bochsa etude 7 from vingt etudes

[HBrock25]

hi everyone,

I want study the study number 7 from “vingt etudes” by C. N. Bochsa and I have some questions.
I know dumped sounds and I read Bochsa’s treatises but I don’t understand how I can play this study and nobody can help me.
I want play it because is very pretty
could you help me?
In particular I don’t undestand if the symbol for dumped sound is only for the chord above it or if is for more chords up to the symbol for natural sound
and where is a staccato what I do?

thank you very much

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Do you mean dampened or muffled sounds? A dampening symbol under a chord refers only to that spot, unless there is a line indicating that the dampening is to continue. I don’t have this piece in front of me, but if you could scan the page and sent it in an email, I wouldn’t mind looking at it to answer your question.
Dots above the notes mean staccato for most instruments, but sometimes in harp music they can mean a light, staccato feel instead, if it is impossible to muffle after every note.

[carl-swanson]

I’m not sure which etude you are referring to. Are you talking about his “20 easy etudes, vol. 1 and 2 Op. 318?(vingt etudes facile)?” If so, etude no. 7 is all 8 note chords. There is no other collection of Bochsa etudes which contain 20 etudes. Can you provide more information? Op. number?

[rossana zucca]

Hi, yes i can provide more information, I’m speaking about this:

http://archive.org/details/vingttudespour01boch

(it’s a link, if you can see the link you can write “vingt études pour la harpe ” by Bochsa on

http://archive.org/

thank you so much 🙂

[carl-swanson]

I just looked at it. I can see why you’re confused. It looks like in the left hand line the dots over the note indicate to play those notes very short with the thumb and the hand muffling the sound after each note. But when the right hand octaves come in I think you are supposed to just play the octaves without muffling. Dots over notes usually indicate to not connect. But that’s the only way you could play those octaves anyway. I would try it in a variety of ways and just do the one that sounds best.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

The N.B. in the first bar means “nota bene”. Somewhere in the book there must be a note about the muffling sounds. It probably says that the dampening symbol applies until the next symbol for natural sounds. It probably also says that the dampening only happens in the left hand. For example, in the 26th bar, where it says “con espress”, the right hand should be played legato, though the dampening continues in the left hand.
Carl is right about the octaves in the right hand. Since the strings up there are so short, the sound dies pretty quickly anyway. Salzdo’s book Method for the Harp has an excellent study on dampening, with several techniques. For example, if there is a large gap between two notes which are to be muffled, you can use a third or fourth finger, still using the palm to dampen the sound.

[rossana zucca]

thank you so much to Elizabeth Volpé Bligh and Carl Swanson!!! 🙂
I try to summarize:
1 the symbol for muffled sounds it’s only for the left hand and I play from the symbol to the first star for natural sounds
2 the dot over the note indicates two things: for the left hand the muffled sounds and for the right hand a pretty and fast staccato

so we have three sounds: muffled, staccato and natural with all the expressive nuances.
and we can say that the study shows how to make a short sound with right and left hand in two different ways.

I see Salzedo’s method for harp and it is very interesting! thank you!

[Author]

Posts