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Liz Cifani is my inspiration to play this harp!! 🙂 The technique is
the same, it is just a perceptual adjustment. Sometimes i do place one
hand slightly early just to be sure footed since it’s not really
possible to focus
visually on both rows of strings at once. Generally the additional sympathetic
vibrations from the second row of strings hides the muffling when i
place early. Also, there is good reason to reverse the roles of the two
hands based on the lever adjustments for certain passages, so it does
require a greater
degree of ambidextrousness. It is difficult to change the right hand
levers as they are blind. I am still developing the ability to do that
with confidence. I more often preset them. Other than that it is the
same. So far i
prefer the double harp to play jazz for its harmonic flexibility, but
you can’t of course slide pedals. Having the freedom to play the M/m3rds so basic to jazz/blues is a definite benefit.For a simple improv experiment, set the right levers to d natural
minor, and the left levers to D major. This gives you M/m3rds for the
tonic, subdom, and dominant chords between the two hands (M3rds on the
left, m3rds on the right). You can also get all your m7ths,
but will have to alternate sides of the harp for them based on the
particular chord. (tonic m7th on right row only, subdom m7th on right
only, dom m7th on right or left)There are companies that will track down and acquire copyright and put together custom compilations – usually this is done for a “course pack” in a college or university setting. I am guessing that most of us were in college 10, 20 or more years ago, when there was less attention paid to copyright law. Now that intellectual property rights are being more closely scrutinized, these course pack companies are springing up to help faculty
I have two cats. One is indifferent to the harp, but the other one, who used to be shy, comes out and lies at my feet whenever I practice. When my harp buddies come over to play, he even comes out to visit then — something he never used to do when there were strangers in the house.
But the real story here is the assist dog that a violist in our community orchestra has. I play oboe there, and he is right in front of me. He is usually pretty calm and quiet, but this past fall, when the solo clarinet came in two bars late in Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, he sat straight up, put the clearinettist right in his sight, and glared at him until the next entrance. True story.
Carl… i apologise for not understanding your question well…
recollecting the days when i was myself a beginner… my professor had given me works like Grandjany’s Petite Suite Classique, Pratt – Sonatina, The Mc Donald Harp solos Volume 5 offer a good number of works which are intermediate level… i’m remembering Noctorne for example at the moment, Purcell’s Suite Grandjany’s trois preludes, Tournier’s 2 Petites Pieces Breves et Facile and Bercease maybe Handel’s Passacaille, the Parry sonatas are not that difficult either, altough one has to be a late intermediate to tackle them.
But as i said, i was brought up in my early years in the
The Bochsa etudes are some definite help… i don’t really agree with the UK system of examination, altough i was brought up in that line of thinking, and graduated fellowship from two of them…
I don’t recommend them, but I was raised on the Dilling collections before the other material I spoke of. The exercises in the Salzedo method are basic enough for beginners, and can be expanded on.
One other reason to keep your harp on your right shoulder: so you can see the discs, which can be quite important.
Regarding advanced lever harp music: Through the American Composers’
forum i have an open call for technically and aesthetically challenging
new music for lever harp and have received a few scores so far. Also,
quite a bit of Andres’ music is playable on lever harp. It is my
goal to eventually build up a library of the most challenging
repertoire for the instrument available online with descriptions and
contact info for ordering scores (whether from composers personally or
directed to cataloques/publishers). I support the idea of
having lever harp as an option for a college music major and hope to
eventually start a program. That the lever harp is not typically an
orchestral instrument sets it back in classical circles. Although, the
fact that music departments are exploring non-western European music
traditions more and more should open the door to taking a traditionally
folk music instrument like the lever harp more seriously.Regarding jazz on lever harp: Rudiger Oppenheim uses some type of
“blues” levers? Is anyone familiar with these? I am certainly curious.
The Kong-hou, even the smaller non-pedal models, could also have
some real potential since they allow for pitch bends and vibrato, and
have a double row of strings. Man, I want one of those!!. There are
ways to open up the lever harp to play jazz. Playing modern
jazz (except maybe modal jazz) on a standard lever harp would present
significant challenges because of the strongly diatonic nature of the
instrument.Going back to the original question re lever harpists being somewhat lesser to the pedal harp, I have to realte one conversation from the last world harp congress, when I mentioned to someone that I’d just played a conservatory exam only to get the response “but what is a lever harpist doing in a conservatory?” Learning to play seemed like the obvious answer. My teacher has said that I’d only really need to move “up” to a pedal harp for grade 6 RCM and there’s a lot of lovely music out there before then.
Well I was encouoraged a little too much around the piano as a child – my mother had dreams that exceeded my talent.
Mike can you forward the storybook loves sheet music to cmoonbaker1@qconline.com if you should still have it.
And PS — are you planning to just switch hands, or to turn the harp around? I had assumed turning the harp around in my previous response.
