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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.
If there is no line through the stem of the small note, it is most definitely an appoggiatura. Whether you can trust the notation or not depends on what edition you are playing from.
I once played a gig where I played Salzedo’s Eight Dances, not long after Heidi Lehwalder’s legendary recording was out, and a woman said my playing was fluid, and reminded her of Heidi. That made my, not day, my life.
And don’t fall for that old line, “It’s really good exposure.” Nonprofit organizations are businesses like any other and have money to spend.
I think you should be an adult, at least 18, for legal reasons and safety. You should be able to do a gig independently, without assistance. There are often opportunities to play for family, friends, organizations with or without pay. It is not fair to compete with adult professionals. That’s what I think. Only if you are the only harpist around at all. Plus, you have to be well prepared and play pretty well.
If you look at Bochsa’s instructions in his method, from slightly later or contemporary times, he says to play ornaments ON the beat, taking their value from the following note. I am not sure about 6/8 movements, though, but however you play those graces, make them short and snappy.
Hopefully, your teacher has kept track of what the standard excerpts are that are commonly asked for, and yes, you do learn all of them well enough to be able to work them up quickly. Each audition tends to have at least one wild card thrown in.
Here, off the top of my head, are the common excerpts from auditions in the 1980s and 90s:
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings Percussion Celesta, Bluebeard’s Castle, Violin Concerto no. 1.
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (both parts sometimes), Harold in Italy (sometimes), Invitation to the Dance; his parts are also good for practicing sight-reading.
Britten: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (always), Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes.
Debussy: La Mer, Prelude de l’Apres-Midi d’un Faune, Nocturnes, Iberia.
Faure: Pelleas et Melisande Sicilienne.
Ginastera: Variaciones Concertantes, Pampeana no. 3
Hanson: Romantic Symphony
Mahler: anything
Moussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto
Ravel: anything, esp. Tzigane, Rhapsodie Espagnol, Ma Mere l’Oye
Rimsky-Korsakov: always Capriccio Espagnol, Scheherazade
Sibelius: Symphony no. 1
Strauss: Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, Ein Heldenleben, Salome’s Dance.
Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet,
Wagner: anything, especially Liebestod, and Magic Fire Music.
If it is an opera or ballet orchestra, then there is special repertoire.
A festival will also have special repertoire.
There is often sightreading. That may mean a part that has only SOME of the pedals marked.
They also commonly ask for concerti: Debussy Danses, Handel Concerto, Ravel Introduction and Allegro, and/or Mozart Flute-Harp Concerto, sometimes Boieldieu.
You learn a lot from the auditions you don’t win. Don’t try to guess what they are looking for, make music.
They often choose music from the upcoming season.
The exercises in the Lawrence-Salzedo Method would be the first step, unless you’ve had a lot of piano, followed by the Conditioning Exercises, and then I would add the LaRiviere, or at least its principles applied to the Conditioning Exercises. It has been said that they are the most concise and complete set of exercises for any instrument. If you have just started, you want to open and close your hands away from the harp, and you could squeeze a tennis ball to develop more strength, but its really about control.
Thank you so much, Peter. This is a dream come true. You have uploaded about a dozen songs recorded by Casper Reardon, not just the Suesse Suite. Did he also perform the En Bateau?
I can’t imagine swithcing to a computer. It will open up a whole new world of complications, seems to me. How long does the battery last? How do you turn pages? What if it fails? Doesn’t seem reliable to me. I would spend the money on a multifunction printer with an 11×17 flat bed screening area so you can photocopy music as needed to solve page turns.
