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Bach Prelude and thoughts on marking up lever changes
I wanted to share with you the Bach Prelude (from his 2nd Cello Suite) that I recorded on my new album, Sea of Stars.
The reason why I chose this piece to go on my album project was because I was looking for a piece that I could play that consisted of just a single melodic line. Very often as harpists, we are used to playing a melody with harmony (using both hands) or we might play a melodic line in unison an octave apart (using both hands), but never just a single melodic line. It's sounds a bit daft when you come to think about it really, because of course normally a melodic instrument would only ever play 'one note at a time'. But for harpists, where we use both hands to play we just don't do that. We put in a bass line, or a counter melody, or accompaniment. In all the very many years I have been playing the harp, I have never played a piece which was just a single melodic line.
So I got to thinking what could I play that was just a single melodic line, and of course the answer was J.S. Bach.
The lever harp has a tonal quality which is very different to the pedal harp, and for me, this prelude works exceptionally well on the lever harp. The chromaticism of the piece can be dealt with noiselessly on the lever harp, whereas on the pedal harp you would hear the pedal changes. So technically the lever harp works better for this piece, but also the the ringing quality of the lever harp strings give it a full & singing character which (in my opinion) you just don't get when you play this on the pedal harp.
No doubt about it, this piece is an advanced lever harp piece, and it took me quite a while for it to feel comfortable to play. When I perform this piece I normally pair it with Rudiger Opperman's astonishing piece 'Breathing with harp' which is full of rich expansive chords. On my album I have put these two pieces next to each other so that after the horizontal linear movement of the Bach Prelude, it suddenly aurally opens out into the vertical block chords in 'Breathing with harp'. I find the pairing of these two pieces one after another quite extraordinary and very moving to perform.
The arrangement I have done of the Bach Prelude is my gift to you. I will also have this available as a PDF to purchase in my website shop and also on HARP COLUMN MUSIC so if you do want to recommend this piece to friends and colleagues I'd be delighted if you could point them in those directions, or ask them to sign up to this newsletter!
Here is also a video I have put together of my recording of the Bach from the album. NERDY HARP STUFF BELOW!!!
The reason why I chose this piece to go on my album project was because I was looking for a piece that I could play that consisted of just a single melodic line. Very often as harpists, we are used to playing a melody with harmony (using both hands) or we might play a melodic line in unison an octave apart (using both hands), but never just a single melodic line. It's sounds a bit daft when you come to think about it really, because of course normally a melodic instrument would only ever play 'one note at a time'. But for harpists, where we use both hands to play we just don't do that. We put in a bass line, or a counter melody, or accompaniment. In all the very many years I have been playing the harp, I have never played a piece which was just a single melodic line.
So I got to thinking what could I play that was just a single melodic line, and of course the answer was J.S. Bach.
The lever harp has a tonal quality which is very different to the pedal harp, and for me, this prelude works exceptionally well on the lever harp. The chromaticism of the piece can be dealt with noiselessly on the lever harp, whereas on the pedal harp you would hear the pedal changes. So technically the lever harp works better for this piece, but also the the ringing quality of the lever harp strings give it a full & singing character which (in my opinion) you just don't get when you play this on the pedal harp.
No doubt about it, this piece is an advanced lever harp piece, and it took me quite a while for it to feel comfortable to play. When I perform this piece I normally pair it with Rudiger Opperman's astonishing piece 'Breathing with harp' which is full of rich expansive chords. On my album I have put these two pieces next to each other so that after the horizontal linear movement of the Bach Prelude, it suddenly aurally opens out into the vertical block chords in 'Breathing with harp'. I find the pairing of these two pieces one after another quite extraordinary and very moving to perform.
The arrangement I have done of the Bach Prelude is my gift to you. I will also have this available as a PDF to purchase in my website shop and also on HARP COLUMN MUSIC so if you do want to recommend this piece to friends and colleagues I'd be delighted if you could point them in those directions, or ask them to sign up to this newsletter!
Here is also a video I have put together of my recording of the Bach from the album. NERDY HARP STUFF BELOW!!!
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Nerdy lever harp stuff
I thought this might also be a good moment to share a few thoughts I have had on how to notate lever changes.
There isn't a standard set way of notating lever changes, and I have seen so many different ways of doing it. So for that reason, I thought that as well as sharing the 'clean' PDF with you that I'd also share my annotated version, so you can see how I mark it up when I'm performing it.
There may well be better ways of notating lever changes, but this system works for me.
There isn't a standard set way of notating lever changes, and I have seen so many different ways of doing it. So for that reason, I thought that as well as sharing the 'clean' PDF with you that I'd also share my annotated version, so you can see how I mark it up when I'm performing it.
There may well be better ways of notating lever changes, but this system works for me.
Before I talk about the lever change markings themselves, I should mention that I have got to that age where my eyesight is not great and I carry around 5 different pairs of glasses with me when I'm playing the harp. None of them really do the job, but that's another story. So I find that colour coding things REALLY helps me able to see things quickly from a distance. For that reason, all the notes that I play with my left hand I have marked blue just so that it is clear for me to see. I also like to mark lever changes in red. I wouldn't normally write lever changes in letters under where they are printed, but because there are so many in this piece and it's quite a difficult piece to perform I added them in. Again it's an aid for my eyesight that has developed as I have got older!
When playing music on the pedal harp you would normally have pedal graphs written in at the start of sections. What I do in lever harp music is write them at the start of sections in the margin nearest to the section. This could be on either the left or right hand margin of the page. I assume that whatever key signature the music is in, is the default setting. This means that if a piece is in G major (and I play a harp tuned in Eb) that I wouldn't write B natural, E natural, A natural, F sharp as that would be assumed as it's the default key setting. I only write in the margin what is different from the default setting.
I use the numbering system that you use when buying harp strings. So counting the strings (upwards) from F to E - e.g F,G,A,B,C, D, E
Middle C is always 4th octave. So using this system, the G above middle C would be 3G. and 2 E's above middle C would be 3E.
In the margin I always work from the bottom - up. I write the octave number on the left and the note that is different from the default key position next to it. I stack the notes on top of each other in their string order.
Hopefully that all makes sense!
Keeping to the system is really important as it then becomes really quick and easy to read.
You'll see on the last page of the piece, that at the start of the section I have marked up what the lever settings are BEFORE I do the three lever changes as I wanted to practice doing those changes when I started practicing from that point.
This piece is a favourite of mine and I hope you enjoy it!
When playing music on the pedal harp you would normally have pedal graphs written in at the start of sections. What I do in lever harp music is write them at the start of sections in the margin nearest to the section. This could be on either the left or right hand margin of the page. I assume that whatever key signature the music is in, is the default setting. This means that if a piece is in G major (and I play a harp tuned in Eb) that I wouldn't write B natural, E natural, A natural, F sharp as that would be assumed as it's the default key setting. I only write in the margin what is different from the default setting.
I use the numbering system that you use when buying harp strings. So counting the strings (upwards) from F to E - e.g F,G,A,B,C, D, E
Middle C is always 4th octave. So using this system, the G above middle C would be 3G. and 2 E's above middle C would be 3E.
In the margin I always work from the bottom - up. I write the octave number on the left and the note that is different from the default key position next to it. I stack the notes on top of each other in their string order.
Hopefully that all makes sense!
Keeping to the system is really important as it then becomes really quick and easy to read.
You'll see on the last page of the piece, that at the start of the section I have marked up what the lever settings are BEFORE I do the three lever changes as I wanted to practice doing those changes when I started practicing from that point.
This piece is a favourite of mine and I hope you enjoy it!