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That reminds me of a Gloria FitzGibbons who recorded an lp of music by Zabel and Holy played at achingly slow tempi, and I do believe she kicked her stand at some point, and you can hear some page-turning rapidly happening. I think she was from Adelaide.
Myra Omaira recorded all twelve of the Granados Spanish Dances on a harp with a straight sounding board that had never been regulated, apparently, and interestingly, she tapped her heels on the floor in flamenco rhythms while playing, somehow.
And Volga Krasnydoma, a beautiful redhead, made an lp released here on Monitor of pieces by Tchaikovsky, Glinka, and a lot of other names I can’t remember, all transcriptions, topped off by Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu, at a wild tempo, but the harshest playing you could ever imagine. At the end of each piece the harp was completely out of tune.
Peter Pierce-Buckwall made an lp of music by Bax and some obscure British composers, and unfortunately, you could never tell what key he was playing in.
Sister Divine Hensworthy made an all-hymn recording I saw advertised on a Christian tv commercial. She had doves flying around as she played, singing along to herself.
The worst ad for a harpist was a four or three-named person from Georgia or somewhere who sings and plays like she is delusional. This one is real.
I’ve been listening to several collections of harpists living and dead, and some of the recordings certainly do deserve to enter the “worst” category.
Has anyone heard a popular commercial recording during which it sounds as though the music stand has fallen over the harp with a resounding, metallic crash. Subsequently there are what sound like several attempts to right the tipped stand unsuccesfully. All very audible. On the same recording, there is a pedal harp with a very loud, metallic tone, although all of the notes are correct (no percussion from dropping objects). I wish I could remember the piece but it was something quite familiar.
Can’t think why the “dropping” piece wouldn’t have been re-done though. The jacket of the CD says nothing about it being a concert performance.
One of the basic principles of figuring out what-is-the-case is acknowledging the personal biases that may determine one’s interpretation of evidence (maybe I have bad reasons for being inclined to interpret it as I do). I don’t dispute that someone may have had the experiences claimed, but I will say, as a university teacher of 37 years, that in my experience, the teachers who complain about whole groups of students are almost always those who are weak teachers. I’ve heard it all: girls/women are this-or-that, boys/men are this-or-that, foreign students are this-or-that, undergraduates are this-or-that, people who went to this sort of school are this-or-that, people who went to the other sort of school are this-or-that. But I’ve never heard someone whom I know to be a dedicated and effective teacher speak in those terms–really, never.
All of us have particular students we find irritating or can’t reach. Maybe that’s the student’s fault, but it’s at least equally possible it’s mine, the teacher’s, fault. When you can’t reach a whole group of students, it becomes less likely the problem lies with all those students; that’s when a good teacher asks ‘what could I be doing differently?’
I can’t quarrel with Mr Swanson’s claims about the students he’s had. All I can say is, as an adult learner: I didn’t start by showing my harp teacher a complicated piece and refusing to accept I couldn’t learn it right away; I didn’t refuse to learn scales, arpeggios and etudes. On the contrary, having become frustrated with the marshmallow music in the book I’d been given–tunes made up by some professional harp teacher whose compositions wouldn’t be in print if they weren’t hawked to unsuspecting beginners–I went off and bought Grossi, working through every last exercise, because at least technical exercises aren’t crap masquerading as music. I’ve never asked to learn show tunes; I’m learning harp because I’ve listened to classical music all my life (it’s people like me who buy the concert tickets and keep the classical music recording industry in business). But I have to say, as someone whose tastes run in the first instance to Palestrina, Beethoven and Stravinsky, that almost anything written by Gershwin or Cole Porter is superior to some of the rubbish in beginning harp books. If people want to learn show tunes, then it’s at least possible they could do worse (whether or not they could play those pieces is another matter, but it’s not all worthless music). Moreover a lot of the music extolled by professional harpists in these pages would be regarded with scorn by professional musicians who played anything other than harp. Scorn is cheap, though. In my experience, generosity of spirit most often goes along with breadth and depth of mind and sensibility.
As an academic, I inhabit worlds where people can be nasty and petty. I have to say that many of the posts by professional harpists in this forum routinely beat most of what I’ve heard from academics hands-down in the mean-spiritedness department. You can spend your life heaping scorn on what you despise, or you can spend it sharing your understanding and passion for the things you love. Teaching is about inspiring understanding and passion. At the risk of inviting scorn because I’m an amateur, I’d say playing music is also about inspiring understanding and passion, in both the player and the listeners.
