Confused About Markings? 10 Common Harp Markings Explained! - PHH 059

Welcome to Practicing Harp Happiness, the Harp Mastery Podcast. My name is Ann Sullivan and I'm a harpist, teacher, and founder of Harp Mastery. I'm all about creating more harp happiness in the world by helping harp players like you play the music they want the way they want. But as a harpist who nearly flunked out of one of the most prestigious music schools in the world, the although later not only graduated, but I went on to teach there, I know from personal experience that learning the harp is way harder than it looks. Here, each week on the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast, I show you how to solve the challenges of practicing and playing the harp. Whether it's about making your fingers behave or learning music faster, or getting your piece's performance ready, or just learning to enjoy your playing every day. Sounds great, doesn't it? Let's get started.

Welcome to the show. If the Fairy Godmother of Harp appeared today to grant you just one wish, what would it be? Would you wish for a new harp or flying fingers or an endless supply of music? No. If you're like me, you probably have too much music already. Well, I know what I would wish for, and it would be something standardized harp markings. Now, that may sound to you as if I haven't given this wish a lot of thought, but actually, I believe that if the harp Fairy Godmother would grant that one wish, it would save all of us harpists much time, confusion, and frustration. Allow me to explain. Harp notation is anything but standardized. Take a simple technique like a harmonic. Most composers write harp harmonics where they are to be played, which results in the note sounding one octave higher. But there are a few composers, Carlos Salzato most notably, who write their harmonics where the notes actually sound, meaning that we need to play them one octave lower than they're written. Many harpist composers explain which system they're using with a note to the performer printed right on the music, which is fabulous. But unfortunately, the vast majority of works for harp leave this important piece of information unwritten for the players to figure out for themselves. And that's just one example. Harp markings seem to change with each new generation of composers and arrangers. Harpists must become detectives, scouring the page for clues to decide what a marking means and learning what to do when you can't find any clues. Other markings are just plain confusing. Take harp fingering from some of the 19th century harpist composers. Rather than use the number one to indicate the thumb, some composers used a plus sign or an X to indicate the thumb, and then to add another layer of confusion. The fingers 2, 3 and 4 were then indicated as 1, 2 and 3. So you'd have an X1, 23 instead of 12 34. Now, it's easier to read these pieces without the fingering at all than to try to translate the fingering as you play. Now, sadly, I can't clear up all the harp marking inconsistencies for you in one podcast. What we will talk about on today's show are the meanings of 10 fairly common harp markings. I'll tell you what they mean, or in some cases, what they don't mean, and most importantly, I'll tell you when you need to use your own judgment. Also, at the end of our discussion, I'll share a wonderful free online resource with you that will help you with many more harp marking questions. Now, one word of warning. There's one three word phrase that's going to crop up repeatedly in today's discussion. I'm not going to tell you what that phrase is now. You'll recognize it so soon enough. But I want to take one moment before we begin to just wish all of my fellow Americans a very happy Independence Day. It's a wonderful day, July 4th, to go out and celebrate. And please, as you do that, enjoy your picnics, your barbecues, your time at the beach, your fireworks displays. Be careful, be safe with all your celebrations and do remember to just take a moment and be thankful for all of those who have contributed their efforts, their, in some cases their lives to help us be able to celebrate the way we are today. So be careful, be safe, be cognizant of the meaning of the day, and do have a happy July 4th. Now let's start talking here about those elusive and confusing harp markings. I promise that the markings we're talking about are not ones that are the things that will never crop up in your music. They're things that we see all the time. And that's what makes this topic, I think, so important. Now, of course, not having standardized notation is nothing new. I mean, that's been going on for centuries and it's not unique to the harp. But that hasn't stopped harpists and composers from trying to bring some system and order to the harp, particularly as its language developed. In the 19th century, the French harpist, composer and arranger Robert Nicolas Charles Borgsa tried to create notation for some of the very newest harp harp effects. Now, he was writing about this in his New Method for the Harp, which was published in 1832, and he came out with some notation.

