carl-swanson

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 2,345 total)
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  • in reply to: String in tuning peg #309247
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Drill it out with a drill bit that is small enough to fit into the string hole in the tuning pin. You could use an electric drill or an eggbeater hand drill. Whatever is convenient.

    in reply to: more never-before-published pieces by Marcel Tournier! #308964
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Thank you so much Jerusha and Balfour. Very kind words. These pieces are such a surprise and revelation. Who knew that there could be so many pieces by Tournier that had never been published? Everyone who hears them tells me that they love them.

    in reply to: MARIA GROSSI Method for harp / SPIRAL BOUND #308963
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Hi Lily,

    The thing that I love about the Bochsa etudes is the variety of patterns. Each etude is built on a different pattern, and playing different patterns until you have muscle memory for that pattern is how you build technique. The one deficiency- and this is true of virtually all 19th century etudes- is that they are all very right handed. The left hand can phone in its notes! That’s why I wrote an “etude variation” for each of the original etudes that puts all the technical material into the left hand, thus giving both hands an equal workout.

    in reply to: MARIA GROSSI Method for harp / SPIRAL BOUND #308923
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Dear Lily-White,

    If you want an etude book that is spiral bound, look at my Bochsa Revisited, published by Carl Fischer Music. You can find it in a number of places, including my web site http://www.swansonharpcompany.com. You can even print out examples of a number of the etudes and try them out to see if they fit your level of playing. Lastly, there is a version for pedal harp and another version for lever harp. Both are spiral bound.

    Carl Swanson

    in reply to: Disc adjustment #308585
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    There’s too much here that raises more questions. I would have to examine the harp in person to tell you what the condition of the instrument is and what needs to be repaired. I can tell you that all those 3 digit serial number Lyon & Healy harps have the same problem with the body shell, which you alluded to in your post. It took Lyon & Healy 22 years, from their start selling harps in 1889, to figure out how to build the body shell so that it would last. In their earliest version, which is present on all the 3 digit instruments, the body shell was made from two very thick layers of veneer with the grain direction the same on both layers. These body shells develop cracks, often big cracks, which really cannot be repaired. The body needs to be replaced. Beyond that, I don’t know exactly what is going on so can’t advise you. Try to get a good technician to look at it sometime.

    in reply to: Disc adjustment #308562
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    What make and model of harp is this? How old is the instrument? When was the neck replaced?

    in reply to: Serial number #307694
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    It’s a real tragedy that the Wurlitzer serial numbers have been lost. Many years ago I spoke to a woman who was the last secretary to the President of the North Tonawanda New York Wurlitzer factory, which is where the harps were made. She told me that when the factory was ordered to close down in the late 1930’s, the President of the company ordered several workers to go up to the 5th floor records room and take everything to the dump! She told me that she knew for a fact that some of those workers took some of those records home with them. But she didn’t know exactly what they had taken. Maybe a hunt of Facebook or some other site, looking for descendants of anyone who worked at that factory would turn up something. There is a North Tonawanda Historical Society that I contacted many years ago. But at that time they didn’t have anything. Maybe they do now.

    in reply to: Semi-grand vs Concert grand #306946
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    You shouldn’t look at a semi-grand harp as “second best.” They’re great for playing gigs, are easy to move, are more comfortable than a concert grand for a lot of repertoire, especially 19th century repertoire which have technical work right up to the last string on top. As far as getting used to spacing: Get used to it!! Us older harpists have spent a lifetime playing different harps with different spacing. If you have trouble adjusting, then you need to play a variety of harps on a regular basis. You should be able to adjust instantly to whatever harp you are playing.

    in reply to: Wurlitzer Harp Stake Model #306917
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    To my knowledge, the Wurlitzer serial number list is lost. It’s a real tragedy. Because we can’t find the serial number list, we don’t know when any particular serial number was made, we don’t know what the Wurlitzer total harp production was. We don’t know what the year to year production was. We don’t know how many of each model they made. I tried years ago to find the Wurlitzer serial number list, without success.

    in reply to: 27 never-before-published pieces by Marcel Tournier! #306796
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Hi Elizabeth,

    Thank you for your kind words. Your book is going out this afternoon. I hope you try some of the other pieces in that edition too. I think you’ll really enjoy them.

    in reply to: 27 never-before-published pieces by Marcel Tournier! #306783
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Hi Balfour,

    It’s a long complicated story. I’m in the process right now of writing an article that I hope will be published in the American Harp Journal. That will explain all of this. In addition to these pieces, I found about 10 more by Tournier that were never published and are not on any inventory of his music. Emmanuel Ceysson just recorded a whole Tournier CD that will be released next year. A lot of the pieces that are on that CD are ones that I found, including 5 songs that Tournier set. I’m really looking forward to that.

    The Children’s corner is a long complicated story too. It was going to be published last year, but there was a complication that I can’t go into here now.

    in reply to: Identify my harp and help locating repair #306714
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Unfortunately David Williams is no longer working on harps. If you want to ship it to Boston, I can repair it for you.

    in reply to: 27 never-before-published pieces by Marcel Tournier! #306573
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Thank you Jerusha. Such kind words! These pieces are something that I stumbled on while trying to find some other pieces by Tournier that I did know existed. These will be published in 3 volumes, so this is the first volume right now, with 8 pieces in it. The next volume, with 9 pieces in it, I’m hoping will be released next March, and the last one, with 10 pieces in it, I’m hoping for a year from now.

    They are all charming short pieces, 3 to 4 pages long, and in the late romantic style that Tournier learned at the Paris Conservatory in the 1890’s.

    in reply to: children’s choir + harp repertoire ideas #305558
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    There’s a piece by Daniel Pinkham, in 7 movements, called Company at the Cresche. It’s for two part treble voices(Soprano and alto) with harp, organ, and handbells. It’s a lovely small piece, I think less than 10 minutes. Maybe you could get some adult women to sing with them, and add a little electronic keyboard. I think the bell part can be played on glockenspiel.

    in reply to: Venus Harp pedal rods…. #304400
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    I just got a call from someone else who has a broken rod on her Venus harp. She had contacted a number of technicians and was told there was nothing they could do. I told her she would need to send me the broken rod with the coupler so that I could probably make her a replacement rod. I need to know the diameter of the rod, the length, the threadings at both ends, and I need to be able to extract the broken piece of rod from the coupler so that I can re-use it. Any technician should be able to do that for you.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 2,345 total)