Jerdol

As someone who's been playing harp for two years, I have some knowledge in this area. Definitely not true. Though chords of four notes tend to be arpeggiated and are easier that way, they aren't always arpeggiated and the default is for them to be regular. This is definitely true with the more common three-note chords. The harp arpeggiation symbol is a vertical wavy line; I have no idea what it is for piano. If you have a seven-note scale, that's correct. The pedals will have to be set prior to playing (unless you're playing in C-flat major), but they don't have to be changed unless there's an accidental or modulation. No problem; just notate it on a grand staff, much as you would a piano. If it's chromatic, though, make sure not to make it too fast, as the harpist needs to change pedals while playing, though anything you characterize as "slow" should not be a problem for a harpist. Firstly, a harpist, doesn't use pinkies, so only has four fingers. Secondly, both the right and left hand play the higher notes with their thumbs. Both of these make it hard to compare to your piano reach. However, with an open hand (which is a special hand position for long intervals, and is hard to do with fast passages with the index or middle finger), a chord of thumb and ring finger can reach maybe 10-12 strings, an octave and a half. I currently have a piece with a recurring interval of D-F an octave above (nine strings), and do it without much trouble. That's correct. If you mean a simple triad like C-E-G, that's really easy, but even things like C-G-C or C-E-G-C (with four fingers) are not a problem. Feel free to PM me when you write the piece, and I'll tell you if it's playable.

My voice.

It's an incorrect myth that Mozart didn't correct his works. His early drafts have dozens of corrections on them. Either way, compsing and revising in your head doesn't mean you're not a composer, it means you have a good enough memory that you don't need paper to compose. I don't like Mozart as much as some other composers because he seems to spend too little time on one melody, developing it, and too much time coming up with new material, which is less interesting. I also prefer polyphonic works like what Bach wrote over homophonic music.

This is my first composition; I have no experience in music theory, but after getting interested in classical music about six months ago I also grew interested in the process of composition - basically, how composers can turn a few pitches into wonderful art. In this composition I was trying to write the kind of thing the trumpets should play when anouncing the king's arrival, or something along those lines. I used the tiniest bit of music theory I've managed to learn, and the technical aspect involved basically just a mix of tonic and dominant chords. I wrote two 8-bar phrases, and then just doubled them, so I guess the structure is ABAB. I hope you like it. I haven't figured out how to make a MIDI file, so all I have is the .mus. Royal welcome.MUS

To stop it from being disjointed, have each composer explain what he was doing when writing his part. Self-analyze his work, so it's easier for the next person to follow it "correctly".

Even though this part of debate ended five pages ago, I'll just settle it by saying the harp is by no means the hardest instrument. Like a piano, anyone can play a few notes, but it doesn't have the piano's popularity and toccattas that follow. I think hman voice is the hardest instrument to perfect. Of course, the instrument is also the cheapest.

I always memorize my stuff, but on the harp it's harder to look at the notes while playing. I think it varies a lot by the instrument. My brother plays the flute, and never memorizes his stuff, because his eyes have nothing better to than read the music while he's playing. On a harp and I'm sure to some extent a piano, it's easier to look at the instrument while playing, though probably very unhealthy in the long-run.

It's should be in 12/8, not 4/4. The current form of notation is absurd.

This is for all of you who would like to compose for the harp, but don't understand its numerous oddities. It’s important to note first that I am not a professional harpist. I have been learning to play the harp for the past two years, and therefore have two years’ more experience than most of you, but have no more than that. The harp is part of the plucked strings family, the rest almost entirely belonging to the guitar family (lute, mandolin, etc.). This means that acoustically, a single plucked string on a harp sounds roughly like a single plucked string of the same pitch on a guitar. It furthermore shares with the keyboard instruments the polytonality of using a different string for each pitch, which allows it to provide accompaniment as well as accompany itself; it’s therefore notated on the grand staff. Pedals The pedals are the oddest thing about the harp and the least understood. Unlike the piano, which uses separate keys for chromatic notes and diatonic ones, the harp can only play diatonic notes, though it can change keys with the pedals (this is talking about a standard harp. There are, outside the classical music world, chromatic harps). The advantage, however, is that it can play any key (with seven notes per octave), and most importantly can play each one equally easily. A harp can do a 32nd note scale (through glissando) in C-flat melodic minor as asily as in C major, something a piano has trouble with due to it being “set” in C major. Technically, you cannot simultaneously play C and C#. What isn’t realized, however, is that you CAN simultanesouly play C and D-flat. You can even play B# and D-flat and never touch the C-string! So the harp is not as limited as it may seem. In fact, every note except D, G, and A natural can be played by two different strings, which enables the above as well as certain tremolo effects. The pedals work by restraining the top of the string, thus sharpening it. They cannot create flats. Instead, the harp is originally tuned in C-flat major, then every string is sharpened. So C# is actually C-flat-double-sharp. This is important because a string sounds nicest when unrestrained. For this reason, the harp’s “favorite” key is C-flat major, and it does not sound very good in C-sharp major. A minor point (the harp still sounds lovely in C-major), but one worth noting. Many harp solos are in C-flat major (remember, a harp doesn’t need piano accompaniment in solos). Acoustics This will not make anything technically unplayable, but can lead to bad sounds if you don’t look out for it. For those who don’t know, the piano has a special mechanism that stops the string the second you let go of the note and stops the sound (the damper). The harp does not. Instead, a loud note or a low octave note on a harp will last longer, and a shorter or higher one will be more staccato. Many dynamic effects, such as staccato, are rarely done on the harp. This requires the harpist to manually shut the string up every note, which is impossible if the hand is doing other things. Usually the harpist will just ignore the staccato. In fact, a harpist rarely pays any attention to the difference between an eighth-note eighth-rest and a quarter note. You pluck the string on the beat, then let it vibrate as long as it wants. On a high octave, don’t play long notes. The sound doesn’t last. I don’t have a piano at home, but I seem to remember it having a similar problem, so I won’t elaborate. Worse is the low octaves. Because the sound continues for a while, it will interefere with other notes a little. If you’re writing an arpeggiated chord, this is good; you get the arpeggiation and the notes still manage to harmonize and create a chord. If it’s not, however… It’s minor, but you should look out for it if you plan to write sixteenth note melodies in the low register. This problem won’t happen if you keep playing the same notes (like in a repeating arpeggiated chord), but if you move around the low register a lot it’s a problem. So don’t do glissandos of the low octaves. Also, at the end of long phrases, the left hand (which plays the low notes) usually silences the strings, which stops the low hum that can still be heard. You can notate this or not ("