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Thank you Bernhard,
That post clarified a lot for me. I agree with you that it is misleading to name a string synthetic gut, when it has nothing to do with gut? My harp has bowbrand on it right now:
In my humble opinion, go out and commit to playing it, at the speed that you can play it. And just concentrate on playing it well, musically and cleanly. and you will probably find that the adrenalin will get pumping and you will come up a bit in performance anyway. And the next time you perform it in public, it will be to tempo.
So much of performance is building blocks. No one that plays a wonderful work at a dazzling speed – did it like that the first time they played it in public. They only get it up there to the dazzling heights gradually, performing it in public many many times.
I reckon that is the only way to get tricky works up to dazzling speeds in performance is to…. perform them. Accept the speed you can play it and go for it. It may be slightly under tempo, it may not be perfect, but its the only way you will get it to the stage that you are happy with it in the long run.
Just my opinion.
Curls.
Very interesting. And since mentioning the puppy, I have checked on his siblings, one was given away by the lady who got him as ‘unmanageable’ another ran away from his owner, yet ours’ is snuggly and wussy, the older dog snapped at him this evening, and although he is much bigger than her, he ran up to me, basically going “Mummy, Mummy, she snapped at me” which is better than having a dog-fight. He walks in the fields and woods with no leash and (most of the time, well, some of the time) comes when called, and will (reluctantly) curl up in the studio when I am painting and will knock the tubes of paint over, but that is what puppies do. I feel more sure that hearing me practice has helped, I also sing (hence the nickname) and I wonder if vocal excercises have any effect on animals, good or bad.
Warm regards
Christine
But who is manufacturing to order? And if all nylon are Tynex, then why are Pirastro’s of better quality? No, we must get Pirastro to make them again. It is too complicated to order strings than in a simple way.
I would think attending workshops would help, there are many for piano, always a new approach, that would probably be applicable to the harp.
Good question. I think that a graduate student who is studying musicology or composition may still be expected to have a major instrument and take lessons. I know of a top-notch school for such studies.
I can only speak to this as a university administrator…but our college of music does not offer minors
Watch this one!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAS_dKaPEmg
The funny thing is, I have heard this piece in concert many times.
My resolution for 2008 was to try to take all of this business a lot easier… or maybe just a little bit… reduce practice hours, and find a couple of more social activities where I can forget about the harp entirely and just give myself some time to chill out… otherwise I realied I would be dead by the time I’m 20…. which is only next month : )
Well to be honest, I’v already broken it on a couple of days… but Esma will always be Esma I suppose…
Just one???
Well.. the most recent dream, that practically used to haunt me every night and haunt me during the day too is of going on stage for an orchestral solo, only to find that a good number of the most needed strings are missing…. Its the same dream that I’v had everynight between 1st Nov till 22nd December.. I’m not kidding…
Generally I dream that I will take the dustcover up in the morning only to find a never ending crack, like the sign we draw for lightning, all along the length of the soundboard… but probably its just my addiction to always having my harp in shape and he fear of anything ever happening to it….
But at the end I believe dreams are a way of showing you the truth about yourself and what is going on in your life…
Anyone who teaches can write volumes about the irritations presented by students and all of us sometimes succumb to the pleasures of carping.
Aside from Salzedo’s Etudes, I have not found any sufficiently musically rewarding to be worth the precious practice time and be useful, though I might use Bochsa’s most advanced set if they fit my repertoire better. Pianists are awfully lucky to have Chopin and Debussy and so many other composers, but then, those are concert pieces more than etudes, perhaps. We do have repertoire that works well as etudes, such as Caplet’s Divertissement a la Francaise, the Faure Impromptu, concertos,
