Playing music written for other instruments

[sherry-lenox]

I’m not sure where this question should go, so I’ll try here. Yesterday I was on my way home from work and I heard the most spectacular recording.

It was Glenn Gould playing reinassance music on piano. I was just astounded at the embellishments- they sounded like heavy mordents (I think) played before the beat, but the beat was solidly maintained throughout. I guess it could have been played by the appropriate keyboard instrument of the era but the overall effect on piano was just amazing.

So tonight, since the paper shredder was broken at work and I had to shred about 30 pounds of paper by hand and therefore can’t play because the skin on my thumbs looks like two matching opposite grapes, I was sitting here wondering if such a piece was or could have been played on the harp.

It was said on the radio’s schedule that it was a piece by Byrd, but there was a listening sample that I listened to and it turned out to have been the wrong piece, so I don’t know what it was, but is there anything written by Byrd that is played on the harp, or even anything from that period of time that was written for harp?

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Yes, Byrd can be played on the harp, and other composers of that period. David Watkins published a collection, the first in his four-volume series. You can do one better and get the Dover editions of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, two volumes, with hundreds of pieces, and you can work out the ornamentation yourself, which of course, only begins ON the beat. Ornaments nearly always take their value from the following note.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

P.S., I have sketched out transcriptions of quite a few of them, if you are willing to wait for them. Grandjany also published a small number of them. I do not recommend the King’s Hunt, though, I do not think it works well at all for harp.

[sherry-lenox]

I wish I could send you a sound file of the piece I heard Saul. I can’t quite explain how the ornamentation was executed but the result was wonderful. I had never heard Gould play anything but Bach, and this was a completely different thing. Almost a hammering style. As I think of it, being quite a bit wider awake than last night, the piece I heard might not have lent itself so well because of the style of the ornaments.

Still, I had completely forgotten the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, and that would seem, from my harp-naive ear to be more likely for harp.

I wish I could recall the name of this piece. I’ve emailed the broadcaster who has the hour in which it was played. I’m sure I’ve heard it played by early winds, and I think one of the 20th century British composers (Holst?) used the melody in a modern orchestral arrangement.

One of those darn things that stays with your mind until you listen to it enough times to retire it a bit. Thanks so much for your comments!

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

It is very likely in that book.

[andy-b]

So, Saul, would you say a Byrd on the harp is worth two on the Bosendorfer?

[sherry-lenox]

……..ahrghhhhhhhhhh

[andy-b]

Sorry, Sherry…I held it in as long as I could, just couldn’t resist, lol!

[Kathleen Clark]

Sherry,

The following Gould CD has large sound samples for all tracks, is one of them the piece?

Consort of Musick by William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons…

[sherry-lenox]

You are correct, Kathleen. I came

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

A Byrd in the hand is worth about one page of Purcell. It is very tricky to transcribe this music. Some of it works well, a lot is far too dense with counterpoint and moving bass lines. The technique of composing is called division, which means taking slow themes and putting twice as many notes between them. The most fun pieces are ones like My Ladey Hunsdowne’s Dump.

[Author]

Posts