For these, you know, double and Triple harmonics, which were sort of new in his era. And many of these effects that he was notating became part of harp literature and harp part of harp playing. But lots of them didn't. But in any case, he did his best to try to create a notation that could be standardized and developed across the works of different composers. Some of it stuck. Now, you might not be familiar with Boxer or his music, but you probably are familiar with the name, if not the music of Carlos Salzedo. So if boxer worked in 1832 to try to create notation for the harp effects that were new in the 19th century, Salzido was doing the same thing for the harp effects that were new in the 20th century. So 100 years later, Salzido was writing and creating his own method for the harp that included a lot of the effects that were. That became part of the tonal language of the harp in. In the 20th century. Things like plucking with the fingernails. Now, he came up with a lot of terms and a lot of markings that he wanted to be standard that he thought would really clarify things and make things easier if everyone adopted them. But you can imagine nobody is, you know, it's not going to happen that everybody adopts this one particular thing. So, you know, we have apple and we have Android, right? We have vanilla, we have chocolate. So harp notation is going to be the same thing. There are always going to be differences. But a lot of what Salzato notated did become standard. Some of the things did not. For instance, he wanted instead of the term glissando, he thought the term flux f l u x was more descriptive, more accurate. And that was the term he wanted to have used for certain kinds of glissandos. But that didn't stick so much. But nevertheless, a lot of what he tried to standardize did in some ways creep in to harp literature in general. Now, a later innovator would be Bernard Andress. Think about the markings that are in Andres music, and some of them are notations for effects that he particularly thought about and innovated him, like sans pensee, the pinched sounds.

And so the notation that he created in order for people to know how to play that particular effect, it's like, okay, this is where the son pensee is. Well, you know, he created the notation for it. He also developed his own notation for some things that were in other people's music as well. So that's why there's whole glossaries of notation markings for Andres music. You will find if you look at a collection by grandigny or by Salzato or by some other composers that they start these collections with an entire glossary of. Okay, here are the markings that are used in this collection, and here's what they mean. And that's wonderful because it gives you the reference for most, if not all, of the markings you're going to encounter in that collection.

But that doesn't mean that from composer to composer, those markings are going to mean the same thing. Or even among all the works by the same composer, there are some works by Salzedo, for instance, where the harmonics are written, where you actually play them, as opposed to where they sound. So he wasn't consistent within all of his music either. So there are just some things you have to know, and that's where notation gets confusing. So what we're going to do is go through some of the most common markings, some of which you'll know, some of which you won't, some of which you've probably had questions about and may have had to sort of decipher or, or, you know, make your own best decision, your own best guess as to what the composer meant when you come across that marking. And we're going to start with something very simple, something I've actually devoted an entire podcast episode to, if you look back in the podcast archives. But it's the simple, most important marking that I think we have, and I just want to clear it up one more time. That's the placing mark bracket. So the placing bracket seems like sort of a no brainer. You're going to know it every time you see it kind of a marking. And of course, what that placing bracket is supposed to indicate is that you place all the notes, all the fingers under that bracket. You place them on the strings at the same time. Think about a very simple scale. The first placing bracket might indicate first, four, three, two, one might be over all those first four notes as you move up the scale. And then there could be another placing bracket indicating the cross under from 1 to 4, and then a third placing bracket indicating that the 4, 3, 2, 1 for the second part of the scale will all be placed at the same time. So that's the idea behind a placing bracket. But the placing bracket can sometimes appear in other guises as well. One of the most common.

Different notations for replacing brackets you might find is an arched line that is dotted. A dotted, arched line. Now, not a dotted solid line, which would be, you know, sort of a slur marking or something. That's really a phrase grouping for us because we don't have a real slur, right? So that would be a phrase grouping. And it would in that kind of a line. A solid arched line indicates notes that have a related musical or melodic thought. But a dotted arched line is often an indicator of a placing bracket. You'll see that in some French music, notably in the music of Granjeni, you will see that. So, you know, watch out for that. That is also a placing bracket. Doesn't look like a bracket, but it's the same thing. And the placing bracket is so important because that's how we get to prepare. The placing bracket also helps guide your eye forward. So I won't spend more time talking about the placing bracket and its importance here. I just wanted you to know that sometimes it looks like a bracket and sometimes it looks like that dotted arched line, but that is a placing bracket. So let's move on to the second marking. And these are markings for rolled cords. I can't tell you how many questions I get on this. And you'd think it would be sort of simple, right? And you know what I mean. It's that sort of squiggly line that comes before a chord that would indicate that you roll it. Now, be very careful here because those markings, we can be very literal about it and very observant, but we also have to use our musical judgment now to be very literal about it.

