which would work best for classical music for harp when it comes to things like Mozart and Bach ETC Diatonic or Chromatic. and has anyone ever tried such a thing?
Classical music is done on a chromatic about roughly 99% of the time. One of the few classical tunes done on a diatonic is Jesus The Joy Of Man's Desiring, which can pretty much be easily done on a diatonic in 1st position.
Below is from John Sebastian Sr.
---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by barbequebob on Jul 15, 2015 1:29 PM
Of all the harmonica players I could think of who play classical music in concert, only one plays diatonic. Care to venture a guess? PS It's not Buddy Greene.
I saw a guy playing Mozart on diatonic in a competition at the World Harmonica Festival in 1997, using bends and overblows as needed. Howard Levy and I were on the jury and Howard was blown away by what the guy was doing. However, many classical types are very leery of an instrument that can't maintain an absolute uniformity of tonal quality and attack. Every time you play a bend or an overblow, the attack and tone color change - and accurate pitch is also hard to maintain. Even blow and draw notes sound tonally different.
Richard Hunter is one player who points out the classical requirements, and in 2009 he proposed - and I staged - the Ode to Joy Challenge, where someone plays (and records) Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which is classical but simple, in second position, which requires a two-semitone bend on Draw 3. Listeners could then vote and comment on the performances.
You can visit the Ode Challenge website here:
http://www.geocities.ws/odechallenge/index.htm
While the mp3 files seems to have been swallowed by an abandoned url, you can read the rules and the voting results.
There was also a good deal of discussion of the Ode Challenge on harp-l at the time (summer of 2009). =========== Winslow
anyone know which key of chromatic I should get or the type of chromatic I should use. I know Hohner has those chromatics that are easy to put together and maintain with the plastic shell covering one of them is for jazz and is gold in color if I remember right
Gnarly, I play the head of Mouret's 'Rondeau' (the Masterpiece Theater Theme) on diatonic to tease the audience before going into some rock, but that's not a terribly hard one; it lays out without even needing any bends, let alone overblows. :)
For classical most players use a C chromatic, which makes reading music straightforward (an E on the page is an E on the harp).
Some players use multiple keys of chromatic, to make certain ornaments (such as trills) and two-note harmonies possible. Even Robert Bonfiglio, who usually uses a C, has a B chromatic to make certain things go more smoothly.
Then there's range. You can get chromatics in 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16-hole sizes. Four holes make an octave, so a 12-hole has three octaves and a 16-holer (the biggest) has four. Because the bottom note of a standard three-octave chromatic is middle C and some music goes a bit lower, some folks will either get a 14-holer, or will get a 12-hole Seydel "orchestra tuned" chromatic, which go down to G below middle C to handle that occasional B, Bb or A that might come up.
The Hohner CX-12, the one with the pop-off plastic shell, is well regarded, and the slide is easy to clean, but for anything deeper inside the harp, it's no easier to service than any others.
For detailed reviews of several models of chromatic, include photos and mp3 playing samples, check out some of the articles I wrote for harmonicasessions.com. You can access them most conveniently via my website at Winslow's HarmonicaSessions articles =========== Winslow
I work for Suzuki as their repair tech in the US, and so always recommend their harps--and the SCX is a bargain, very airtight . . . But the CX-12 is great for beginners, since one big pain in the ass are the windsavers, pieces of plastic over the slots to make it more airtight. The CX is a breeze to get to the windsavers over the blow slots, and those are the ones that give you the most trouble. But we have a one year warranty, and theirs is 60 days . . . I forgot to mention, for classical you probably want a 14 or 16 hole, lots of music in the classical repertoire goes below middle C, so get an SCX-64 and Bob's your uncle . . .
Last Edited by Gnarly on Jul 15, 2015 11:46 PM
Personally, I'm a fan of 16-holers more than 14-holers. That said, 16 holes can be a little overwhelming at first. I found myself going back to 12-holers when I started playing classical and melodic material in general as opposed to third-position chordal blues, and it helped me a lot. Also, some folks (not me, but as I said, this is highly personal) find they can't really make friends with the bottom two holes on a 16-holer, so a 14-holer can make good sense. And Suzuki makes both their value-line SCX and their upmakret Sirius in 14-hole sizes. =========== Winslow