harpcolumn

Re: Substituting glisses for arpeggios in Trio Sonata?

Log in to your Harp Column account to post or reply in the forums. If you don’t have an account yet, you’ll need to email us to set one up.

Home Forums Forum Archives Professional Harpists Substituting glisses for arpeggios in Trio Sonata? Re: Substituting glisses for arpeggios in Trio Sonata?

#148448

For the first performance of Debussy Sonata (december 10, 1916), it was
with Albert Manouvrier (fl), Darius Milhaud (alto), and Jeanne Dalliès
(chrom. hpe).
It was not really a concert, but the first audition, in the house of Jacques Durand (his editor).
Debussy
didn’t like a lot this Pleyel harp, but Jeanne Dalliès was not so bad
for him, as we can read it on this letter for Jacques Durand, December
14, 1916 : “Vous
m’avez écrit des choses charmantes sur la Sonate pour Fl, Alt et Harpe. Seulement l’expérience n’est pas complète, à cause
de la harpe chromatique qui n’a jamais le poids sonore de la harpe à pédale,
mais qui trouve le moyen d’être lourde. Pourtant Mademoiselle en joue aussi
bien que possible.” — sorry, I can not translate…

Pierre Jamet
was the first performer to play on pedal harp, just one year after, and
he write to Jacques Durand (letter of Mars 22, 1917) that he prefers
really Erard harp : “J’ai
pu constater une fois de plus la supériorité de la harpe à pédales sur
la harpe
chromatique qui, si j’ose m’exprimer ainsi, n’enveloppe rien, et rend
les
délicieux son harmoniques, pareils à un tambour voilé”

I’ve
seen the manuscrit of the sonate, it’s not glissando, but arpeggios,
exactly the same than in the edited