glissando piece

[Gretchen Cover]

Can any one think of a somewhat showy glissando piece besides Great Day, Song in the Night, Fraicheur Night Breeze and Crystalis? It’s always fun to throw one in a gig or if someone asks you to play a piece.

[Sonya Wiley]

Dance of the Little Fish, my teacher remarked it is always an attention grabber!

[balfour-knight]

Gretchen, you know that I just “play it by ear and add glissandos where I want to,” ha, ha! But seriously, “The Little Fountain” by Samuel Pratt is “showy” and I even make it more showy “by ear.” I am trying hard to play the Tournier pieces “straight,” and almost have all three memorized now, but it is so tempting to add embellishments by ear. The only way my early teachers could get me to “behave” was to promise that if I learned a piece by the notes, then they would let me be free to improvise on it after that! Hope there are other suggestions on “glissando pieces” out there.

Best thoughts,
Balfour

[kathie-bracy]

“The Magic Fountain” from Glamour Suite No. 1 by Harry J. Chalmers. Two pages long, easy to learn, very schmaltzy, but people love it. Also out of print, I’m sure, so you’d have to search for a copy. Listed as “Solo for Harp or Piano”, but I think a pianist would have to substitute arpeggios for the glisses. Lots of easy arpeggios, something like the ones in Sam Pratt’s Fountain piece.

[Karen Knapp]

Can Dance of the Little Fish be played on the lever harp. Are there a lot of sharps or flats? I would like to order it, but need to know before.

[Gretchen Cover]

No, Dance of the Little Fish won’t work on lever harp. The pedal markings are Cb Eb Fb D# and G#. You have to put the F in flat, natural and sharp. It is not a good enough piece IMHO to adapt for lever harp. You would be better off learning The Little Fountain. There are glisses at the end of LF but they are accomplished by pressing on two strings to muffle rather than making lever changes. (Unfortunately, none the lever harpists playing Little Fountain on youtube clips do the glisses as instructed in the music but the pedal harpists do so.)

[balfour-knight]

The “Little Fountain” on pedal harp is a dream piece! At several points in the piece, I put the pedals in the F6 positions, D-C-B#-E#-F-G-A, and utilize the entire range of the harp for the glissandos. I sometimes do what is instructed in the music by damping the strings near the end of the piece, then do the full glissandos on the F6 pedal setting to end on–it brings the audience to their feet!

By the way, Gretchen, I cannot play this piece on my lever harps tuned in the Key of C–it must have B flats! It would be worth tuning the B flats just for “The Little Fountain” if I have occasion to play it in concert on the lever harp.

My pedal harp concert went well this evening! There were enough people there that late-comers had to be seated up in the choir area, so I had people all around me! The ones behind me did not know how much pedal work goes into a concert like that, and were amazed. The audience loved the Tournier pieces, and most of them had not ever heard of him. Thanks, Carl, for steering us back to the beautiful music of this neglected composer!

Best wishes to all of you,
Balfour

[Author]

Posts