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If your harpist gets the Art of Modulating by Carlos Salzedo, it has patterns for accompanying waltzes that if he or she memorizes, they can then use them to improvise a part.
I have successfully colored strings with a Sharpie marker with no effect on the tone quality. Wite-Out could have harmful ingredients.
Only a qualified technician should do anything to repair your finish. What I learned is that to patch the finish, you have to use exactly the same finish. You cannot use a non-matching finish on another finish, the chemistry has to be the same. Before Lyon & Healy started using lacquer finish, I’m pretty sure they used varnish, like violins have. As for new harps, I am opposed to the matte or satin finish. It looks awful, and I think because it is not rubbed to produce the glossy finish, it is too thick and inhibits the sound. So if you are ordering a new harp, pay extra for the glossy finish. Lyon & Healy can supply you with a small bottle of the lacquer. You would dab it on, but then you are supposed to sand it smooth, so it’s still better to have a trained technician do it.
Dampits are not effective. They are designed for much smaller instruments, more contained ones. Try tuning the harp down when you are going away.
I attempted teaching after college, and even after my Master’s degree, and I did not know anything more than the bare basics of what is involved in playing. One does have to get teaching experience, the best way is by observing a fine teacher in lessons, and by gaining experience performing and playing, such as at least ten year’s worth before attempting to teach. It is a problem that so many unqualified people teach, because then another teacher has to clean up the mess they made, the student has to start over or rebuild from the ground up, or make painful corrections while having to learn challenging music. They rob real teachers of potential students, and even don’t want to let go of them when it is time to move on. For such a teacher, students should not stay longer than three years. By then, you need to be learning proper technique, beginning intermediate music, etc. And for students starting in their teens, they have to get to a strong teacher right away or very soon, or too much groundwork is lost. Even a fine teacher can have too many students to really pay full attention to each one. A teacher should at least have one or preferably two degrees in music, at least one from a conservatory, and summer study with major teachers.
There is a basic problem with using software. You cannot extract your music from software without using hopefully another software. You have no real ownership of it anymore. If you can learn to make a neat score by hand, you should do that and scan it or photocopy it. That’s what the composer Steven Paulus did. I lost a lot of work by having to change computers or update software. At best, you can hopefully export to a pdf file so you have a permanent copy. But to make any revisions, you would have to input it all over again. I have yet to see a software that could produce scores as well as a fine publisher does.
That is great. She was an important harpist, and her book is important. Another source for ideas on fingering patterns is the ABC of Harp Playing by Salzedo and Lawrence, which is half beginner exercises, and half about orchestra parts and cadenzas.
Quinine can prevent muscle spasms. The prescription strength may be too much, but I found you can buy quinine extract online. It is also in Tonic Water, and if that gives you relief, then use that. There are also muscle relaxer drugs, but they can have side effects.
Let me revise my response. As much as I would treasure such a painting, the Curtis Institute archives are the best place for it, I think, or else a museum. I don’t know if they would want a painting by Bloom or not. It would certainly be good cover art for the American Harp Journal. Perhaps the library in Camden, Maine would want it. But I’m sure Curtis would value it, and keep it safe.
One should always seek out the best-possible teacher. If one is not suitable to them, they will let you know or recommend someone else. I thought I knew it all at ten years of playing and could teach. I was wrong. I could teach basics. After twenty years, I could do a pretty good job teaching. After thirty years, I could do a very good job teaching. After fifty years, now I think I might know what I am doing. Lucile Lawrence was 73 when I began studying with her, and she was great. So maybe by the time I am 73, I will be great at it, too. She always taught beginners, no matter how old she was. Her last youngest student, Helen Gerhold, now plays in the Philadelphia Orchestra.
There are simply too many people teaching who don’t know what they are doing. Unfortunately, we have no credentialing system, other than getting degrees, so uninformed people really don’t know how to choose or look.I hope Mr. Shipman can have Harp.com and Vanderbilt Music stock copies of this vital text. It should also be collected by libraries.
I am very interested in this portrait. The artist was part of a committee that founded a Salzedo Scholarship Fund in Boston, of which I was a long-term beneficiary.
Lucile Lawrence created a collection of Salzedo’s music in the library of the Mannes College of Music, which would be one appropriate home for it. So would Boston University, which has a Lucile Lawrence memorial studio. Ball State University, where her student, Elizabeth Richter taught, is another suitable repository.
Lise Nadeau Harmon retired several years ago. I have some contact information, but I don’t know if it is up to date or not.
Of course, the archives of the Curtis Institute of Music have all of Salzedo’s manuscripts and papers, so that, while not accessible to the public, is the most logical place to put the painting. They sometimes do exhibits on him and do have other artwork of Salzedo.There are professional harp movers in Manhattan, see what they will charge you. Or you can try a car service that has station wagons.
I have no doubt that the Theme and Variations are by Handel. There are figures in it that are typical of his harp music. I could not find any other composer of the time who could have written this. It is beyond Meyer’s scope. The Pastorale sounds like Handel as well.
It is customary, expected, that a performer or editor will add notes to “realize” the bass line, whether figured or not. If you are using the Zingel edition, then play his notes. A baroque composer did not expect people to play only the bass line and a soprano line. You are supposed to fill in the harmony. And with Handel, that can be surprisingly tricky. You need to know a lot of his music to do it well.
There’s nothing suspicious about Zingel’s story of the source. It may well be that the missing Sonata by Telemann was also destroyed in the same library.
