The VSO is performing Schönberg’s Pelleas und Melisande this week. It’s a 41-minute piece from his early Romantic-style writing, before he started working with the 12-tone row. The harp part is full of impractical writing, including a B flat below the bottom note. (I just moved this note up an octave. If you tuned the lowest string down that far, I doubt that it would have much sound or pitch.) Luckily, the worst-written passages are buried in very thick orchestration, and it is possible to eliminate some of the craziness. I made use of enharmonics a lot. I wrote out those passages, so that I wouldn’t have to read lots of circled notes.
It is actually a very good piece, other than that.