable to browsing through sheet music yourself. You can also do that at harp conferences. There are tons and tons of pieces. If you look at the classical era, and the modern era, you will find plenty that is not clichéd. But in the 19th century, you will find most of it clichéd. The difference is primarily whether the music is by a harpist or by a “real” composer in that period. It is heartening that you want something more substantial.
Dewey Owens published a masterpiece of a transcription with the Bach Chaconne. There are two editions, Lyra and a Lyon & Healy edition, I believe. I prefer the first, with slight modifications that are obvious to anyone who learns it. Lucile Lawrence embraced it and taught it to many of her students. I would not even consider any other edition. Dewey was an expert in writing for the harp, and as an organist, certainly had a good understanding of Bach. For someone who wants an impressive Bach solo to play in a recital, this is it.
Are you sure what you have is a harp? It sounds more like a type of lyre, and there are a lot of liars who are selling lyres as if they are harps, which they are not. The shapes are completely different. The sound is, as well.
My understanding of them is, they are made to last for a while, but not a lifetime, perhaps twenty years, however long the neck will last. They have lighter construction, may have a very good sound, but are not built to last. I don’t think 40 strings is enough, you should get at least 44 or 46.
It is not like buying a secondhand Lyon & Healy or Salvi harp, which are reliably made. Even with them, you have the risk of spending far more than you pay, for possible repairs. It is in the end, cheaper to buy a new harp, in many cases. Still, for a beginner to practice exercises on and pieces that have few pedal changes, if any, it is okay. I had such a harp for one year, and it was better than nothing. But only for one year.
There are many adjustments you can make on your own, and should. Regulations by professionals, unless you can afford to do them regularly, should be occasional needs.
You can carefully grip a disc pin with needle-nose pliers and try to influence it to bend. It helps to cover the rough surface so as not to roughen the brass. If you have old discs, the pins are not hard to bend. If they are the newer kind, they will not bend in the middle so much as change angle, but you must be careful not to apply much pressure as you can snap them out of the disc. It is better to try to reposition the adjustable above the discs. You can use a small, fine screwdriver between the pins to loosen their grip, or tighten it. The screws are unfortunately soft, so you have to use a screwdriver that fits them well so as not to spoil the groove, but the screws are replaceable. You need more than one size, because the screws change sizes. I have been lucky to find a couple of small screwdrivers that work pretty well. It is generally better, I think, to have thicker strings, particularly on an older harp, so the discs can be more open. Pirastro nylon strings are slightly thicker than the others, and Bow Brand now has wonderful heavy-gauge gut strings. You really don’t need to regulate when you have changed felts, but much more after a few months when they have started to pack down. You will have to re-adjust in any case as they pack down. You could also take a spare disc to a hardware store and have them help you locate suitable tools.If your teacher didn’t teach you how to teach, either by knowledge or example, then you need to study with a teacher specifically for how to teach, assuming you can find one with a gift for it. The pedagogy is of the utmost importance, if you should get a talented student. Technique should be taught from the very start as if they will become professional. There is plethora of music. I do not recommend Fun From the First, but I’m not sure what replaces it at that level. The Salzedo pedagogy begins with ABC of Harp Playing, Pathfinder Studies, Sketches for Harpist Beginners and Tiny Tales, the transcriptions by Marie Miller, and on into the solos. I enjoy Betty Paret’s first book. That said, it can be very difficult to get students, but for some people it just seems to happen.
Well, thank goodness for Don Henry’s practicality in making so much music available to us, whether legal or not! I bought this part and having it made it possible to study the entire piece and be well-prepared for auditions. They’re not losing money on it, and harpists have a unique need for advanced study, as they should well know. The best thing to do is to buy the miniature score if no one will sell the part, and copy out the harp part by hand, as that will help you learn it. The philosophy of publishers, absurd as it is, is that one could potentially buy every single part to put a set together and avoid rental fees, if they allowed the publication, and for some reason, they think that if they allow harp parts to be sold, they have to allow all parts. That may have something to do with copyright law.
Don’t worry about how we play it, just use the clearest notation. But you have a bigger problem. In that range the strings are sustaining longer and their is a risk of it being very buzzy to go over the same strings over and over. Not a problem an octave higher, or with the hands separated by an octave. Make sure you need that exact pattern in that range first.
It should be okay in the shipping box on its side. You cannot control how a shipper handles it unless it is contracted. I believe Lyon & Healy marks the boxes with “this end up.” What is most important is how the box is handled, and not dropped. The truckers use local people oftentimes to transfer to the local delivery, and they can be the problem. You have to inspect the harp for damage immediately, as you have a limited time to file a claim, possibly as little as two weeks. The harps are very well padded in those boxes, better than in trunks.
