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Kirsten has been playing professionally for many years. I suspect she has done far more than Bridget Kibbey has yet to do.
I noticed when looking at the famous Sequenza, by Luciano Berio, that if I simply picked a metronome tempo such as 60 to the quarter-note, that I could easily convert his proportional notation into standard rhythmic notation that made it far clearer and much easier to comprehend. One should always question the notation and whether it could be clearer, as it really influences the difficulty of a piece. I recently edited the first movement of the Tailleferre Sonate, in part to clarify the notation, and it became so much more organized and sensible than how it looks as printed.
How you present yourself on stage matters, no matter how well you play. Nothing should distract from the music. I saw a debut recital in which the harpist wore a dress with an absurdly long train, and it was a distraction throughout.
The composer’s son, Peter Bartok, was heavily involved in revising the part for the second Violin Concerto, and he might value your markings for this one.
If they are doing any classical symphonies, you can play continuo, and discreetly double other instruments, particularly horn and timpani, I should think.
Can you substitute F-flat for E major? That might help. Composers need to be told how much time is needed to change pedals. They don’t know.
The Harp Column’s chart sounds like a good source of information. The chart I have made has spaces to fill in the appropriate numbers. It is something like making a family tree. But I think it helps a lot, the more options there are, the more it needs sorting for ease of comparison.
Perhaps it is not a surprise, but I can’t stand it. The original is a piece of art, and should not be altered in any way. The black is more palatable, but still not the original. It was enough for Salzedo to have the stripes on the sounding board in his favorite color, and I think we should be more respectful. It is kind of like harlotry. The music should be the sensation, not the color of the harp. To apply color, I suspect, requires too much coating, which definitely can inhibit the tone projection. I have heard quite a few harps that had too-thick of a coating of finish, and a good ten percent of the sound was lost, if not more.
I have a design for a dragon harp, and green and red would suit that far better, as well as gold and jeweled eyes.Teaching is a live, in-the-moment experience. Recording alters that. I brought a tape recorder to a few of my lessons with Lucile Lawrence, and the unexpected benefit of that was that she was a lot more complimentary than usual. The lessons were different, but at least I have a record of her teaching for historical purposes. But she was put-upon by it. It’s an invasion of the teacher’s privacy. And, yes, they should pay extra, and you would need a contract restricting the use, otherwise it is public domain.
It seems at the start, you have Lever or Pedal harp options. Each option has a rent or own option, and each option has a cost range. Then each option has a resale, trade-in or rental value. Each option also has the used or new option.
The full-sized 100 was introduced at the Philadelphia AHS conference, which was in, 2004? as I recall.
It is not called a Salzedo diagram, but nice to give him credit. Do we have a set name for it? I am trying to think. It’s a pedal diagram, pedal setting diagram. If it has a distinct name, it will say so in one of his books. Another way is to write the key of the setting, or if only two pedals are not in flat, to just write what those two are, but both are set off by a three-sided box around them, open on the bottom.
Damping the strings is an old musical term, it is logical. Dampers are used in other instruments, where mufflers are worn around your neck. Damping the strings is equivalent to muffling. Damping may be more common in England.What we consider mistakes and what the audience does are two very different things. Not keeping time is more disturbing than missing a note. Not maintaining your mood and energy is more noticeable than dropping a bar. It is possible to control mistakes if you can anticipate when they are about to happen. I once observed a famous singer simply changing the notes or leaving out words while singing, but maintaining everything else so it was unnoticeable except to someone who perfectly knew the song. And even then, if you are totally convincing, they’ll think you have it right and they had it wrong. Play with conviction no matter what, and smile, don’t look stressed out.
Keep it simple. They can develop strength if not disabled, and probably have enough already. A simply explained and demonstrated technical approach should work best. How much they can improve is debatable. I had a student who could sight-read beautifully, but was incapable of progress through practice.