A rolled cord for us is almost always rolled from the bottom to the top. If it's meant to be rolled from the top down, you will often see a little arrow inside that squiggly line, either in the middle or at the bottom, a little arrowhead showing you that. Oh, it's meant to go downward. Sometimes it appears as an arrow at the top of the rolled marking as well. That's unusual. But you may see it. You may see an arrow pointing up. But of course, we usually roll our chords up, so that would not be a marking we would ordinarily need. So that little squiggly line, now that's a rolled chord. It can mean anything from a quickly rolled chord, just something kind of brisk, or to something. It could be something more leisurely, something that's more expressive and takes more time. That is a judgment that you have to make based on the musical context for the chord. So you get to decide, isn't that nice? Now, often, but not always, if you see a right hand chord and a left hand chord and you have a squiggly line that is by the right hand chord and a separate squiggly line that is by the left hand chord. Often, but not always, those cords are meant to be rolled together at the same time so that you roll the left hand cord at the same time that you roll the right hand cord. Now this would differentiate it from one solid squiggly line that goes all the way from the left hand cord all the way up through the right hand cord and crosses both staves. So one continuous line, as opposed to two separate squiggly lines. When you see one continuous line, that would generally indicate that you're going to roll that entire cord from the bottom to top, starting with the left hand, then moving to the right hand, so you're rolling, you know, left then right as opposed to rolling left and right together.

Now those are some differences that you might see in those rolled cord markings, right? One squiggly line or two squiggly lines, and that's what they often mean, but not always that, by the way, that's that three letter, three word phrase I was mentioning earlier. But not always. Markings rarely always mean something. Sometimes they do, but not always. And so you just have to be very careful. And that's where your judgment comes in. So when it comes to rolled cord markings, be aware that you could be rolling those hands together. You could be rolling them left and then right, you could be rolling them downward, but only if that's indicated by an arrow meaning to roll downward. And the marking itself doesn't necessarily indicate the speed of the roll.

I also want to take a moment here to say that the default for harp chords is to crack the chords, to roll them slightly. It isn't until the 20th century, and well into the 20th century in some instances that harp chords were often played flat and unbroken. So I would suggest that as, as sort of a default setting for your, for thinking about chords. You think about any chord that is not indicated to be not rolled is probably rolled a little bit.

But not always.

But do think that, you know, harps sound like harp when the chord is rolled or cracked or just, you know, slightly broken. So you're allowed to do that even if that rolled marking isn't there. Unless the composer has told you, don't roll these chords. And there are instances of that where you will find that the composer says right up at the top of the thing or someplace before that chord passage, play all these chords strictly unbroken. In which case that's what you do. But if the composer doesn't indicate anything, see what sounds best to you. Broken, slightly rolled a little bit more, or just absolutely flat and unbroken. Which is where we get to our third marking. And that's a bracket beside the cord, right? Picture a placing bracket turned on its. On its side, turned on its end. You might see that next to a chord. You might see it next to a chord where you would expect one of those squiggly roll markings to be. Now, that can mean a couple of things. Depending on the context, it may very well mean that the chord is unbroken, that the chord is meant to be played flat with all the notes sounding exactly at the same time. That's a very common way to indicate that. And remember that that flat chord is generally a departure from the normal. And I use that word advisedly, harp chord, which would be broken just a little bit. So that bracket on its side is an indicator perhaps, that that chord is meant to be played unbroken. But suppose you see that bracket in the middle of a very big chord where perhaps your left hand plays, then your right hand plays, Then your left hand crosses over and plays again. Does that bracket in the middle there mean that you're not supposed to roll those notes like you'd roll the left hand and then not the right hand and then the left hand on the top as it crosses over. And sometimes there's a squiggly line and a bracket. So what's the deal with that? Well, in that case, that is a placing bracket. That bracket is showing you which fingers or which notes are going to be played in one hand. So that. Suppose you have one of those big chords and you see the left hand there in the bass clef, and then there are six notes in the treble clef. Well, those bottom three notes in the treble clef may be indicated and grouped with a little sideways bracket, meaning that your left hand's going to play the stuff in the bass clef, but then your right hand's going to take those lowest three notes in the treble clef, and your left hand is going to cross over and take the others. So that can be a grouping bracket. In that case, it's very much like a placing bracket. And that's kind of what it means. That's what you're going to place. But it's just on its side next to a cord. Doesn't mean that that's unbroken. Just means that that's what you're placing together.

Nice, huh? One marking that looks like another one and means something totally different. Love it. All right, well, let's move on to another marking. And this is not, not just a harp marking. You'll see it in keyboard Music of all kinds.

And you may have run across it in hymns written out in a hymnal or some kind of choir music.

