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Sheet Music and Resources for Pedal and Lever Harps


Pretty Quick music publishes digital music. Because we ship orders as email attachments, we are unable at this time to use a traditional shopping cart. When you email us your order, let us know if you prefer to pay using Google Checkout or PayPal. Both options offer a secure site for the processing of credit card payments.  You are welcome to mail a check instead of using electronic payments with delivery via email to follow. Questions? Email us at prettyquick@hornandharp.com.    

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Pretty Quick Music catalog (includes a bit of free sheet music):

    Short Cuts: lead sheets for harpists
    Short and Sweet: one or two page (a few three pages)full arrangements of music for all harps sold in collections
    harp solos: harp solo arrangements for performance in worship settings, recitals and background music
    harp ensemble music: flexible, multi-level arangements for harp circles and student ensembles
    music for horn and harp: arrangements for purchase and a list of other recommended works for horn and harp  
    music for harp and strings: harp/viola, harp/cello and a few larger works
    music for horn  music for unaccompanied horn or horn with instruments other than harp and a list of resources

Music available in retail stores:
    The Sacred Lever Harp (pedal and lever harps) arr. Barbara Ann Fackler (solos for harp)
    The Sacred Lever Harp Supplement arr. Daniel K. Fackler (creates duos or trios from the above solos by adding violin, flute, cello, etc., flexible parts for C instruments)
    Silberjahr-Ländler by Daniel K. Fackler (harp solo)
    O For a Heart To Praise My God (Edwin T. Childs) edited by Barbara Ann Fackler (voice, harp, horn or cello or viola)
    In This Very Room (Ron and Carol Harris) pedal and lever harp, arr. Barbara Ann Fackler

Andrès Notation Project A compilation of markings used in the music of Bernard Andrès. Provided as a free download to harpists worldwide. Includes video demonstrations of some effects.  If you perform the harp compositions of Andrés, you'll eventually need this guide.  As musicians we are to follow the dictates of the music. There's no need to guess what terms mean, especially when the composer is still living and has given us a clear indication of his intent. As of March 2009, we've learned that there's a German translation in the works. 


Endorsements and kind words from satisfied customers:harp sheet music: healing harp music


 Thanks again for offering these collections.  I love the flexibility of your "Shortcuts" to be used for pedal or lever harp. I work with a flutist/vocalist and she appreciates that multiple keys are available also! Now that Easter is over, I will be doing a long-overdue update to my repertoire page and will be including many of your titles. Lin Umstead , Pennsylvannia

I spent yesterday morning playing through your arrangements, and they will really "beef" up my songs for weddings etc.  I was lacking recessionals - now I have some great suggestions I can make.  Thanks so very much to you!!  Elaine Stindt, Minneapolis

I never thought I'd be playing Bach's Air on lever harp! This is amazing. Thank you more than I can say. When I take my therapy harp to the hospital and nursing center I'm often asked for Baroque music and now, for the first time, I'm truly ready.  Andrea, Texas

Thank you for Jubilation. I'm a Beginning in the Middle student and Jubilation allowed me to play for my nephew's wedding after just a year and a half of lessons.   Thomas,  Boston


Resources for Choral Directors includes a list of choral works (SATB, TTBB, SSAA, TTBB, etc.) that include harp

Resources for Choral Directors includes a list of choral works (SATB, TTBB, SSAA, TTBB, etc.) that include horn.
or are easily and effectively transcribed for harp.


Thoughtful quotes and writings about the study and performance and appreciation of music:
"Music is well said to be the speech of angels" Thomas Carlyle, Essays, "The Opera"

"Music is love in search of a word." Sidney Lanier

"The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously.  Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic."  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

"A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence." Leopold Stokowski
"Technique exists to serve music, after all: rhythmic accuracy brings out the energy of a dance, and an evenly controlled melodic line allows you to sing what lies in your heart." Isabelle Moretti at the opening ceremonies for Harfengalerie Camac Berlin on September 26th, 2009.

"Music should be vital, accessible, and artfully made. It should appeal to performers by being playable and to listeners by being intelligible." German composer, Harald Genzmer (1909-2007)

“If you want to understand art, you have to understand the world; in order to understand the world, you have to understand human beings; then you will understand yourselves, and that is the key to everything. That will make playing, composing, dancing less an exhibition of unimportant skills in a society game, meeting with more or less approval, blindly climbing up the deceitful ladder of success, but an opening of your heart to the word and the world to your heart. And that is what you came here for, that is what makes music one of the most sublime emanations of the human spirit, that is what makes it worthwhile to devote one's life to it. Looking back on my own life, I recognize my good fortune in having had as my masters some real heroes of music.” -Edward Steuermann, Convocation Address at the Julliard School of Music on October 7th, 1964
"The secret of discipline is motivation. When a man is sufficiently motivated, discipline will take care of itself." - Sir Alexander Paterson
Thomas Stevens has written some wonderful articles on the performance of music. Aimed originally at trumpeters, his insights are worth considering by all who pursue music, whether at an amateur or professional level.  Start with his article on performance consistency and branch out. Those labled "for trumpeters only" have valuable insights for all musicains and are highly recommended.

