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Are the strings squeaking on the forks, your fingers or somewhere else? Have you tried the slightest bit of oil? Oiled gut strings are what predated varnish so I wouldn’t worry about damaging them. Get your fingers just a little oily and rub it on and try playing when your hands aren’t too clean and dry.
What is the humidity in your harp room?
How often will you be taking your harp in and out? Much cheaper than a lift would be a steep ramp and a hand winch, though personally I would probably just go for steps.
Another random thought- but do you wear heels? Not for walking in – for pedalling. Some people find they really help, and they might suit you with the higher bench.
If it is useful data, my benches are 22 to 23 inches high once the foam is squashed down. This is to play an L&H85CG and I am just tall enough to claim 5’4″. This puts my eye on level with the top of the top C string which I have seen recommended as a rule of thumb, by Mildred Dilling, I think.
As above- it depends on the temperature the car will be at (midwinter or blazing sun = no) and also on what your insurance says, being in the garage may be good for this. I have done this quite frequently.
Hi Mia,
I really doubt your harps are too big as I have seen some really small people play huge harps, but you may not be playing with the right posture for you. I was taught to have no weight from the harp on my shoulder at all. I can lean back on my seat and the harp stays where it is. This is because the long leg bones are much stronger and better to take the load than the stacked up vertabrae of the spine. Also if you hold your harp very close to the balance point where it is neither tipping forward or back there is very little weight on you. I find sitting high helps me get this position.As well as the problem of the harp resting on you, if you sit higher you don’t need to raise your arms so high which you may find more comfortable. So really I am just saying as Gretchen, maybe raise your bench a bit, but with a lot more words!
I would just add that these strings, 2 octaves light, are recomended only for a harp in good, repaired condition. If the glue has failed, there is woodworm, or even the wood has dried out too much and shrunk away from the screws the harp could look excellent, but be too weak for the tension of even thin strings. It is over 200 years old!
I haven’t yet used most of the spare BB strings I bought recently so realise it would be a good idea to label the packets just incase I do have a duff one in there. (Hi Bonnie, I don’t have anything to add UK wise.)
As for the string choices, my pedal harp only has one Savarez KF on it – the 5th A was just a bit too tubby for my preference, but I didn’t want to go as bright as wire, which some harpists use. I attribute a lot of this to the thickness of the string, which makes it stiffer to bend and is why low monofilament nylon sounds so dire.
If it is still missing its tuning pins it clearly has not been restored to playing order and I would not trust ‘it looks strong’. What are you working on this harp for? If you want it playable I strongly suggest that you have it assessed by someone who knows harps and can determine if it is safe to string it. Old harps being pulled apart is a real and genuine risk. Salvi harps are in Italy and the experts who work on the Salvi Museum collection could probably help. The mechanism probably also wants work – the old oil will probably have gone hard. Please note that putting brass polish on the mechanism is also very dangerous.
If you want a harp for aesthetics you can restring it with very thin strings not to tension more cheaply than proper gut.
Thicknesses are on Howard Bryan’s website (in INCHES) – as is a cautionary photo http://hbryan.com/antique-harp-qa/ For an early 19th century harp he suggests 2 octaves light- make sure you are working off the right column of the table.
The box where we type replies still has a rather small font, is it one which is the same point size but looks tiny? It is also a font I don’t like – if it were up to me I would suggest a change to Georgia. Much more harpy.
Philippa, for fff glisses you might want to try these: http://www.petitepig.com/PetitePigAccesoriesPage.html
tu tu piccolo Iddio is the very end of Butterfly so easy to find in the score – half a dozen chords and some octaves. The other two are more worth looking at and are on the NY Phil site I linked to above.
It depends on the orchestra, and how much I jump up and down demanding, but I will say taking up orchestral playing was very good for my sightreading. I think it may also depend where you are: British orchestras have a reputation for sightreading. If the parts are only coming from the hire library a week before and it is in copyright there isn’t all that much you can do, though a good library may have a score. Do you have plenty of time to learn the part between the first rehearsal and concert?
For works that are out of copyright, especially standard works, you can increasingly often find the parts on http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Composers
Also, it isn’t the easiest to use website and no printing but you can pinch pedal markings from here: http://archives.nyphil.org/
White gloves are not usually advised for handling most papers – they snag, lower dexterity and get dirty. If you want to know more see: http://archive.ifla.org/VI/4/news/ipnn37.pdf
