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Classical period options include the Parry Sonatas, the Spohr Fantaisie, and could include Krumpholtz and Naderman. Some of the periods last longer in the harp repertoire; much of the early 20th century music is quite still in the Romantic style.
Hovhaness is a different choice for 20th century music that would not take forever to learn, but has musical challenges. The Maros Suite is another possibility, Three Improvisations or other works by William Mathias.
Playing music to make someone feel better only requires sensitivity to their needs. Being a trained healer might add a little something to it, but music does its own thing. It seems inappropriate to presume to do anything more than that. But even the self-pleasure of playing music can make someone feel much better. I think its really rather simple.
Bellying is desirable, as it results in a more fulsome tone, the problem is to limit its extent, and to keep the action completely adjustable enough to account for changes in angle and position.
Well-made harps made in recent years by Lyon & Healy sound pretty magnificent. The tension is not a problem. The historic instruments of the 1920s, and Wurlitzers, are worth studying. Their lightness aided the resonance of the harp, giving them full rich tone, and the shaping aids the projection of the tone, along with the elaborate carving of the column.
I do not think current methods are necessarily any improvement and worth more study. Darker woods seem to lead to darker sound, which simply covers the tones.
The ideal harp tone developed in America has long been described as pear-shaped, round tone with as much reverberation of overtones as possible throughout the range of the instrument, and a full resonance. This is achieved by careful selection of maple and spruce wood, and the physical shape and weight of the harp. The more you can talk to experienced harp technicians and geeks here, the more insight you will gain. I have never been taken with the Salvi sound or their experiments, as their goals are quite different. The angelic, heavenly sound of the style 23 harp remains my eternal ideal. A metal stirrup at the base of the center strip reinforces the bass notes, which support the highest notes. An evenly spreading soundingboard creates broadening tone from top to bottom. The harp should be as light as possible, while structurally sound. While there are numerous small improvements to be made mechanically, the ideal harp has already been created, in my opinion.
I never heard it performed, but it was standard repertoire for Carlos Salzedo and his pupils in the 1920s. It seems like a strong piece.
She is not too young. I recommend Yu-Hsin Huang as an excellent teacher. I would buy the best quality lever harp or small pedal harp you can afford for now, and when she is about ten or so, you can reconsider buying a full-size instrument. Getting an early start is excellent, but you should look for the very best quality teacher. Her determination may be an expression of real vision. Don’t deflect her interest.
The way I use exercises, taking one and doing it thoroughly in four different tempi, they develop strength, coordination, rhythm and tone quality. They have to be played musically. In addition, each hand is developed equally.
I was raised for a few years on that approach to etudes using the same Bochsa etudes, and while some of them were pleasant, they were very unproductive. Exercises are more efficient because you can focus specifically on one thing only, where etudes involve many more things, even while emphasizing one. Those etudes fail in developing the left hand, which I think is unforgivable. Bochsa’s most advanced etudes are musically worthwhile, but not so much the easier ones, even though he wrote SO many of them. I think it was the Nadermann etudes I was looking at recently, or the Martenot edition of them, that featured equal development of both hands. That is worthwhile.
If a student is starting very young, they can spend several years playing etudes without too much detriment, but those who start in high school or later don’t really have the time. There are many orchestra parts that serve the purpose of development just as well, the many that focus on arpeggios and chords, for example. Those would include Wagner’s Prelude to der Meistersinger, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Procession of the Nobles, Tchaikovsky’s harp parts, and so on. The advantage is that while using them to develop strength, the parts get learned and one is ahead on that necessary track.
If you need etudes, I would look at Nadermann, and, well, not much else until the 20th Century. Dizi’s are very pianistic, good for playing his music or that of Godefroid. Bochsa’s are good for playing Bochsa. Hasselmans used Bochsa. So did Salzedo until he composed his magnificent etudes. Damase has very nice etudes that are a very good introduction to his style of writing for the harp. Some of Tournier’s pieces make good etudes. Posse’s etudes are good if you can handle them.
Other solos that make excellent etudes include Caplet’s Divertissement a la Francaise, Prokofiev’s Prelude, Debussy’s Arabesque, Spohr’s Fantaisie, anything by Busser, and so on.
One must be careful with etudes to avoid too much repetition of a figure if it leads to any strain, which some will. Posse’s have very wide reaches.
Nadermann’s solos are basically etudes. Grandjany’s etudes on Bach can be quite useful, musically substantial, and many with even use of the hands.
I have written a few that should be out relatively soon, but they are tricky, being based on Paganini, that means a lot of chromatic pedalling, and sliding thirds and sixths. What fun!
While I think it is important to develop one’s strength at the harp, overall conditioning is crucial, particularly to moving one’s harp. Swimming and weight training, dancing, should be essential.
It looks like I won’t make it, my place to stay fell through, so if you hear anyone asking, you can tell them for me.
