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I finished college and realized I did not really know how to play yet, so I went to study with Lucile Lawrence. After ten years of playing, I remember being really impressed with myself and how advanced I was. Ten years later, I thought the same thing, and laughed at myself ten years earlier. I think when I have been playing 50 years, I’ll have finally figured it all out.
The best and most concise, constructive method book I have seen is the Method for the Harp by Lucile Lawrence and Carlos Salzedo. It is preceded by Pathfinder Studies for the Harp and the ABC of Harp Playing. The Method has instructive photos for position, and gives basic exercises to build strength and coordination, and then a series of pieces to develop musicianship, culminating in the famous Chanson dans la Nuit. Before this method was published, the Universal Method of Bochsa was most commonly used, and is still useful in many ways, having 30 fairly basic one-page etudes. But if you don’t have time for etudes, there is much repertoire that works perfectly well as an etude. Several pieces in Lawrence’s Solos for the Harp Player serve that purpose quite well. The two pieces by Rameau, the Arabesque by Debussy, the Giga by Corelli, the Pavane, and the first Prelude by Srebotnjak at the end. Nadermans Seven Progressive Sonatas are both etudes and solos.
The piano version is not the original harp part. There is an earlier version, Legende for harp and orchestra, but the part seems the same.
I hope it will be reprinted soon. It is vital for any student or orchestral harpist. Actually, any harpist, as it has very important fingering formulas in it.
If you want to practice like that, then you need a daily lesson. Or record your lessons so you can review them at home. You are definitely not going to progress very much at 15 minutes a day. Expand that by five minutes a day until you are playing at least an hour. If you want to improve.
Walter Pfeil outfitted one of his harps with lighting along the neck. Useful, but risky. Do you really want anything electric or powered touching your instrument? Especially with lithium batteries? I don’t think so.
I like the Manhasset stand lights, but mine keeps popping off when I turn pages or bump into it, perhaps because I have it on a Hamilton stand.I received another message saying someone wanted to donate a baby grand piano to me or my festival, but the name of the person belonged to someone in New Orleans, so I figure it was also a scam.
It is musically and technically challenging, on a par with the Danses Sacree et Profane but longer. There are very helpful markings by Carlos Salzedo, if you can find them. But the real question is, do you have a string quartet on hand? If so, you might try Glanville-Hicks Concertino Antico, Paul White’s Sea Chanty, and Reynaldo Hahn’s Prelude, Rigaudon and Valse (sic.).
Sean Connery’s character gives a lecture following a harp recital at a ladies club, not by Gerald Goodman, but by a man who is unidentified, even though he has another scene giving a lesson.
I would bet it’s in the contract and different with each orchestra. If they own a harp, then I would expect they would reimburse the harpist for strings or maintain a supply.
The overture to Die Meistersinger is all chords on one page. I think it was the first part I ever learned.
