[Harp-L] Re: Seamless Overblow Challenge

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The problems in a fully chromatic approach to richter-tuned diatonic harp don't go away--they just keep being rediscovered, over and over, by young players who think that they will sooner or later overcome the issues of tone and timbre they encounter through practice and dedication.  Good luck with that.  Dedication is one thing, the laws of physics are another, and the laws of physics dictate that two sounds made using different techniques, which in turn involve different configurations of the mouth and vocal tract, won't sound the same.  If the differences happen to occur in a passage where musical expression demands that the notes exhibit consistent tone and timbre, it's game over.  

David Fairweather's challenge was preceded years ago by The Ode to Joy Challenge, which was proposed by me as a test of the musicality of altered tones (not just overblows, but bends too) on the harp.  Here's the challenge as originally worded:
*****
 Play the theme from Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from the 9th symphony,
 starting on the draw three hole in second position, nice and slow.
 That melody in that position requires that the draw 3 hole be bent
 down a whole step.

 If you can do it in such a way that 

the note is in pitch and 
the tone and attack are the same as the surrounding notes
(and, of course, appropriate for the piece, i.e. legato), 
 then I'll agree that you've got something to talk about.
*****

Winslow Yerxa put up a website dedicatd to this challenge.  A number of people responded, but nobody was able to pull it off.  You can see all the results at:
http://www.geocities.ws/odechallenge/index.htm#thechallenge

I repeat that I don't see what's changed since then, except the players.  The musical issues remain. Years ago, Chris Michalek wrote to this list to tell everybody that after years of working on his overblow technique, he had come to the conclusion that altered notes were "weak."  What's different now?  Those notes are still weak.  Wishing otherwise doesn't make the problem go away.

The question isn't whether overblowing, bending, etc. are useful techniques.  Of course they are.  The question is whether those techniques are enough to make the "missing" notes on the diatonic fully usable in musical contexts where timbre and tuning are critically important.  The short answer is no.  That's the answer until either the instruments or the laws of physics change.

But it's your time and effort, man.  If you want to spend years trying to prove otherwise, be my guest. Just don't be upset when the laws of physics ignore you; it's nothing personal, and you won't be the first.

Regards, Richard Hunter

 






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