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I first discovered the use of BB from a musicians trade magazine. I can sing, dance and speak in front of a crowd but put me at the harp and I shake uncontrollably! BBs took care of that problem. Years later, I read a book titled “Power Performance”, written by a harpist, and that helped a lot. I now only ever need to take 1/2 a BB to perform in stressful situations. I would recomend this drug if you do severly have trouble performing. Sometimes one just may need to become comfortable in certain playing situations only to realize that the drug is no longer needed.
I prefer the arrangement in Lucile Lawrence’s “Solos For The Harp Player.” It was transcribed by Salzedo.
The above links are “pretty good” but it is better in Carl Swanson’s book, “A Guide For Harpists.” It illustrates how to lay the harp on the floor and how to lay the harp on (3) chairs which I prefer. Also better graphics on winding the felts. I find it easier to use carpet thread that has been waxed to make the stitching easier. Its really a simple job, just follow the instructions. I was sloppy one time before a performance and the winding didn’t end on the opposite side from which I started… didn’t bother me until the next evening (at a performance with a vocal soloist with a sold out audience of 1,700), during a dramatic pause in the song from Oliver, “Where Is Love,” my E pedal slipped from natural to sharp! It was loud and yes, there was a boom mic at the base of the harp! I will never forget the GLARE from conductor Tim Seelig because the harp was 6 feet away from him, in the front of the choir and orchestra! LIKE I DID THIS ON PURPOSE! LOL! Fixed the problem that night and everything was perfect for the next night’s performance.
I am another pedal harpist weighing in here. I’ve never used fluorocarbon but do use nylon and gut on my harp. I find that the nylon is higher maintenance. While I rarely have a break in nylon, they lose tone and wear out faster than gut in the top 2-3 octaves. Those of you that have nylon that have been on for over a year, try this: tune your harp in flats. Now, put it in natural position and check the tuning. Now put it in sharps and check the tuning. If you’re getting different readings it’s probably because the nylons are worn where the disc pins contact the harp (lever blades can cause the same thing). Changing the nylons every 6 months has worked well for me in this, keeping the regulation even. When the guts start to wear out in this manner, they simply break. Nylons are also a pain to tune! They take forever to hold a pitch and they don’t require as much turning when tuning (I don’t know how to word this, sometimes it takes a few minutes to BARELY turn the pin as the difference between being 4 cents sharp and in tune is literally a breath!)
I use nylon in the top 3 octaves (00G- 3F) because they carry better. I do like the sound of gut in the upper register, but in the case of my harp the sound wasn’t carrying through the orchestra.
All strings should be replaced after a period. They all eventually loose quality as they age even though they may or may not break.Marsha,
Have you tried contacting David Williams? Williams harp gallery is about 20 minutes south of Dallas (Oak Leaf, TX).Dear Elizabeth, of course it looks simple to you. You are an accomplished orchestral harpist. It looks simple enough to me as well as Carl I’m sure. But this question was posed to the “typical harpist.” While the few measures looked simple to me, I sighed at the thought of having to once again re-write a piece. We don’t know what the rest of the piece looks like, only what has been shown. You are right, any professional harpist will be able to figure it out. Some of us would just like for others (especially conductors) to realize that the harp is not a piano. Is that fair that we harpists have to do this and the rest of the ensemble don’t? The simple editing that he has done so far is greatly appreciated and it gives the harpist more time to spend playing the piece rather than editing.
Musch easier to read this way, but as I sat to play these four measures, it was difficult to play the last note of measure 1 with the third finger and grab the first note of measure 2 with the fourth finger (I do have small hands). The rest was fine. For that particular spot, I would play the last last beat of measure 1 as RH-1,2,3,4 LH-1,2 picking up first beat of measure 2 with 4th finger. Re arranging from piano to harp isn’t always as easy as putting the notes into groupings like this but I appreciate your attempt! If you will be working with an orchestral harpist, they can make the adjustments from this point if the rest of the piece is consistent with what you have shown us so far. Perhaps when this piece is performed, you could ask the harpist if you could have a copy of their markings and save them. Good job!
I feel you’re not getting the answer that you want because (fine, I’ll say it here) most of us hate being given a piano part to rewrite! It’s bad enough that composers like Wagner, Vaughan-Williams, Richard Strauss, Berlioz, Elgar, and so many more did this to us. It isn’t that the notes aren’t playable, we have to rewrite the groupings. This involves getting out the white-out and a pencil before you finish with ink, then preferably doing a finished copy in Finale so that you aren’t playing off a hen-scratched copy.This takes up a lot of valuable time.
So to answer one of your questions, yes a competent harpist could work this out. However, a “typical harpist” is not necessarily a “competent harpist”.
Yes Caroline, the L&H polish is good for all wooden parts of the harp. All of our harps (and I hope this doesn’t start an argument) have a finish on them,a varnish if you will, that keeps the wood protected. Even “natural finish” harps have this top coat. That is what we are cleaning with this polish. Saul is right about what the black gunk is. Oil gets trapped on the harp from your wrists, hand and arms, then dirt builds up on it. I used a micro fiber cloth that was just barely damp,followed by the polish. That did the job. I would be afraid that even a “touch” of soap would need to be washed off else it would leave a film that could attract dirt and dust as well.
I did a quick Emin gliss then listened to this. It sounds right. Perhaps maybe you would want to try an Emin7? That would be D, C flat, B, E, F flat G, A.
Yeah, I think I went a good 10 years without really cleaning my pedal harp. One evening at rehearsal I noticed the “black gunk” in the same area on the soundboard. I used a microfiber cloth and some of the bottled water from my gig bag and cleansed it off. It took a little elbow grease! It was even on the other side of the soundboard where my left wrist would come in contact sometimes. Ewww! I now wipe the harp down at least once a week (and vacuum the carvings with the brush attachment) and use the L&H polish once a year when I change the strings. Have fun!
Look again, there is an extra measure in YK’s Ave Maria.This is in YK’s Christmas Collection. Also in orchestral scores. Prelude in C is a different piece (because of this measure).
You can put a small rug down, and some of the pet hair will accumulate on the edge of the rug, rather than under the harp. But it still gets under there, it’s just that the pet hair is camouflaged by the rug. Vacuuming the floors twice a week is the best way to keep your floors clean. If you don’t want to move the harp to vacuum under it I suppose you can to the lazy fix by giving one quick shot of canned air (used to clean computer keyboards.)
