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In my humble opinion, the sound of Horngachers and Camacs are the same. I played a duet with a previous teacher of mineat a recital; she was on her Horngacher, and I was on my Camac Atlantide. No one could tell which harp was which as far as sound quality went. Personally, I think when you get a Horngacher, you’re paying for the name. You can get just as well-made harps for much less expensive through Camac! I love Camac harps! The quality of Camac is really good, from what I’ve seen, and I endorse them completely!
I have created many exercises for harp technique. I was taught using repertoire as exercise, primarily. That worked for many things. After decades of using Salzedo’s Conditioning Exercises, I now fashion them after LaRiviere, using every plausible fingering pattern, but on Salzedo’s chord progression, because LaRiviere’s goes on too long, and sounds kind of trite. I also expand on the exercises in the Lawrence/Salzedo Method book. I do them for three or four octaves instead of one, etc. It has helped my dexterity and facility greatly. I spend about 30 to 45 minutes on exercises. Too many etudes go on for too long, and don’t develop both hands equally. The Bochsa Universal Method etudes are a nice length.
I also learned from Alice Chalifoux to do an exercise at 1/16th=60, 1/8th=60, 1/4=60, 1/2 note=60. It is important, I find, to be warmed up in every tempo you’ll be playing in. This was also true in a ballet barre. They’d begin with slow plies, faster battements tendus, faster battements degages, faster battements allonge, then slow again.
The trick in doing exercises is to play them as music, to work on tone quality and evenness, to find the expressiveness in your instrument at even the most minimal activity, the simple beauty of a tetrachord.
I want to address the rumor of Salzedo technique causing a lot of pain. When done correctly, the complete opposite should be true. As a very natural way of moving, that corresponds to the physiology of the body, it should relieve pain. It is extreme positions, like wrist way in or way out, inner arms pressing against the harp, tense shoulders, not closing the fingers, playing with tight hands and fingers, that cause pain. If you see a harpist wringing his or her hands between pieces, that’s not a good sign. You can learn to see if someone is playing with tightness. Isolating each finger and reaching extreme lengths is also not good. All the fingers need to work together as a team, helping each other, and with a sense of whole-hand movement, that’s how I see it.
There are some other techniques, too, like Attl technique and some other middle and eastern european schools. I haven’t seen a Russian harpist do it, but I’ve heard that they rotate their thumbs in a circle instead of closing.
You can certainly turn to the harp when your ballet days wind down as they always do. I studied ballet intensively as an adult. It was very helpful to my harp playing on an artistic level, as my teacher was very expressive and helped me open up as a performer. It also agreed with the arm position, as did ballroom dance. However, a lot of port de bras is not so great, as you are holding your arms in positions you need to play harp. This can lead to shoulder problems. If you love the harp, then I would do ballet on the side, for fun and rhythm, along with other kinds of dance. Harp is for life, Dance is for a season or two, and it can ruin your body in so many ways. I also think there is a lot more happening with the harp artistically, than with the ballet world these days. Ballet peaked long ago. Now it’s all about deformity and athletics. Not esthetics and art. But if you must dance, put on those red shoes and dance your heart out. What a way to go.
Donald is just highly expressive. He’s actually pretty nice. I know him well. And I disagree with him. Mahogany may be classed as a hardwood, but it sure is soft. I have a mahogany Salvi bench, and you can practically dent it with your fingernail! Maybe some kinds of it are hard, but in furniture it’s often soft. I was shocked to see that our new performing arts center auditorium was covered in mahogany panelling. That won’t last long. For a wood to be used in a harp one also has to consider the climate it will be in and the humidity. Where’s Carl Swanson when you need him?
I don’t think you should write her a letter at all. She obviously wants to be left alone in peace. It may be the repetition that’s getting to her. She might even be musical. Or she might be tone-deaf and it’s just noise. I would definitely close the windows and drapes. An air conditioner will let out more sound when it’s not on. But by all means get a bigger harp. Is it pointing toward the window? Adding more carpet, drapes, tapestries, will all absorb the soundwaves, and force you to play with good tone for the lack of reverberation. People are very different at different ages and have different needs and concerns. If she will always live there, and you will be leaving for college soon, then be patient. But not mute. Adapt as you can acoustically and forget the rest. Or can you move the harp to the other side of the house? I suppose it doesn’t get hot enough to really use air conditioning much. I have a small fan I put at the front of the harp base on the floor, so it blows up the sounding board. That keeps me cool when the room is warm. Good luck. It can certainly be better or worse.
Actually, I can usually raise in fast passages, too. It’s just smaller, or just a “breather” between notes. If you recall, a lot of music by Salzedo and Lawrence has those large dots over the notes or fingerings. This indicates a small raise, to create a fresh attack on the next note instead of placing. This puts a little lift in the phrase, and you’d be surprised how much little gestures like that can aid your fast or slow playing.
As far as the height of raising goes, Miss Lawrence said your arms should go no higher than the neck of the harp. That also probably means your upper arms don’t go up above your shoulder. You don’t want it to look like you’re declaring yourself champion. Margarita Montanaro said to me that when she was studying with Salzedo, he was trying out opening the arms out in an outward-more sideways direction. Having heard her several times with the Philadelphia Orchestra, I can attest that this helps open out the sound in a widespread way. I don’t think it has quite as much forward projection, though, so I only use it in a highly reverberant room, or where, musically, I want to create that impression.
For young students, of course, it takes some time to develop the sense of range of motion raising entails, and to coordinate it with playing. But it becomes completely natural and organic to the music. It also helps a lot when you see other people doing it well. One gesture I hated seeing was when someone would abruptly drop their hands/arms downward toward the ground. It felt so negative and counterproductive. It’s hard for me to imagine music that would call for that esthetic.
When Salzedo and Nijinsky were discussing harpistic gestures together, it was at a time when the arm movements of ballet were probably at their highest peak of developement. Dancers of that style were incredibly expressive and sensitive with their arms. Their positions were rounded and caressing to the air and audience. We are so fortunate to have had that input into our world. It makes us unique among musicians.For four years now my finger tips have hardened then cracked. I have a drawer of different creams that I?ve tried at one time or another and nothing worked. However, after a few expensive trips to the Mayo clinic, I was prescribed Soriatane, 25mg, one a day and the cracking eased up big time but not 100%. The only real fix was the Prednisone, that stuff heals it 100%.
Keep Looking
This is very late, but here’s what I’ve found.
Teachers:
Alison Vardy (www.alisonvardy.com)
Rita Costanzi (www.ritacostanzi.com)
Elizabeth Volpe (evolpe-bligh@telus.net)Groups:
Winter Harp (Lori Pappajohn) (www.winterharp.com)
Celtic Woollens (www.celticwoollens.com, I think – check Mytelus.com/phonebook)Harp Stores:
Aoyama Harp (http://aoyamaharp.ca)
Northwest Music (www.northwestmusic.ca)
Prussin Music (www.prussinmusic.ca)
Long & McQuade (http://www.long-mcquade.com/)Other:
Celticharper.com lists further Canadian resources in addition to being someone in Ontario (vs BC).If you’re looking for private used harps, try buyandsell.com.
If you want to know more, I suggest contacting the people above. At the very least, the staff of Celtic Woollens or Ms. Costanzi and Volpe might be able to point you in the right direction.
I’m a beginning harpist located in Vancouver, BC. It’s so wonderful to see other people from the Lower Mainland here!
