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I realized we may not be talking about the same editions of the Handel, which would also make a difference.
A lovely harp, thank you for sharing photos, I never seem to get tired of looking at such lovely instruments.
What has been really interesting
Christmas brought me my own harp to tune, after not having tuned it for more than two months due to travel : )
I also know some harpests, but I won’t name names.
We have seen some threads here about harpets already. Harpits would be opera, show or ballet players, always in the pits.
In Russia, are we arfers? Arfa, arfa.
Harper is a traditional name for one who plays a harp, meaning a folk harp or renaissance, medieval harp, anything preclassical. It goes way, way back.
Any classical harp player is a harpist, for certain. But, if they were playing a lever harp at a fair, you could call them a harper. Just don’t call me a harpo.
I know a superb, dedicated harpist who wore ten-dollar stilletoes bought in Times Square, with plastic strapping over the toes with dice on them. Very Vegas. But she was performing at Avery Fisher Hall. Her bad taste had no reflection in her dedication. Fortunately, no one could see the toes from the audience, and she could lay the heels down flat along the floor to pedal, oddly enough. The effect was glamorous. And so was the performance. You could never assume the musical behavior in a lesson would determine how a student would dress. Not here. You haven’t a clue, even if they dress nicely for lessons, you don’t see what they wear elsewhere.
I could almost bear a student wearing nail polish, but when it was still on the next week, chipped and scraped off, it was all I could do to keep from getting the nail polish remover out. Fortunately, it was all gone the next week.
I think of it as intention and dynamic energy. You are bringing up energy from your center, and as it moves through your back and shoulders and down through your arms, you lean into the harp and channel that force into your very fingertip, so it takes very little tension, just a little pressure. It must be like how when a woman stands on a stiletto heel, the force transmitted through the tiny tip of it is unbelievably strong.
Well, I had to do the same to perform it. I had to spend extra time on the left hand, at least until the last month. I think it’s normal. Now, I am working up Salzedo’s Variations, and I have spent years working it up, then putting it away again. This time I can see it through, I think. Was it worth it? Well… I was actually trying to finish Ballade this year, finally, and the Variations perked up and said, do us first. So I am. I think. They’re not quite as taxing as Flight, which I did last year. Is any of it worth it? If it isn’t, then it isn’t worth it to perform, period. You have to believe that, or there’s no point in going on. It’s hard enough to have faith in what we do. I only do it now because I know I might not be able to in ten more years or less. Although, I do hope to make my Carnegie Hall debut by the time I’m 90, like Horczowski, but with medical advances, it may come to be. That said, the Handel was not written for harp, and that’s sometimes the trouble with transcriptions. At least with pieces by people like Salzedo or myself, you hopefully think it must be possible to pull it off.
There are advanced lever harp original solos, not a lot, perhaps, but at least several. Please show what falls into what levels, and what association you are referrring to.
I used to have this problem but I have had quite a bit of luck using Burt’s Bees Hand Salve- a Farmers Friend. I put it on in the morning and at night when I go to bed.
At times I have also used as a suppliment to the hand salve, Dermans antifungal cream.
