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What matters is whether or not you’ll ever buy another harp. If you are certain you can later buy a concert grand, then a semi-grand can be useful. However, you will always lack that one string you just might need, and have less sound. People like to have smaller gig harps, but you can also view that as cheating the client by not giving them your best. But better you buy your concert grand first, just in case, and to give it more time to age properly before using it in public. I could have bought a 30 that had uneven sound, but I held out for having a 23 and got what became a magnificent instrument. And I have never been in the position to buy another harp. My wise first teacher, Frances Miller, made all her serious students order 23s. She was not pleased when we started ordering walnut finish 23s, and she was right because most of them were inferior in quality (in the 1970s).
If you can’t afford a gold harp, then a second-hand one, if semi-grand, could be a good buy, if in good condition. The recently built Salvi’s are far superior to any older ones, but I still prefer Lyon & Healy’s with their angelic treble register. Salvi’s are also heavier and harder to move.My wise teacher found that students who started with Suzuki method had more problems reading music than those who started with normal pedagogy. Her approach was to teach the student to see/place/name the note all at the same time, and it was effective. Try the ABC of Harp Playing. I don’t like the idea of involving the parents. The success of that totally depends on the kind of relationship the child and parents have. I prefer the idea of making music as being private, personal. I am not impressed by the Suzuki volumes of music.
That is a high tuning, it will increase the stress on your sounding board. If anything, I think lower tunings would be more “soothing.”
Your problem is practicing for only 45 minutes a day. That is not enough to condition your fingers and callouses. I would never schedule a performance after being away for a month. Maybe if you have everything thoroughly memorized and learned before you go, some of it will be there for you when you return. I think you need to be practicing closer to two hours a day to do any kind of performing.
It was published with a viola part, so if you don’t have one, contact Lyra to have them send you one.
Do what sounds best. Keep in mind that she is contrasting some chords between the left and right hands.
I tried using ballroom shoes with a Cuban heel, and while the height was okay, it only had a half-way shank, which meant no support for most of my foot, and the soft sole was not an advantage. I wear any kind of Oxford shoe as long as it doesn’t have a wale on the sides. Florsheim used to have a cap-toe Oxford that was just right. Most dress shoes have worked. You want a heel that is at least a half-inch, depending on your proportions, and firm sole with a metal shank will give you the best leverage on the pedal. For some reason, when I wear loafers, they tend to slip off the pedal with a bang, otherwise, they’d be fine. It’s sad that Capezio took over Organmasters, because they always lower the quality. I used to wear Taffy’s jazz oxfords and they were perfect. But Capezio does have all widths, I think, so look at their jazz Oxfords. If his width is more than EE it may be a problem, maybe pedal extenders would help as the width would be slightly wider then.
If you are the soloist, you should be the one establishing the tempo, you need to tell the conductor just what you need. En animant means, not so much animated, as it does “lit from within,” according to an expert I consulted. What Debussy indicated is a flexible tempo that rises and falls, but what Renie decided should be more conventional accelerando or immediate changes of tempo. Traditionally, harpists have been following her indications, though they sometimes make it more difficult. I have been making my own edition from the original and have found easier pedalings and fingerings as a result. Yes, 152 is extremely fast, and you have to remember that what composers here in their head is an ideal that omits the effort required to produce the notes. If I remember correctly, Salzedo’s tempo choice was either 104 or 120 for the second dance, I’d have to go look at it.
The most concise, economical and effective method book is the Lawrence/Salzedo Method, which has several pages of most-effective and simple exercises which will build your strength. After that, his Conditioning Exercises are superb for strengthening. The LaRiviere Exercises are exhaustive, literally, so are the Payr. I find others to be insufficient.
It sounds constrained to me, like the finish is too thick, so it is not letting the sound get out, a pinched quality. Whether it would open up in time, I can’t tell. I wouldn’t say it is a typical sound for a new harp.
When I do stretched tuning, I gradually work up to a five-cent increase at the top and bottom, also allowing for the pitches to flatten while playing. Miss Lawrence did not specify how much, but suggested taking pitch from a well-tuned piano (tuners were a brand-new item at that time). I didn’t like the stretch on the Peterson strobe, but I don’t like using their strobes at all, I find them misleading. I think it’s like cream, if you like it sweet, tune exactly to pitch, if you like sour cream, stretch the tuning. One advantage is that it extends the range of the harp and can give a bigger sound in the bass.
Carl, who makes your heavy-gauge wire strings for you? I use Bow Brand heavy-gauge gut strings, and they are superb. I used to use heavy-gauge nylon strings from Pirastro, but now they only have medium-gauge, which are hard to keep in tune.
If you are performing with a piano accompaniment, you have to tune to the piano.
Stretched tuning is like sour cream. If you prefer sweet cream, then tune to the tuner. But if you want your harp to sound larger and more complex, stretch. It does increase the range by, say, ten cents more at the top and bottom.
The problem with strobe tuners is that they may focus on the first overtone rather than the fundamental, and the first overtone, or harmonic, is not the same interval as an octave. I prefer Korg tuners because they either offer the slow, medium and fast response of the meter, or a clear dial so you can easily tune five cents more, as they have a mark for every five cents up to twenty cents.
The other reason for stretching the treble notes is, if you use nylon strings, they will flatten as you play.The quality of wood that was available was of the best possible, and the quality of workmanship was high as well. But it also depends on what you expect from a harp. Lyon & Healy has made many improvements over the years, and their harps are much more consistent now. The oldest harps also seem so great because there were periods of much-lower quality as in the 1960s.
