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Oil will spoil a string that is not conditioned to accept it, in my experience. If it suits a Bow string, then okay. Pirastro has strings made to be oiled. Fraying means a string is beginning to wear out, but as long as the pitch is true, snip off the strands with a cosmetic scissor or razor, very carefully. Do not pull them.
I don’t know what they are playing, but Dewey Owens’s first edition can be riveting. It is a grand piece of work. Not everyone is up to it. I heard several people perform it. But I think I have to agree, it will never truly rival a fine violinist. Or will it?
Yes, sometimes for amusement. Many former students of Lucile Lawrence have it in their concert repertoire.
The best way I’ve seen yet comes from Virginia Flanagan. You position the harp at the gate/back door/flap, sideways. Get between the harp and the car and lay it on your lap. Then you can slide out from under the harp and gently transfer its weight onto the car. You then have to lift up the base and slide the harp into the car. So, you need a surface on which it can slide. You can lay a mattress on top of a plastic sheet, or put a plastic cover on your mattress. The harp needs to lay on its side so it is fully supported all the way around the frame, and fully cushioned from the bumps and shakes of driving. Do not skimp on padding. The padded cover is not enough. You can get a large piece of foam rubber to put on the plastic or plywood sheet that you slide in and out of the car. Do not slide the harp in and out with only the cover to protect it. You may damage the wood and the cover. Carpeting is not enough. You can use many cushions or pillows, but that is messy. I think you would need at least two layers of exercise mats, but I think they are not enough protection.
You got your money’s worth. It will make a nice display piece. Reconstructing it will cost thousands.
Follow the piano sounds to me like they wanted you to play after the piano stops, which would mean waiting for a solo, no?
To me, the best programs provide at least four, and up to eight weeks of continuous, intensive study. It takes at least six weeks to learn a new piece. There are only a small number of such programs, but there might be a few teachers who have more than one program that would add up to six weeks.
It is true that focusing solely on technique does not help musicianship, but believe me, any serious musician works very hard on their playing. Technique is the tool of expression.
A sense of style is essential to good musicianship, as is a good understanding of ornaments. One’s classical music should sound classical and not romantic, French should sound French, Russian should sound Russian, etcetera. It is much more than good or great technique. It is also having something deep to express through music, or rather, to express what is in the music deeply, because it is not self-expression.
A good musician has a sensitive ear. A good musician plays lyrically, with color and contrasts. A good musician uses technique to musical effect.
Playing musically is more than making it “pretty.” Its more than playing nicely. It takes courage, and thought, and delving deep.
And, so, you want to make your accompaniments supportive in role, complementary, not competing for attention. It’s just like the difference in listening to a singer accompanied by a solo pianist or an accompanist. The approach and sensitivity are different.
One exercise is to practice moving your eyeballs, but not your head. What is most distracting is the head movement. If your eyelids are half-closed, it would also be less noticable. Another technique would be to arrange your accompaniments so that once you are placed on the strings, you never leave them, so everything is connected and placeable.
One has to know the harp extremely well to really judge pieces for their suitability. It takes years to fully understand not only the sound of the harp and what it can do well, but to understand other instruments and what is lost in transcription. There are many pieces where the notes are physically possible, but not esthetically. In student years, it is easy to be led down a rosy path of misdirection, and it is for that reason it is most important to study thoroughly the masterpieces and standard literature that suit the harp well. If I had not had strong guidance in this, I would have terrible taste in transcriptions! Sometimes a piece may be perfectly suited to the harp, such as Chopin’s Minute Waltz, but what audience wants to hear it on the harp when they are used to fantastic pianists playing it? Plus, the piano is so much smoother. It is also far more work to play such pieces on the harp than on the piano, so we should choose wisely, as our time is more limited than we think.
There are pieces that are very instructive, to compare the transcription to the original. Compare the Salzedo transcription of the Pescetti Sonata to the original and you will be surprised. A thorough study of his transcriptions is essential to developing a wise approach to transcription.
Another example of superb work is Dewey Owens’s first edition of the Bach Chaconne.
