2nd harp parts

[Sylvia]

Does anyone have a list of 2nd harp parts for orchestra, please?
Thank you.

[Sylvia]

I know pretty much which Debussy, Ravel, and R. Strauss have 2nds….and the Bernstein Ch. Psalms,. I can’t think of any others at the moment, but I suppose there are some.

[Tacye]

There are loads – but I have never seen them listed. Wagner’s Ring Cycle (+ 3rd-6th or even 7th!), Holst’s Planets, Elgar’s Gerontius, Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Strauss operas… The imslp website is often good for checking up on individual suspects.

[Sylvia]

Thank you. The operas don’t count, in this case. I forgot about the Berlioz. I’m just looking at ones that might come up. I love IMSLP, but it has SO MANY works it would take forever to look at all of them!

[Tacye]

How could I forget Pelleas und Melisande by Schoenberg – the only orchestral piece I am adamant I will refuse to play again if asked. I hope it doesn’t come up for whatever you are asking about!

[Sylvia]

Ugh. It sounds horrible…Schoenberg ….you know it has to be a dog. That’s probably why you forgot it…too painful to think about. Thanks for the input. I don’t think it would be a likely choice for this orchestra.

[Alison]

Holywell Music have a really good catalogue which can be downloaded as a pdf file, and there is a section around page 62 listing orchestral parts – it’s a ‘godsend’ for you, a few missing but very good (I’ll tell the compiler tomorrow how much we appreciate it). I can also think of Bartock’s Conc for Orch, Mahler 2,3+6, Elgar I,II, in the South, Don Juan (who’s), Strauss (Rosenkav, Tod, Alpine, Heldenleben, Wiegenlied), Janacek (Taras Bulba, ) Prokofiev +Tchai (ballets), some Shostakovitch 4, 5 or 10, Chabrier’s Espana , Bernstein’s Candide, Respighi’s Pines or Fountains of Rome. Ravel’s Mother Goose,
Certainly prep 2nd harp’s tricky bit in the planets,(prob Venus), Bernstein’s Chichester Psalm bottom of page 3 I think, where there is a tricky bit of pedalling under the soprano.. What about Vaughan William’s Sea Symphony quite a lot in 2nd and 5 Variants/Dives Lazurus (it says doubled).. ?? I also thought of Bax (Tintagel). How best to collaborate on a master list, a tricky question……… without going through the parts to hand, not sure I like the sound of auditioning any of these parts at sight, not very practical nor realistic. Kinda useful though, guess this will be like counting sheep…

[Sylvia]

Yes, you are right! The Holywell catalog is a great listing to find 2nds. Thank you so much.

[sherry-lenox]

David Daniels’ book on orchestral music is a terrific resource for anyone who is an active orchestral performer, and although it is a little expensive it’s also a gold mine of information and a great resource for questions about historical instrumentation. Also a great holiday gift! Harp parts are listed specifically by number and also by unison doubling.

[Sylvia]

I hadn’t thought about looking at the LH catalog until I saw the Holywell. Duh. That is an obvious place to look because it shows what pieces have 2nd harp.

[Alison]

Hi Sylvia et al, I need to encourage a pupil to start playing in orchestra with me. She’s a good reader but not a ‘quick’ player, so can you think of parts in short pieces where the 2nd harp has a reasonable amount of accessible playing, rather than hardly anything at all, otherwise they’ll be counting during all of my 1st part bars as well, so not Debussy’s l’apres midi d’un faun, possibly something more like Mahler but not such a long work… Thanks Alison

[Author]

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