Harp Column Blogs: Carl SwansonArchive

I thought of something this morning that I wanted to share.  I'm not sure why, but I hope it inspires some comments.  In a conversation I had with Sam Milligan sometime this past year, he mentioned that he had heard Grandjany in live performance numerous time.  "Those performances were some of the greatest concerts I have ever heard," he told me.  "The atmosphere at his concerts was just electric.  Somehow his recordings do not convey that excitement."

I don't think recordings ever communicate that excitement, with rare exception.  When you change the format for hearing  a performance from live to recorded, it changes the way you perceive that performance.  I never watch opera on television because of this phenomenon, and I rarely watch movies on TV either. Operas and movies each have their own format that they were designed for, and changing that format alters them too much.  There is a reason why movies made to be shown in a movie theater and anything made for TV are shot differently.  Closeups are done differently in particular.  And wide angle vistas are almost unheard of in made-for-TV movies.

Susan Mcdonald's 1975 Harp Conference opening recital is now out on CD.  I was there, and I still remember that recital as one of the pivotal, and most awsome events in my harp life.  I was thunderstruck by her technical and musical ability, and the atmosphere there was, as Sam said about Grandjany's performances, electric.  I have the CD, and it is just as gorgeous as I remember it.  But the electricity and excitement(on the part of the listener) is really not there.  Heaven knows it's not her fault.  It's just that the format has changed.  Maybe it's that all recordings have to be, and are, so technically perfect that we are too used to that kind of perfection.

There is, whether we like it or not, a sound distortion on any recording of any musical instrument.  If you listen very carefully, and critically, the harp(and even more the piano), do not sound at all like they do in live performance.  We've gotten used to the distortion and so we don't think about it.  But it's there.  And maybe when we hear recordings of harp or any other instrument, our minds say, this is a recording.  It is not a live performance.  There is no risk here, no physical presence.

I said earlier that there are rare exceptions to this phenomenon, and one that comes to mind for me
are two CD's of Rachmaninoff playing.  The CD's are called A WINDOW IN TIME, VOL. I AND II.  The original recordings are from the early 1920's, and were made, not with standard recording equipment of the day, but on a reproducing piano.  Unlike a player piano, which plays all of the notes at one dynamic level, a reproducing piano was able to record all of the nuances of the performance on a paper roll.  Some computer wiz took those original rolls and translated them into a computer code that could be played on a modern piano.  These recordings give you a sense of what Rachmaninoff must have been like in live performance, and the result is dazzling.  I think the excitement in this case comes from the fact that he has so vividly been brought back to life.  I recommend that everyone listen to these recordings.  And I recommend that everyone make a bigger effort to hear live performances.  Recoirdings are just not the same.

REMOVING AND THEN REINSTALLING THE SAME WIRE STRING

Here's a little tip that comes in handy.  If you want to remove a wire string from the tuning pin, say, to clean the tuning pin so it doesn't stick, or slip, you can do it and reuse the same wire string.  But you have to make sure the windings on the wire string go back on the tuning pin EXACTLY the same way they were before.

Start by unwinding the tuning pin just enough to loosen the windings of the wire string around the tuning pin.  Loosen the string enough so that you can remove the string from the tuning pin hole(you can use a pair of needle nose pliers to do this), but don't straighten out any of the curls in the wire string.  Remove the tuning pin and clean it.  If there is gunk on the tuning pin, scrape it with the edge of a file or screwdriver to knock the encrusted stuff off.  You could also use sandpaper or emery cloth to do this.  When you are done, put the tuning pin back in the neck and put the wire string back on the tuning pin in exactly the same configuration as it was before.  In other words, the windings of the string should curl around the tuning pin in the same way, and most importantly, the sharp bend in the string where it goes through the tuning pin should be in exactly the same place as before.  You can now tune the string up without it breaking.  The larger the string(i.e., the closer to the column) the more difficult it is to remove and reinstall the string.  On the last 5 strings(G & F6, and E,D, & C 7) you may have to loosen the string, then hammer the tip of the string back into the tuning pin hole.  One last tip.  You should cut your wire strings as close as possible to the tuning pin.  That way they won't tear up the inside of the cover.

Most of you know I wear two hats, harpwise.  I repair, rebuild, regulate, and build harps, and I'm also a harpist.  So I've decided that from time to time, on a more or less regular basis of two weeks, I'm going to put a harp tip up here to help you all take care of your instruments.  That doesn't mean this is going to turn into a harp repair blog.  I'll put other things up here too.  But a regulation trip this past week gave me the idea, and the harpists I met on this trip liked it.  So here goes...

Harp tip number 1: WASH  AND WAX YOUR HARP!!!

That's right.  From time to time you have to wash the hand oils, lotions, and accumulated dirt off the instrument.  Wash only the wooden parts of the instruments that get touched.  Don't wash the action and don't wash any gilding.

Here's how to wash your harp.  Mix some warm water and dish washing detergent(I like Dawn) as if you were going to do the dishes.  Take a clean sponge and soak it in this water.  Wring it out so it is damp but not dripping.  Now go over the body and soundboard with this sponge.  If there is a build up of dirt and oils where you pull the harp back each time you play, keep rubbing with this sponge until the dirt comes off.  Some of you are going to be horrified at the dirt that comes off.  From time to time squeeze out the sponge in the soapy water to clean it, then go back to the harp.  You can clean the top of the neck and the kneeblock this way too, as well as the pedestal and feet.  Clean the middle section of the column this way too, even if it is gilded.  Dry the area you are working on with paper towels as soon as you have finished cleaning that area.  I would clean the harp like this about once a month.  It takes about 2 to 3 minutes.

After the cleaning is done, put a paste wax that has no silicone or 'cleaners' in it.  It should just be wax.  The kind used on cars.  Follow the instructions on the can.  Let it dry to a haze and buff it with a towel. Your harp will feel and smell like new.