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Thank you Sarah, for all that insight. Indeed, my bedroom has 12 foot ceilings and a small recess in a wall that gives it a nice bit of echo, but there is too much ambient noise and a very tall window that would be hard to block off completely.
I would not mic close to the hands because you pick up all kinds of finger noise and attack, and that is not the sound of the harp. The best recordings I have had so far have been at least six feet away from the harp.
I would never use a click track. Music is not meant to be metronomic. For overdubbing, or studio work, that’s different.
I have a chapel to record in, just have to select an engineer now.There are many who want to be a harpist, but does the harp want them?
To be an artist of the harp requires many hours of daily practice, probably three or more by high school, the finest instruction, and five hours daily practice from age 18-35 or so, a selective repertoire—not too little, not too much, impeccably prepared and of impeccable quality; taste, discretion, I think dignity, but more than anything else, artistic sensitivity and intellectual interest. I think some harpists fall short there, they are happy to be able to play the notes and never delve any deeper. We have enough of that already. So when someone says they want to be the best, what does that mean to them? To be a Casals or a Rubinstein? To be a (fill in the name of a current harpist)? An orchestral job is a fine thing, a unique challenge that suits people oriented to ensemble playing. It used to be that being a soloist was a higher calling for a unique individual with an artistic vision. But to do it as a career now is to face the unknown. It isn’t impossible, but it does require convincing a lot of people along the way, and a lot of resources, especially financially. Unless you are young enough to get hooked into a lot of scholarship and competition opportunities.
So, it is one thing to think of yourself as a burgeoning star, it is quite another to actually be one, to do the work to become one, to have the luck to succeed, and to have the network to support it.
There are some alternatives, such as having a chamber ensemble or duo that tours. Working abroad is another.Most harpists lead a very mixed life. A small number have full-time positions with orchestras or schools. Orchestra jobs are insanely competitive. It’s a good idea to have another skill with which to make money if needed.
I think the harp and piano duos by Henri Zagwijn will be right up your alley. Alice Giles and her husband recorded one of them, “the Seasons”. There is another one called “Mystere”. Reynaldo Hahn’s “Prelude, Waltz and Rigaudon” is very chromatic, but fun.
I believe the contest was postponed during the October war. I don’t think there is any reason to assume there will be trouble now.
It’s a basic pedal harp book, but the ABC of Harp Playing by Lucile Lawrence addresses both the very basics of sightreading, by coordinating reading and string finding at the same time and the craft of reading and altering orchestra parts as needed. The Art of Modulating helps with sightreading without pedal markings by practicing chord progressions and chordal glissando finding.
http://www.pacificharpinstitute.org/docs/glissando_winter07.pdf
I think I do have a glamor photo of her somewhere, but can’t post it without her permission.
I don’t remember off-hand, but I’m sure you can find them. The main difference is that the long beginning of the slow movement’s cadenza is cut off so it begins at the harmonics.
