Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Perhaps you can help them relate it to the tension of the string: pushing down makes more tension and requires more effort, letting the pedal up releases tension and opens the string.
It’s not a harp movie, but the funniest musician’s story ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVC_CiZdzY0
Use this link instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64o6s8PmnoE
If you have clarity and musicality, fast playing doesn’t necessarily sound fast. It is easy to judge too hastily. While one is tempted to focus on the right hand, the left hand is of vital importance to Whirlwind.
Non-profit organizations are businesses, like any other, especially ones that are in promotion, and to expect free services or
On a good day, me. Lucile Lawrence. Carlos Salzedo. Heidi Lehwalder, I’m sure. Alice Giles, I would think. You’d be surprised what is possible. Flight at 152 is possible.
I am interested in research to a degree, but not to a dma degree or phd. I am more of a performer-detective. Marin’s music is coming online, not that I have found it exciting. Dalvimare is one of the best of the harpist-composers. One of the chores is wading through material to find works for piano or harp that have only been catalogued as piano music.
There don’t seem to be many harpists interested in musicology. What does that say?
As for funding, where is it?
Mirella Vita has done extraordinary work, but I don’t know how she has managed it.I think the ideal is to begin with harp. Piano thinking is different. Piano playing is different. Some people cannot fully adopt harp playing and rid themselves of the piano playing. Some are too tight from too much muscle development of the wrong kind.
Miss Lawrence was kind of dumbfounded by my desire to know so many pieces. In her day, you did not need a huge repertoire, although Florence Wightman certainly did for her radio recital series. What mattered was the quality.
But what happens if they don’t die, if they recover, or worse yet, don’t know they are dying? I think I would not reveal it in my job title.
What is a vlog?
It seems to me your preparation should be private. I don’t think you need to broadcast yourself, especially if it is in a way that cannot be controlled, or removed from the internet. I would call it overexposure. And possibly quite embarassing. A written journal might be quite interesting to some people. I just don’t like the idea of living publicly, especially for the young adults.I haven’t bought Burgundy strings for two years or so, so I don’t know how they are currently. At that time, I was finding them to be more inferior than simply having cosmetic problems, as advertised. Perhaps at that time all the strings were less true in pitch, I don’t know. I had several where the varnish shattered when I bent the string to tie the knot. That ruined the sound pretty well. It didn’t fall off, but lost its clarity and integrity. Hopefully, since Emily opened up the discussion, Bow is going to work on providing what we need, which I hope will include improved Burgundy strings.
I have published some articles on these subjects, mostly in String Notes, the Minnesota ASTA publication.
One of the key problems (aside from keys) in playing Mozart’s music on the harp is the extreme length of his phrases, sections and movements, not to mention the chromaticism. Very few advanced pieces are playable, and are not really suitable. You find more possibilities in Haydn, Benda and other composers. We don’t need to play Mozart, anyway. We have a lot of Dussek, and other classical composers. People who love Mozart want to hear it on piano, not harp.
Schubert’s music lays too low on the harp, frequently, and is too thickly written. He uses harp patterns in some pieces, particularly song accompaniments. Again, his fantasies and such are too long-winded for the harp.
Harp music is generally shorter, most solos being 10 minutes or less. Most concert pieces are 6-8 minutes in length. Fatigue is a factor.
My father commented on how harp music needs to move slower because it takes longer for the notes to register in the ear, there is not the clarity other instruments have. That is perhaps part of why we are pattern dependent in our music.
There were few professional harpists in the classical era, though many accomplished amateurs, in Paris, anyway. In the time of Berlioz, this was still a major problem.
Again, our perception of limitations has a lot to with the limitations of what has been available. J.C. Bach wrote quite a bit for harp, as did Dussek, and of course, Spohr.
Salzedo’s transcriptions of classical music are an excellent guide to how to adapt them, and what is as instructive is what he did not transcribe.
If you are a sensitive listener, then you will notice when the articulations that are necessary to a piece are not possible on the harp. A good example of this is the opening of Bach’s Italian Concerto. The only way we can separate those notes is by muffling them. And in the second movement, there are two places of chromatic conflict between the bass and melody. Therefore, I would only attempt it as a two-harp piece.