"It ought no longer be true that the most exalted moments of a churchgoer's week are associated with music that would not be tolerated in a place of secular entertainment." - Ralph Vaughan-Williams

"The aim and final reason of all music should be nothing else but the Glory of God and the refreshment of the Spirit." - J. S. Bach

"Musicality and musicianship have not necessarily kept pace with technical achievements, which makes no sense because those are the considerations that account for the differences between human beings and machines. In the final analysis, technical ability with a musical instrument is meaningless if one doesn't know what to do with it" -Thomas Stevens, trumpeter

"Technique is the training of finger muscles in order to have control over gestures. If developed properly, a clean and reliable technique will lead to a joyful experience of playing the harp instead of frustration." -Isabelle Perrin

"The amateur works until they get something right - the professional works until they can't go wrong." - Advice given to Julie Andrews from her singing teacher

"If you are not intentionally creating a good habit, you are, by default, creating a bad one. Habits are easily made. The trick is to be conscious of the kind of habit you are creating for yourself. The habit of not practicing regularly is a habit that is difficult to break." -Barbara Fackler

"It is far more satisfying to play something correctly and well than to struggle to play a piece that is too difficult." -Isabelle Perrin

"... I practice more than ever ... mostly scales and arpeggios ... and anything I can't do ... " - Julian Bream

"The best way to learn to tune is to play on a well-tuned instrument." - Lynne Abbey-Lee

"Always, always listen to what you are playing. There is a good reason we don't teach deaf people how to play harp." - Barbara Fackler

"Music has to be simple in nature. When you want to try to make things complicated, it usually doesn't work. Communication is about making the complex become simple." -Isabelle Perrin

"Playing scales is like a boxer skipping rope or punching a bag. It's not the thing in itself; it's preparatory to the activity." - Barney Kessel - Jazz Guitar

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." - Beverly Sills

"As a singer I tried on all these hats, these voices, these clothes, and eventually out came me." - Carly Simon

"When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don't even notice." - Sarah Vaughan

"Do not set for yourself an arbitrary goal, but let the level of your accomplishment be determined by time, patience, and the amount of energy you can apply. It will not come overnight, but it will come in time." - Marjorie Chauvel

"Always be smarter than the people who hire you." - Lena Horne

"Success is important only to the extent that it puts one in a position to do more things one likes to do." - Sarah Caldwell

"Being musical is not a matter of your ability level or playing the most complicated music, because the value of music is not related to its level of difficulty. Music is about feeling emotion. The passion given from inside the heart matters more than anything else; sometimes a very simple melody is so gorgeous that it leaves me breathless. I can enjoy its beauty just as much as a complicated one." -Isabelle Perrin

Interesting thoughts from harpist Sam Milligan on the value of intermeditate level music. Visit the rest of Milligan's Blog here.

"You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music." - Billie Holiday

"The downside of videos is that it will put my vision in front of other people, so they might not get the chance to create their own." - Carole King

"I don't try to sound like anyone but me anymore. If something is out of my element, I try to avoid it." - Norah Jones

"When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed its point." - Maria Callas

"As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might." - Marian Anderson

"Sometimes oppurtunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it." - Julie Andrews

No one can figure out your worth but you. - Pearl Bailey

"Motivation can't just come from the teacher. The student has to give 100% and the teacher has to give 100%-then things can be accomplished." - Kathleen Bride

"Short periods of concentrated practice are better than hours of mind-wandering practice." -Patricia Jaeger

"Don't settle for success when excellence is within your grasp." - anonymous

"If you wish to play harp well, you must practice well." -Barbara Fackler

"If a song's about something I've experienced or that could've happened to me it's good. But if it's alien to me, I couldn't lend anything to it. Because that's what soul is all about." - Aretha Franklin

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." - Judy Garland

"Watching what your hands are playing is not the most efficient way to use your eyes." -Laurie Riley

"Work on sight-reading! The very best readers can cut their preparation time in half." -Nancy Allen

"Listen and feel the expressive qualities of the music you are studying or performing and your playing will not only be correct but also musical." - Patricia Jaeger

"Sometimes the most simple compositions can be the most beautiful." - Sally Maxwell

"There is nothing difficult, there are only new things, unaccustomed things." - Carlos Salzedo

"It is actually quite easy to teach a student to play a piece. It's another thing altogether to teach that student to think." - Suzanne W. Guy

"Guessing never saves time. Guessing never improves learning." -Barbara Fackler

"If I do not practice one day, I know it. If I do not practice the next, the orchestra knows it. If I do not practice the third, the whole world knows it." -Ignac Paderewski

"Your teacher can only tell you what to practice. The learning is up to you." -Barbara Fackler

"A great work of art is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty." - Nadia Boulanger

"The only way to do something is to do it." -Carlos Salzedo

"... Andres Segovia literally created the genre of classical guitar, which hadn't existed before around 1910. There was flamenco, which he borrowed from, but he actually arranged the works of Mozart and other classical composers for guitar, something that had never been done before ... Segovias' style is not slick or contrived, but it's still very clean and his timing is impeccable ... it's got a feeling of casual elegance, as if he's sitting around the house in Spain with a jug of wine, just playing from the heart." - Roger McGuinn / Byrds

"Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cuz you're really a yawn if it goes." - Bette Midler

"You can't just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You've got to get out there and make it happen for yourself." - Diana Ross

"You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it." - Barbra Streisand

"I don't like to dwell on the past." - Tina Turner

Free Harp Sheet Music:

These are freely downloadable and distributable arrangements(PDF). Look for more free music in the Pretty Quick Music catalog.

It's much faster to browse PDF files online if you don't have to download them first. If you have a Mac and use Safari, you already know how handy this can be. Here's some tips that might make this possible for you.

Insert for Britten's "There is No Rose", from Ceremony of Carols: Why Britten chose to put the harp notation in small notes and the piano in large is a mystery. This insert makes it easier to read this in poor light, so common in many churches. (pedal harp)

The Puget Sound Folk Harp Society graciously offers free harp music quarterly. They also keep archives of features music. It's always worth a visit to see what's there.  Files are offered in PDF format or Sibelius.

There are some free arrangements for harp from Mary Radspinner at the Melody's Music website. Look in the index at the left.