Sometimes if there is a piece that is haunting, in a minor key or has a mystical quality,
and there are no key changes or lots of incidentals, I will play that piece transposed a half step down just by leaving pedals in flat. I sharp the F pedal since this piece is in the key of G which brings it to natural (was about to say neutral--I'm not driving a car, jeez). It will sound different to the audience but they won't know why. This is one of the hidden cool things about a harp.
In the space of 5 lines, the piece wants me to dampen the strings 4 times. Since I have to dampen them more on pg2, I took one out so it's not so choppy.
On pg2 the piece calls for both hands in the treble clef except for a 4 measure foray into the bass. Since this is a solo piece, I think staying at the throat of the harp for so long is boring. People like to hear a build up and that can happen in the belly of the harp. Sooo, add octaves and extra notes in the top hand, and bigger broken chords in the bottom.
The end of the piece is haunting with the harmonics. Rolling the final chord seemed to juvenalize it too much, so I'm opting for a solid chord. If playing in a larger space, this many notes may sound jumbled (learnt this from them gregorian chants that use large interval (5ths) to make clear haunting sound). So I take out the G# in the bottom hand. I think the soft, solid ping at the end works better after the harmonics. Instead of X'ing things out, harpies might like to use white out--like if I were less lazy, I would white out the lever change prompts--see 'em in those parentheses there?-- and make a neater copy. I play in 2 weeks--wish me luck.
In the space of 5 lines, the piece wants me to dampen the strings 4 times. Since I have to dampen them more on pg2, I took one out so it's not so choppy.
On pg2 the piece calls for both hands in the treble clef except for a 4 measure foray into the bass. Since this is a solo piece, I think staying at the throat of the harp for so long is boring. People like to hear a build up and that can happen in the belly of the harp. Sooo, add octaves and extra notes in the top hand, and bigger broken chords in the bottom.
The end of the piece is haunting with the harmonics. Rolling the final chord seemed to juvenalize it too much, so I'm opting for a solid chord. If playing in a larger space, this many notes may sound jumbled (learnt this from them gregorian chants that use large interval (5ths) to make clear haunting sound). So I take out the G# in the bottom hand. I think the soft, solid ping at the end works better after the harmonics. Instead of X'ing things out, harpies might like to use white out--like if I were less lazy, I would white out the lever change prompts--see 'em in those parentheses there?-- and make a neater copy. I play in 2 weeks--wish me luck.
1 comment:
Where are you playing? I SO wish you and I could do some harp duets...like at Christmas, I have Still, Still, Still that is so amazing with 2 harps. Fellow harpers are hard to come by!
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