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Try Vera Stern, and I think Julia Shaw is in the area, too. Ask Andrew for recommendations. He does have adult pupils.
Of course, Sylvia. One of the reasons I was so happy to study with Lucile Lawrence was that she always emphasized beauty of tone. Not everyone got that message. Power and volume are an issue for orchestral players, but that’s not a stopping point. The looks are a means to an end, they help a beginner develop strength and control. It is not the ending point. I will also say, when using nylon strings, you have to keep your callouses smooth, I have to sand mine, or the tone does get a hard ping to it. I am certain that in Salzedo’s late recordings, that is part of the tone quality you hear, incredibly deep callouses.
If you are composing, then I would look at Salzedo’s cadenza for the Handel Concerto, the cadenza in the Villa Lobos Concerto (though it is extremely long), the Reinecke cadenzas for the Mozart Concerto, Salzedo’s cadenza for the Berezowsky Concerto, the Ginastera Concerto, the Harry Somers Suite… sometimes it’s easier to find bad examples. You need more than just arpeggios and chords or it may sound like an orchestra part. Ravel’s Introduction et Allegro probably has the single most influential cadenza of all.
Yes. But why do you want to do it? These are his personal arrangements. They are not meant to be scholarly. Are you just trying to identify the sources? I think the cover says that they are all from the violin partitas. Some movements are duplicated in other partitas, like for lute.
Yes, they should, but that doesn’t mean it will be the safest way. Perhaps you can ask for extra pay if you do it.
What may be happening is that when you close your fingers you are not completely relaxed and when you open your fingers again you are reaching and stretching against what you have just done with your hand. If you do not move your hand at all after playing, just being still can lead to tension, so you need to be very conscious about releasing all tension, and not letting any translate to the wrist. But you don’t say if it is your right or left hand, and there may be a big difference in what you are doing. Physical problems need physical solutions. Do let your body tell you what to do as well as what not to do. If it continues, you may need to make more changes. Is your wrist touching the soundboard lightly, or resting on it? Putting weight on the wrist is risky. You also have to work harder if you are playing very low on the strings. It’s not just a matter of the shape of your hand. Are you using any side-to-side or rotary movement of your hand-wrist-lower arm to assist in playing patterns? It may also be your practice habits. Every factor enters into it. But the back of the hand in particular acts up if you have tension between the thumb or second finger, and the third or fourth fingers and pinky. The way you are placing, or reaching for intervals may be the issue, and if you have unresolved tension from what you previously played, then reaching will be a strain. Try to play without effort and see what happens.
Ask one question, get many answers, that’s our tradition, and you will also find no matter what you do, someone will criticize it.
I see the Ford Flex as spacious and perhaps ideal, and VW has a very appealling mini-van, but I have my heart set on a second-hand Mercedes station wagon.
The best thing is to either swear off all competitions, or enter three more for every one you don’t win.
Chubb via Merz-Huber. Excellent coverage and service, no problem getting a claim for my piano generously covered. I strongly recommend them. If you ask for Chubb, you don’t have to be an ASTA member.
It is not easy. It helps to have another skill to pay the bills with. Nursing seems like a good option because you can do it free-lance and part-time. Perhaps restaurants are more inclined now to have a harpist, or hotels, nothing like a steady gig. Even a funeral home can be a steady gig. Like any entrepreneurial occupation, it can take a long time to build up your flow of work. Finding an area where you are needed really helps. New Hampshire does sound tempting, and I never would have imagined there was a gap there. Unfortunately, the very information we need to know to make money in music is always the hardest to come by. I believe Harp Column did some kind of a census, sure the results had helpful information. I think being a reliable classical soloist is helpful, but it is also helpful to play alternative musics as well. Know a little about everything. It is hard to build up a classical or pedal harp book and a lever book at the same time, but all the better if you can. There is also way too much material available now to spend money on and wade through to find the good stuff.
