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Carl and Catherine, I have the opus 318 edition. The etude with the descending eighths in mine is number 9. I LOVE THEM! I also have to further rescind my negative vibes about the Grossi. I now am completely addicted to pages 17 -25, and began working on all of those slide patterns (thumb sliding, 2, 3, & 4th fingers sequencing down). I wish I had started these years ago! (Being a lone-wolf-self-taught-maverick has its downside…)
Cool thread! I actually composed a piece for harp and spoken voice for a ballet about 25 years ago. It is set to Harold Monroe’s poem “Overheard on a Salt Marsh.” It’s this awesome fight between a fairy and a goblin over these beads she stole from the moon. Great stuff. Maybe I’ll turn it into a new You Tube!
A great way to hear the difference between a tightly strung harp versus an older harp is listen to both Catrin Finch’s and Sylvain Blassel’s recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. It really is amazing.
Alright, here’s my 2 cents… As I’ve posted many times here before I have one of each- a Lyon & Healy and a Salvi. It’s totally true. I love my Apollo, but I did have to replace the 1st – 3rd octave with nylon for the very reasons Carl mentioned. It was so tight my hands hurt when I practiced and performed for more than an hour. And yes– looking back I can say that I did have to overplay to compensate for the stiffness in the upper octaves. When I switched strings it solved all of those problems. I’d buy another one in a minute. I practice on the Salvi so when I switch to the L&H 15 it is a shock. I have to put out so much less energy to make it sing. Another harpist in my city summed it up well- she said that you just have to breathe on the 15 and it will play! BUT to agree with JP, I like it that way! I love them both!
I forgot to post- guess what I got for Christmas? BOTH volumes of the Bochsa etudes! I already love playing them. It’s funny to see how the drills are incorporated into such musical little pieces. Thanks for the recommendation, Carl. (I also have become completely addicted to those Grossi/Pozzoli exercises starting on page 24. I hadn’t played Debussy’s “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” in a while and was stunned at how effortless I was playing… ETUDES ROCK!)
I use a Mac lap-top (and its built in microphone) with Garage Band. I’ve recorded 2 CDs as Christmas presents for friends – they sound great and you can have all the fun you want editing and adding other instruments and sounds (especially ambient nature effects to create your own new-age meditation tracks).
Bag???!!! I use a fishing tackle box. It’s perfect. The top section has all these little compartments for tools, anchors, felt, business cards, tuning forks, anything you need! Then the large bottom section fits all the strings also in compartment according to octave. It’s like having your own mini-regulation center.
Should one face the harp toward the audience at a church/wedding situation as well? Plus this may explain a volume debacle I had: no matter how softly I played at a dinner for the president of a major company, they kept asking me to tone it down – I distinctly remember being pointed straight at the head table…
This is my 22 year teaching public elementary school, currently 2nd grade. The education profession has really facilitated my musical career, not only in time to practice and perform, but to share my love of music with a new generation of children every year.
OK, OK, I pulled out the Grossi/Pozzoli to give it another shot, and I actually did like some of the beginning exercises, especially on page 23 #48 – 50. But some of those slide passages– do you really slide your right thumb a whole scale while your left hand goes down 2-3-4-2-3-4????
