Salzedo versus Grandjany?

[unknown-user]

[Cheryl Z.]

Hi Kit,

Go to Park Stickney’s website http://www.jazharp.com and you can see the picture of him with his harp in the sidecar of his motorcyle.

[Cheryl Z.]

Correction – The website for Park Stickney should read, http://www.jazzharp.com .

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Perhaps we should have a thread just for stupid harpist stereotypes. One that I resist about the Salzedo school is that the tone is harsh and percussive and only suitable for

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

A p.s., things haven’t changed enough, because in planning the Philadelphia harp conference, letters were received from certain people saying they would not attend if it were going to be an all-Salzedo conference, which it wasn’t, but I think they didn’t come anyway. That’s how I was told it, regardless of what actually happened, so to what extent it is factual, I can’t tell you.

[Joyce White]

Dan Yu studied at Peabody with Ruth Inglefield (student of Grandjany) and then with S. MacDonald at Indiana.

[carl-swanson]

Ruth Inglefield was a student of both Grandjany and Pierre Jamet.

[unknown-user]

How can you tell which technique you are using?

[unknown-user]

Maybe a Youtube posting of some Salzedo techniques vs Grandjany would help us newbies really see what it’s all about (I don’t really understand “crisp wrists” or even exactly what raising is either).

[unknown-user]

Yes, I would like very much to pursue an oral history/video project to interview and film Salzedo students playing, but I lack the resources. There is some variation, but I think most of it is between some students of Alice Chalifoux and Lucile Lawrence. I have seen a few of Salzedo’s finest pupils play, and they each had what I would call a very rounded hand position, with very strong finger action. Elbow angle should not be considered the defining characteristic.

Some of Grandjany’s pupils play with their knuckles curved inward, that is one of the most distinctive elements in their playing. Salzedo players do not usually rest their right wrist against the harp except in the first octave. The hand position is bigger, with a higher thumb, but similar. The specific or stylized use of gestures is more-or-less unique to the Salzedo approach, though raising has in general become widely adopted in some fashion. The way of fingering pieces and sometimes their interpretation tends to be different. But let us keep in mind that these are not two polar opposites, but two important figures in a field of many figures.

If you don’t know how you are playing, I would suggest that you do more study, to be more knowledgable about the harp in general, and to gain more experience in studying.

[unknown-user]

Also, if you are playing a lot of music by Salzedo, then I think you should study with a teacher in his lineage, so you understand his music and what he is after, just as if you were a pianist studying Rachmaninoff you might want to seek out a Russian teacher. I don’t enjoy hearing Salzedo’s music being played “incorrectly”, or without full understanding. What might help is knowing that he was very specific in his notations, and wanted them followed closely. He was very rhythmic, so don’t add rubato.

[Author]

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