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I would add a point which doesn’t directly concern unplayability, but which makes a work for harp sound great or disasterous…. I’m referring to the overtones… One of the main reasons I dislike playing Classical works… especially the type of continous patterned base accompaniament (not necessarily Alberti base) but with no place to damp anystrings, and the melody flowing above… by the end of a phrase you get all Tonic, Subdominant, Dominant and Supermediant, just to give a clean example sounding in each other…which makes it sound quite ugly in my mind as colourwise.
As for other instruments, I am not familiar with violin harmonics but guitar harmonics are written where played, and next to piano music guitar music is probably the second most prolific written music in the Western world. If consistency in notation were ever to come about I would think it would model itself after what are currently the most prolific forms of written music.
Professionally, I’m a flutist.
When I first wanted a harp I thought making one would give me an extra connection….LOL! I should have realised I’m not a woodworker. I ordered the entire kit including strings and made up the pillar and neck before putting it aside never to touch again. 2 years later I sold the kit including the spruce I had purchased for the soundboard for a very good price (to a hobby harpmaker)
Hola a Todos, mi nombre es Galaxia Zambrano, soy la creadora del un
Hehhe… well Glenna, I don’t know on which part of Earth you live, or the culture you were brought up in… But I have no problem with expressing my personal likings… I spend 10 hours of my day locked up in my study room, when I’m home, so I feel I have the right to make the room warm enough for me to stay such long hours…. And between… I see no reason for all this fuss…In Malta religion, is a very important matter, and its obligatory to study at school till aged 16… however one of the early books these kids get at school has a very prominent picture of The Creation (from Cappella Sistina if I remember right)… its part of a religion book, given to 11 year olds…. but I never heard or read
I don’t want to offend anyone who has written in this section but I do feel that the issue of the art print and sculpture is important and that a couple things have been overlooked. If the woman had entered a private part of the house and been offended, that would have been out of line. As it is, she entered the area where her daughter was being taught and where you teach, even if it’s in your home, is not a private area anymore. I completely understand being irritated at someone’s conservative view point on this matter but I also understand that the woman in question has a right to raise her daughter the way she wants to and if you are going to teach students under the age of 18 you are going to have to respect the idea that parents have that right. It is very important to me that I respect the rights parents have to raise their children so I try not to make unnecessary comments about religion or politics, or about my personal life or romantic life and I extend this to what ideas and objects are in my studio. Some of the things I have mentioned come from what other people have done, like discussing their relationships with students, likening certain musical things with physical things, etc. Others though are directly applicable to this issue. Again I am not agreeing with the woman who was offended but I really think that you need to respect the parents’ interests. If you don’t see this from what I am saying, then at least recognize that if you don’t respect the parents’ rights to parent, you cannot expect them to respect your right to teach. I don’t expose my students to things I think their parents might object to, no matter what my personal opinion is, and in return I expect to have compliance when I ask students to practice a certain amount a day, when I ask them to do a performance or to participate in a masterclass, and when I ask them to not volunteer for a certain performance because they’re not ready. When teaching students under 18, you must have this balance of respect and really in any situation there should be this balance of respect.
I don’t have any horror stories I can comfortably share because I would feel terrible if one of my students recognized themselves in the story but I can say that the funniest thing happened with one of my first students; I was teaching in a school with very old harp equipment and while I was trying to be very serious and was talking about the importance of some harp thing or other, a screw flew out of the stool I was sitting on and I suddenly found myself on the floor in mid-sentence. Luckily my student thought it was hilarious and I didn’t get hurt. I should probably also mention that I’m about 100 pounds so this was really truly due to old equipment and not to my size although it’s the second time something like that has happened to a harp seat I was sitting on.
My worst experience with students (and their parents really) happened last December… I had one of my students over for her lessons, and when her mum came to pick her up at the end of the lesson, being Christmas time, I invited her into my place for a whisky.
Well… I was just taking a point from your post and sharing my view on the subject in matter… If you took it personally, it wasn’t on my agenda.
Dear Esmeralda,
Yes, I know what you mean – you cannot divorce the music from the composer – it’s like taking it out of context of the period. I didn’t quite mean the way it came out…I suppose I was being defensive about Salzedo method. I find that quite often harpists will attack Salzedo’s music, technique and ideas based on what his personality was like. And also use this to attack Salzedo players themselves, now, today. And I sometimes get a little irritated by all the Salzedo bashing….
Personally I prefer when harmonics are written where performed, I would rather have my mind reading the note I have to perform and then just focus on plucking it in a different manner, rather than having to think of shifting octaves too
However i’m worried regarding two particular posts… One my Carl… you said… we’re loooooooooosing history…. Pardon me???? when do we have to stay conservatively blocked in history… there were times, where harps didn’t have pedals, and we moved on… there were times where music was chant, then all tonal… now we’ve moved to atonality, 12 note music and a million other structure, its all history, we appreciate it, understand the ability of composers and musicians of the eras, understand their influences and their aim of writing their music, but move on… I don’t agree with the idea of losing history, we are living in our era, not others, and if its time for change, we should go on with it.
Someone said, sorry am forgetting the names that Salzedo presented something to the world and kind of asked the world to follow his ideas… no way… If you don’t like the idea… trash it.. full stop, all you have to do is buy editions that notate harmonics where they are performed and just move on… nobody can impose anything on anyone, and its only the losers who follow, and not make up their own mind on a subjuct.
Rosemarie said that she didn’t care less regarding Salzedo (or any other composers for the argument’s sake) ego or naughtiness as you’re calling it… I think that’s a deadly mistake. Try performing works by what you’re calling naughty composers in a virgin manner, and check whether you end up with a total *%)$$_)^
I have to bring this thred up again cause of something which happened with one of my students lately… When teaching a concerto, do you just teach the concerto, or do you go round it first, as to style and era… I’ll give a clear example… One of my piano students, came up with a major work by Messian which she whised to present as part of her final diploma… I said it was no problem cause she had the technical ability and musical maturity to do it… but she was shocked when I took the score away from the music stand and put it in the cupboard, and instead put on the desk works by Debussy, Satie and a couple of other contemporaries… She tought it was a bit of a joke.. but when I explained that first we have to go around the people who came before Messian, to then understand better his influences and derevations, as well as noticing his differences from his prior, she was a bit shocked, cause all she was ready to do was to work on the Messian and just over.
