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Try a trip to the library- the harp music bibliography by Mark
Palkovic has the dates of harp composers in the index.He lives in Wales, is setting up an International Harp Centre
there which was supposed to open this year though I haven’t
heard anything about it recently.Start your daughter off with the metronome really slow- if it is too
fast she will get out of time and frustrated, too slow and you can
speed it up.When I was starting out I played a couple of times with orchestras on a lever harp- I was just given the part for any other instrument (as there never was a harp part -double bass parts are easy) and picked out the bits I could play.
There is also the benefit to the harpist of playing in the orchestra
from early on- it is very easy as a harpist to only play solo (or
maybe small chamber groups) and then get thrown in the deep
end of following the conductor, counting rests etc.It should be Pilgrim and I started out on one- see http://www.pilgrimharps.co.uk for more details.
There is quite a lot of 19th Century music for piano and harp (the piano then was quieter and it was a good way to show off two daughters of marriagable age simultaneously)
When sightreading you go tense and problems are exacerbated but I would assume they are there all the time, even if not making a nuisance of themselves.
One thing I have noticed is harpists on average have slightly better posture than non-musicians- you *can’t* slouch or things will go wrong.
Point number one here is not to tread on the toes of the pros- if your teacher sometimes passes gigs she doesn’t want on to you she will be able to help you set your fee, and you should talk to her in any case.
If you can get hold of a copy of the ABRSM exam syllabus (ubiquitous in the UK- nearly every player, of any instrument takes these) or the equivalent for the Trinity School of Music or Guildhall- they contain lists of pieces graded by difficulty.
Rafaella- do check out your position, I am petit (5’3 7+ stone) and have no problems, and have seen smaller players.
My first teacher started most pupils with Mildred Dilling’s Old Tunes
for New Harpists which I remember enjoying
