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Sam, I don’t know if you can provide more information. Can you? I remember thinking there were two harpists, that there was a slight change in appearance between seasons, so perhaps there was one harpist for the first year or two and then another, both brunettes.
Were these errors corrected at some point?
It is such a great piece, I can’t think of a single note that sounds wrong.
Lots of foreign harpists, not immigrants, have taken orchestral jobs here, but we do not have equal access to auditions in other countries, or so it used to be, so it is a valid point of view.
There is a review in the New York Times of a performance of the Hindemith Sonata by Heidi Lehwalder, which you should be able to find in their archives. It was on a program she did with Paula Robison, flutist. Heidi used the Salzedo editing. I was there. It was an outstanding performance.
One harpist said my performance of it on my master’s recital was the best she had heard, except for Kathleen Bride. It was a great compliment, but I naturally wanted her to say it was better, but she wouldn’t. I will finally perform it again this fall, and we will see how I do it now. I think I last performed it in 1988. It is one of my favorite pieces.I have a translation. It goes something like this:
Bequest
by L. H. Christian HoltyFriends, when I am dead,
Hang up the little harp behind the altar
Where the funeral wreaths
Of many a dead maiden glimmer.
The sexton will then kindly
Show the little harp to visitors
And rustle the red ribbon
That is tied to the harp and
Twined among its golden strings.
“Oft,” he’ll say wonderingly,
“in the sunset the strings sound softly by themselves,
like the hum of bees.
The children, drawn here from the churchyard,
Have heard it and seen
How the wreaths quivered.”Translation copyright 2011, Saul Davis, all rights reserved
The poem reflects a practice in olden times of hanging wreaths. There is a breeze at sunset that would cause the strings to sound, like an aeolian harp.
The harmonics are written where they are played. If you are inclined, you should get Salzedo’s markings from someone, as they are an excellent guide to interpreting this piece. Some chords are not broken, but most are, as they need to be on the harp, so that the listener can clearly distinguish the interior notes. It is also more rhythmic and flowing. Chords are not broken on the harp for romantic reasons, but acoustic. The practice of breaking chords goes back to the baroque period, predates the romantic era, and there is no reason to think flat chords are more modern. Salzedo himself, the quintessential modernist, said that all chords on the harp should be broken unless marked otherwise.
Tempos, as well as dynamics, are relative. To Hindemith, 60 was an ideal Sehr Langsam, so the movement is not moribund, but flows as if sung. In fact, the text of the poem can be perfectly underlaid the music so that it could be sung. When played at a funereal tempo, the notes don’t sustain long enough to keep the momentum going. It is not a molto adagio, I don’t think. I’ve heard it that way and don’t like it. Also, you have to watch the subdivisions and meter changes (hemiolas) very carefully. The beat remains the same throughout, so the subdivisions and triplets actually accelerate. The program that Hindemith wrote to accompany the piece is very pictorial, and for me, ruins it. To me, it is a depiction of what he was experiencing in 1939, a terrible time.That’s not the royal harp that was made when Catrin Finch was the royal harpist. This one is strikingly elegant, and do you know that it is a Salvi?
Jane Doe has retired from playing weddings, due to the backt-stabbing wounds she continually suffered, she tells me.
Is some of this due to “mean girl” behavior?
I think when someone is starting out, they really need guidance from others on how to do things the right way, and why, because they just don’t know better. I also think it would be wise to feed a little work to someone who is hungry in such a way as to keep them off your back, too.
I always start tuning on Fb or Bb, because if you start on Cb, you end up at Bb still needing to do Fb, and you have to go through that nasty tritone. I also find Fs harder to tune than any other note. It seems to be an acoustic property of a harp. The problem with going by ear, for me, is that what sounds right is off, a little or a lot, so the tuner is more reliable, unfortunately. And I will progressively increase the stretch until it is obviously overdone, then have to pull it back.
