The Principles of Playing the Harp and Harper’s Sound Quality
The article deals with the importance of working on the sound as one of the basic instrumental standard of excellence. The author says about the specifics of the harp sound: sustain, coloring, depending on the instrument, string material and quality and about limits of the instrument volume range. The article emphasizes that the ability to achieve a variety of sound under the difficult playing conditions is the indicator of the bright musician’s personality. The difficulties of working on the sound which are due to the specifics of the instrument can be overcome ways of sound production by A.M. Slepushkin’s method. He was the founder of the Russian school of playing the harp which characterized by melodiousness and sincerity. The principles of sound production are work 2-3-4 fingers into the palm of the metacarpal joint, that is an active work of finger from its base, circular movements of the first finger “against itself’ with the return to the original position, upward movement of the hand along the plane of the strings during the performance of individual notes and chords in the end of the playing. Then the author says about the need for natural, approached to everyday, prehensile movements of the fingers (picking hand into a fist) and the need to strengthen the last phalanges of each finger. The article describes two phases of the play of finger movement and their instantaneous transition from one phase to another as the basis of the fluency. The article emphasizes the relativity of beauty of sound depending on the quality of the instrument and the features of the performers hands and fingers. The author recognizes the primary work on the sound which associated with the psycho-physiological features of the artist, his ability to imagine the perfect sound and translate it into the audible sounds persistence and patience. The ability to create their own sound image of performed music, to hear their own music and “prehear” the result of the necessary movements is the essence of what the teacher should teach the student to master beautiful sound. The role of internal singing while playing is negative because of the acoustic features of the throat as the any sounding body which prevents to hear the real sound of the performed artwork. In article gives 4 evaluation criteria of sound: 1. The evenness of sound of all fingers. The errors of sound which connected with the peculiarities of each finger and their incorrect statement. 2. The beauty and fullness of the sound. The appearance of the “crushed” sound and the sound without the timbre “with send” during the playing with the weak or limp fingers and from tension. The sound attaca with the limit pressure on the string from the base of the finger. 3. The variety of sound which depends on the two ways of sound production: viscid, heavy during the cantilena performance and light, acute for virtuosic artworks. 4. The clarity of the sound as a result of fast and accurate position of a finger on a string.