But I want to do what I can to clear up some of the confusion around it right now. And that's when the stems of notes go up or down in an unusual way. You know, usually we would expect to see stems on notes on a staff below the third line on the staff, but below that middle line, the stems are going to go up. Above that line, the stems are going to go down. And on that middle line, they could sort of go either direction. That's the general writing rule. But sometimes you'll see within one staff, like the treble clef staff, within maybe even one measure, some of the stems are going up, some of them are going down in the same chord to be played at the same time. And those stem things are trying to indicate the fact that there's more than one voice happening at the same time. Think about it in terms of a choir for a second. And if you had a soprano and an alto singing those notes with the stems up might be the notes that the soprano would sing. And the notes with the stems down might be what the altos would sing. And you might be very used to seeing that in choir music, but you hadn't thought about putting it into harp music. But it's the same kind of thing where the composer's trying to show you that those stems up notes, oh, look, that's where the melody is. But then we have a counter melody at the same time, and those stems are down to indicate the countermelody. And in that kind of an instance, you ought to be able to count the rhythm of the upper notes and then count the rhythm of the lower notes. The stems down notes. And those rhythms are going to both take up the whole measure. They don't add together. Right? So be watchful and be aware that that affects the counting in a measure as well. The stem up notes get counted together, the stem down notes get counted together.

Sometimes you will just see that there are notes with two stems on them, meaning that they have more than one meaning in the music. They might be melody notes and part of an accompaniment figure as well. So they've got two notes. On the other hand, you may find that some notes have stems up and stems down, because the stem up notes are to be played with your right hand and the stem down notes to be played with your left hand. So there are lots of different reasons and ideas for this, But I want you to think about those different Possibilities. When you're looking at the music, don't just figure that, you know, okay, I don't understand why the stems are this way. They're usually that way for a reason. And so take a moment and just to see what it means, it's going to help you learn and play your music a little bit better. Here's a real quick marking. Sometimes you will see a dot on top of a note. And while this would generally mean staccato, and sometimes it does, staccato is hard on the harp. And there are some specific notations that go with that that I'm not going to talk about today. But generally a dot on top of a note in a harp piece will mean that we're not supposed to connect it. You'll often see it at the end of a placing bracket, meaning to lift your hand. So, you know, I know you're being observant and I applaud that. And you're trying to make that note staccato, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to have to muffle it right away. Think about it as being not connected and then see if there's a more important musical construct that you need like staccato or something. But probably it's just a lifting, a raising of your hand. So that's an easy one, the little dot. Now, what's not so easy are those near the soundboard markings, right? There are lots of different markings that indicate that we want to play near the soundboard. Pdlt, that abbreviation PDLT is one stands for PR de la table, meaning near the sounding board. You might see scalloped looking lines, you might see a little wiggly line. And generally, but not always, if that wiggly line indicating near the soundboard is in the middle of the staves in between the treble clef and the bass clef staffs. Generally that means that both hands are going to be near the soundboard. If it's above the right hand staff, above the treble clef, it generally only applies to right hand. If it's below the bass clef, staff generally only applies to left hand. But be careful with that. That's not always the case. Also pay attention that there's a difference between playing near the soundboard or just playing lower on the strings.

Some of the French composers, like Rainier and Grandnie have slightly different markings for playing near the soundboard or playing just lower on the strings, which does give you a different sound than playing in the middle. You get a little bit more definition there's an abbreviation also for playing lower on the strings, but not near the soundboard. And that would be B DLC Bas dans les cordes. So lower on the strings. So that would be one possibility. So just be alert. There are lots of different ways to indicate playing near the soundboard.

Muffle markings, also a really tough one. I don't think I need to explain the marking itself to you, but be very careful that there are different ways that those muffles may be indicated. There might be markings added to them telling you to muffle a specific range of strings or just a specific string or muffle just the wire strings or just the left hand or to muffle with both hands. So pay attention. They will not be standard from piece to piece. But do pay attention and see what you can deduce from those markings or see if it's a. If it's a composer who hasn't put the markings into the piece you're playing, they might have put them into another piece and you can glean some information from that. Otherwise, use your best guess with those muffle markings I mentioned in the introduction about those composers that sometimes used a plus or an X to indicate the thumb. Well, in more modern harp music, that plus by a left hand note generally means to play it with your thumb and to use your hand, your left hand at the same time to just clear out the strings that were already vibrating so that the left hand thumb note has a little bit more definition and clarity because the other strings are muffled. It generally doesn't mean that you play the note short, although sometimes it can. So sometimes it just means to. To add that muffle so that you're playing with your thumb getting more clarity from that left hand line because you're muffling the other strings and you're isolating the sound is what you're doing in effect. But sometimes it does mean to make those notes short, in which case the duration of the notes is probably up to you. So, but do be careful because a lot of the time it only means to clear out the sound from the other strings. So be careful with that.