One of the basic principles of figuring out what-is-the-case is acknowledging the personal biases that may determine one’s interpretation of evidence (maybe I have bad reasons for being inclined to interpret it as I do). I don’t dispute that someone may have had the experiences claimed, but I will say, as a university teacher of 37 years, that in my experience, the teachers who complain about whole groups of students are almost always those who are weak teachers. I’ve heard it all: girls/women are this-or-that, boys/men are this-or-that, foreign students are this-or-that, undergraduates are this-or-that, people who went to this sort of school are this-or-that, people who went to the other sort of school are this-or-that. But I’ve never heard someone whom I know to be a dedicated and effective teacher speak in those terms–really, never.
All of us have particular students we find irritating or can’t reach. Maybe that’s the student’s fault, but it’s at least equally possible it’s mine, the teacher’s, fault. When you can’t reach a whole group of students, it becomes less likely the problem lies with all those students; that’s when a good teacher asks ‘what could I be doing differently?’
I can’t quarrel with Mr Swanson’s claims about the students he’s had. All I can say is, as an adult learner: I didn’t start by showing my harp teacher a complicated piece and refusing to accept I couldn’t learn it right away; I didn’t refuse to learn scales, arpeggios and etudes. On the contrary, having become frustrated with the marshmallow music in the book I’d been given–tunes made up by some professional harp teacher whose compositions wouldn’t be in print if they weren’t hawked to unsuspecting beginners–I went off and bought Grossi, working through every last exercise, because at least technical exercises aren’t crap masquerading as music. I’ve never asked to learn show tunes; I’m learning harp because I’ve listened to classical music all my life (it’s people like me who buy the concert tickets and keep the classical music recording industry in business). But I have to say, as someone whose tastes run in the first instance to Palestrina, Beethoven and Stravinsky, that almost anything written by Gershwin or Cole Porter is superior to some of the rubbish in beginning harp books. If people want to learn show tunes, then it’s at least possible they could do worse (whether or not they could play those pieces is another matter, but it’s not all worthless music). Moreover a lot of the music extolled by professional harpists in these pages would be regarded with scorn by professional musicians who played anything other than harp. Scorn is cheap, though. In my experience, generosity of spirit most often goes along with breadth and depth of mind and sensibility.
As an academic, I inhabit worlds where people can be nasty and petty. I have to say that many of the posts by professional harpists in this forum routinely beat most of what I’ve heard from academics hands-down in the mean-spiritedness department. You can spend your life heaping scorn on what you despise, or you can spend it sharing your understanding and passion for the things you love. Teaching is about inspiring understanding and passion. At the risk of inviting scorn because I’m an amateur, I’d say playing music is also about inspiring understanding and passion, in both the player and the listeners.
Boy, is this therapeutic to read!
I lived one today, trying to get my harp back into my building, and this stream of 6 or 7 guys, young stockbroker types, couldn’t get to their pizza fast enough and were stepping over my harp to get in, they couldn’t wait! Unbelievable. Then the guy helping me got turned around and stepped over it himself.
I have many recurring nightmares. One involved being called in by the Met to play a rehearsal at Carnegie Hall/Radio City Music Hall, the two being conjoined, and of course I have no music, perhaps no harp. The Philadelphia version is being called by Edna Phillips or Marilyn Costello to sub for them at the Philadelphia Orchestra in some old auditorium, and I get there, and maybe I have music, maybe not, it’s usually Wagner, so I am protesting all the time, then they give me a square harp to play, or some other weird construction. I know that if I ever see the full Salvi collection and find all those harps in there, something bad must be going to happen, because I am anticipating it years in advance. Maybe I’ll trip and knock one over and it will cause them all to fall over like dominoes, the whole roomful!
I have about 25% of what I would need to get there. I know a cheap place to stay, but I know I can’t go without buying at least $300 worth of music. That’s the best part, but I want to be with everyone so much. The airfares are around $700, too. I will promise to save up and attend the New York conference in 2012. 2010 will be in Tacoma again, which I might be able to go to, because I have enough frequent flyer miles, and if that matches with the World Harp Congress, then for sure.
Many labels simply remove recording costs from royalty payments, so the artist do still pay the costs. As for t-shirts, I never got one, I don’t remember hearing anything about it, but it sounds like a great idea. How about if you all go to the AHS conference wearing them?
What is Glissando, a
Hello Leigh,
Finally, finally my harp has arrived !!! Strange as it may feel as it came all the way from California USA to this little cheesy place like Gouda in the Netherlands, standing there in my room.
I almost fainted when I saw it and it took a while before it ‘fitted’ in the car…but it is DIVINE !! The sound is amazing and I’m so happy with it. I am practising, tuning, practising, tuning etc. whenever I’m off work, like today. I want to play often so that the soundboard will start bellying up and the sound will mature.
I have been on your site and it must be very inspiring to play with others on a regular basis. I like your quilts too, my God you are so creative !
I do not have any pictures yet, but I will send you them as soon as I have made any.
Keep harpin’
Martine.
Hi people
I had forgotten all about this thread that I started so long ago. I don’t get much time to be
