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Lyra did sell the part at one time. It’s possible they had the parts made for them, perhaps with permission from the publisher, as the copyist is the same as on some other parts.
You can leave out notes in the left hand that double other notes. If the chord is c-g-c-e, you can leave out the upper c so you can play 421, for the upper c sounds already as an overtone from the lower c. Otherwise, it’s just quite a work-out and that’s why the harpist often sits up front by the violin soloist.
You could safely mark the string temporarily with a white colored pencil, but never use any white out, as they contain solvents that can be absorbed into the string. The eye can naturally divide the string in half with practice. Just make sure when you look at the top of the string, you are looking at the actual top, which is shortened by levers or pedal discs when engaged.
To produce the harmonic, you only need to touch the string at the first node, the half-way point, and then play above it. You can touch the string on either side of the knuckle. Your teacher should be showing you how to do this. If you don’t have a teacher, get one.Excuuuuuussssssseee me, as Steve Martin used to say. There is NO room for a Montessori approach in the harp world. One cannot play it well by inventing one’s own technique as a child. That is wasting precious time. Not that a teacher needs to be harsh about it, but proper position must be learned FROM THE FIRST, and maintained. Too many harpists suffer from lax teachers, and have to struggle to learn how to play well in college or even later, for not having been shown good position and finger action, whatever the method used. Learning good habits from the start is essential and children are perfectly capable of doing so without tears. I have seen the exquisite playing of harpists who learned well from the start, and what a difference. Look at Heidi Lehwalder, learning to play from Lynne Palmer. Lucile Lawrence always took beginners for this reason.
And I am irritated by teachers who studied with great teachers but do not pass their instruction along to their own students. Fortunately, there are some teachers who can renovate a student’s playing in relatively short order. And my students have been so grateful for it. It makes life so much easier to be able to play well.Rather interesting. I love his rarely-performed Barcarolle. I would love to hear a recording of the Variations.
Well, the main issue is, when harpists use their tuner to tune, the first and second octave strings will sound flat. I am stretching less, but some, about 2.5 cents in the second octave, 5 in the first octave and 10 in 0 octave, give or take.
Lowering the bass strings can give murky depth, rather like using sour cream instead of creme fraiche.Equally memorable is the scene, I think it’s in Laurel and Hardy’s Saps at Sea, where Stan pulls his mattress off of his cot, and plays the wire strings underneath as a harp in a magnificent solo.
The movie about Catherine the Great starring Marlene Dietrich has an arrangement of Rubinstein’s music that features marvelous sounding harp parts.I have a stock of strings, so I only recently got into the ones that were breaking on high-humidity days. I save any strings that are not false, so I could replace them. Hopefully, I won’t have that problem on my pedal harp, but I have lost track of when I bought them so I can’t probably ask for replacements.
I listened to a harpist playing on Savarez strings recently and I finally figured out the main difference with their sound: they do not ring as long as other strings, I am pretty sure.They sound rather pleasant, somewhere between nylon and gut, but I do not want strings that ring less. If you are after what some call a “clean” sound, then they’re for you. For me, harps are for ringing. That’s what makes them a harp.
I will say, though, it seems like Pirastro has switched to tynex nylon, because their strings are not of the quality I was used to anymore. They’re not holding pitch as well, and not lasting as long. It’s very disappointing. And they are not responsive to customers.
Oh for the days of nice, fat strings with rich, warm tone. At least my harp is rich enough in tone that any string sounds good. But I have tried gut in the third octave, and it’s like putting a mute on the harp.It is possible that as a dealer, Don Henry was able to get permission from the publishers to sell parts and pay them a royalty. The excuse I get from publishers is that a part is what they call performable, so that if one bought all the individual parts, one could avoid renting. No one said they are not short sighted. We are all grateful he sold them, regardless of how he did it.
I think one can show editing by whiting out the actual notes, or showing the edits but not the music, so one can copy it.
Publishers allow excerpts with permission because something is omitted.
Nevertheless, there are no parts police, and publishers know all too well we must have them ahead of time.Yes, and some vocal exercises and vocalises also make good harp exercises, and vice-versa. However, the vocalises I use, by Panofka, are varied and wonderful, and most harp etudes are overly repetitive and dreary, if not dreadful (not all, but many). They don’t have as much variety as a vocalise, and they generally neglect developing the left hand. The Damase Preludes and Etudes are satisfying. The Grossi Etudes are vocal in style, so you might like them, they’re very Italian.
Yes, Skype lessons or other video would be your best alternative to have a good teacher, then. I can set up to do that.
Muting? That’s crazy. You’re playing a harp, and it’s supposed to sustain. It sounds like a problem with the engineer taking the wrong approach. The mic is probably too close. You also need mics that have the frequency range for the bass. Your upper strings might not be sustaining long enough for balance. The harp does not sound good in an acoustically dead environment like many studios, and does not sound natural. Digital recording methods are terrible for the harp.
No, no, no. I disagree with everyone. The only way to get your fingers to move faster is to condition them. You must move them well and easily, and do it an enormous number of times. Repetition! Play each set of eight notes ten times every day. Does your teacher tell you to practice this way? Pushing will get you into trouble. It sounds like you did that already. Besides which, this is very advanced music, and it will take you years to get to that level. There are more suitable arpeggio pieces than this. But it’s good exercise. Use it as your etude. Etudes do not replace exercises. They just make you spend a lot of time on a pattern, with more variety than an exercise.