Easy marking to define would be that lv. You might have seen that sometimes under a measure where the left hand is not playing or maybe at the end of a piece, it's, you know, capital L, period, capital V, period. We talk about it as standing for let vibrate. It's actually a French term, laissez vibr, which means to let vibrate. But you'll often see it at the end of the piece and it just allows you to let the strings ring without muffling. Sometimes you'll see it in the middle of the piece where the composer has a low note that they want. They want to sustain through the upcoming measures. And so they don't want you to muffle it, and they'll indicate it that way. If you have a note that you are supposed to let vibrate, or if you have that at the end of the piece, I urge you to create a nice visual effect with your hands to support that, to just reinforce for a listener who is also watching that that's what you're doing with your hands, right? You are on purpose sustaining that note. So that can be a little. Little nice touch to add to that. But LV is pretty simple once you know what it means. Another simple mark that almost takes no explanation, but takes a little bit is that funny little half moon, half moon on its side kind of thing. Looks, you know, it's a fingernail, right? And, you know, it's. It's. That little fingernail indicates a fingernail sound. Now, usually, but not always, those fingernail sounds are played not only with the fingernails but also at the soundboard. This was something actually that Salzato indicated. And Salzato's markings with the fingernail pretty much always mean to play near the soundboard with your fingernails. Other composers don't necessarily follow that. Andres does not. Andres would indicate both things. If he wants you to play with your nails near the soundboard, his fingernail sound is more often in the middle of the strings. So that's one of those judgment calls. Again, be careful and take a look, see what you think. Because often it means to play with your fingernails by the soundboard, but not always. So do be careful.

Wow. Okay, so that was 10 markings that we talked about, and you can see how ambiguous they are. Hopefully I have not confused you more. That was not my intention. But what I want you to get from this discussion today is the idea that markings, and the interpretation of markings takes a little bit of understanding of the context. Where in the history of the harp is this marking being used? Are you playing a piece from the 19th century, a piece from the 20th century, a piece from the 21st century, or something else? Who's the arranger, who's the composer? And if they've been thoughtful enough to give you specific and complete directions, that's great. But so often they don't. So, you know, do a little bit of research if you need. Do your, you know, bring your best musical understanding and harp understanding to it and Then use your best judgment. I mean, of course you can always ask, right? So asking is always a good thing. Find, you know, phone a friend, phone a teacher, my Heart Mastery members, you have me every week. So go ahead and ask there or in the forum where you can get some other other opinions. But you know, don't be afraid to ask because they don't always mean the same thing, right? Most of our markings are usually, but not always. So do be careful with that and enjoy it. Right? It's all about the music. So make your judgments musical. Next week on the podcast we'll talk about something much less confusing. We're going to talk about how to have a guilt free harp free vacation. Yeah, I know. Sometimes you can take your harp with you, sometimes you can't. And sometimes even if you have your harp with you, you aren't playing your regular kind of harp or your regular kind of music and you come back and you wish that you hadn't taken so much time off. But you know what? You deserve it. So we're going to talk about how to have a guilt free harp free vacation and how to come back to the harp playing without having to worry about sore fingers or what you're going to do or, you know, wishing you hadn't taken quite so long away. I want you to enjoy your vacation. So that's our topic for next week. Do be sure to check out the show notes for this episode. In the Show Notes I have put a link to a really helpful online resource. It's by a Finnish harpist who has compiled a really.

Well organized harp notation manual. She's done this all online. It's really fabulous and I've put a link to it right in the show Notes Notes. So you'll find the link to the Harp notation manual by Gunnhildur Einersthater in the in the show notes. So do go ahead and check that out. You might also enjoy the blog post from our archives that I have linked to called the Mysterious Case of the Extra Accidental. So a couple of things to check out in the show notes. So do enjoy those. I look forward to talking with you next week. Have a wonderful Independence Day and enjoy those celebrations. And also remember, every day, even today, is a day you can add more harp happiness to the universe, to your world, and to your spirit. And all you have to do is play. See you next time. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Practicing Harp Happiness Podcast. I release a new episode every Monday morning so you can hit your practice week running. Until then, remember to practice your harp. Happiness every day. See you next time.