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I have done it with a trunk. You have to make sure what kind of aircraft is being used and that the freight door is large enough for the trunk to get in. The problem is in the local transfer people who pick it up and drop it off. If you can deliver it to the airport and pick it up, it is better, but they may not allow it.
That’s why we desperately need a network of concert-quality harps available for performance use in all major cities.
I don’t think we should assume people leave for negative reasons. It’s just as likely that they have become too busy. And there are so many, many more who read these forums than who post anything.
It’s also amusing how so many people who consider themselves devotees, call it the “Grandjanay” method. Salzedo and certainly his disciples did promote his method aggressively. He was very astute at promotion. It was a missionary zeal, born of real faith and belief in his vision and teachings. That is why it has lasted and is so concrete. But, yes, it was very French, and all of his texts were bilingual, though I have always wondered how many French harpists read them. The idea of launching a new, separate school is part of French teaching in general. The book, French Pianism, is very enlightening in this regard, and there are many more schools of French pianism than harpism, though there are many parallels between them.
She also worked with an expert, and chose the ornaments very carefully, to be both stylish, audible and playable on the harp. I found very little needing change in my revision. It is easy to look at a chart on paper and say all these notes need to be fitted in as a compound trill, but it is another thing to do it in terms of playing a modern harp. If one is going to make changes, I think one should do the whole job. It is fun, after all.
The harpists I know of who have performed it are Marcella DeCray, Nina Kellman, and Alice Giles, whom, I believed, worked on it with the composer. I looked at it, and it seems to me that it can be written in traditional rhythmic notation, and would, then, cease to be mysterious and be rather playable.
I was thinking of the nylon strings, back in the day of red and green strings, that had a banded surface for the low-register strings. Perhaps they were not wound, after all.
There are several French methods from the early 20th century. I believe Grandjany studied with Renie and probably used her method, along with his own material. There are also the Jamet, Salzedo and other methods. Do we have a complete list of methods?
You might write an interesting thesis on Sam Milligan’s design and introduction of the Troubador harp for Lyon & Healy, which set off many sparks in the harp world.
