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We are not very familiar with them in the USA, and don’t have our own. What I’ve seen of ABRSM is that they don’t seem to expect much progress from level to level or anything very challenging.
Build your strength. The piece is something of an endurance test. You cannot put cuts in it. You can practice it as block chords a good part of the time. Ibert’s Reflet dans l’Eau is even longer. Hasselman’s Prelude is wonderful and gives you the reverse pattern, of upward arpeggios, but with very wide spacing. So, figure out how much you can practice without fatigue, and do that much each day, changing sections, and when you have it up to tempo, you’ll be able to put it all together. It’s not logical to try to play through the whole piece in a slow tempo. Exercising your arms with weights is also very helpful in building strength, stamina and endurance. It is a professional piece, though used widely by students.
Did you notice the dots over the notes? It says to me that the notes were meant to be harmonics, which means they double the flute at pitch, creating a marvelous ethereal effect, typical of Debussy. That is how Marilyn Costello played it in the Philadelphia Orchestra recordings, and I can’t imagine it any other way. It is a typical copyist’s mistake to either make circles so small they look like dots, or to misinterpret them. The ear must prevail. Recordings where the harp plays regular notes in either octave sound lousy by comparison. It’s a particularly messy part, badly copied. Durand Editions also have typical sorts of errors, like missing clef changes. Experience tells.
Exactly as Carl says. I don’t think composers should ask for altered tunings. In too many cases, it won’t hold, and it alters the structure of the harp. Does it make any real difference to the ear? Lou Harrison asks for special tuning, but is there any real difference? Of course, we all used to do that before we had inexpensive tuners, tuning by ear always produced results that were natural, but off.
Take lessons. A good teacher will guide you through all difficulties, possibly with ease. Crossing over and under are the most complicated moves we make, so they need a lot more attention.
My first teacher, Frances Miller, had a great piece of advice for learning a piece: always use solfege to say the notes of the bass line when practicing. One usually memorizes the right hand easily (unless left-handed), but not the left, and when you say it out loud, it anchors it in your mind, which anchors your right hand. It still works for me, 45 years later.
I can only guess that the discs are overgripping the strings to be able to cut off their resonance, or there is another problem not to do with the action. Or they are being displaced enough to affect how they interact with the body. Or is the string length too short to reverberate? Any company must stand by its warranty. Having to pay for shipping, though, is typical.
Concrete will not have a pleasant sound. A sprung wood floor will. If your ceiling is high enough, I would suggest raising the wood floor up above the concrete.
The ABC of Harp Playing and Pathfinder Studies by Lucile Lawrence will help you get acquainted with the pedals. There are many, many solos now available to you, so buy them all! Ask your teacher what to study.
Where are you located? Sometimes you have to travel to get lessons. The harp requires some dedication and sacrifice for its beauty.
Whatever harp you get, spring for the glossy finish. The matte finish looks dusty, not good on stage.
I heard a while ago that they are also resuming manufacture of the Style 15, which is good news, too!
I’m not sure who plays in the Santa Fe Opera, but would think one of their harpists would give you some lessons.
Vaughan-Williams Fantasy on Greensleeves, excerpts from Faure’s Pelleas et Melisande come to mind. The parts on the AHS list seem quite difficult.
Procession of the Nobles by Rimsky-Korsakov is available with a straight-forward harp part. It depends on how good your students are at counting and rhythms. Wagner’s Prelude to der Meistersinger is almost all chords.
