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It’s an old post, but just for the clarity: Badings’ Cavatina has been edited for alto flute and harp or violin and harp: “viool” means “violin”. However, I think it certainly would suit on the viola. It’s also played on other melody instruments and piano.
No…but you can see the movements of the first harpist in the corner of the eye and it’s easier to listen to the first harpist and to adjust.
The World Harp Congress is a congress where harpists and those interested in harp gather together for concerts, lectures etc. Take a look at http://www.worldharpcongress.org, it’s very worth visiting it!
Ah, wine is most of the times fine…I hardly know a harpist who doesn’t like wine 😉
However, I am always moved when a kid has made for example a drawing for me!
Site: http://www.koncon.nl
Besides that, the Royal Conservatory is well-known for its composition department with a.o. Louis Andriessen as teacher. This year, Heiner Goebbels will have his festival at this institute. Composers like Messiaen, Cage, Kagel, Ligeti, Kurt��g and Reich visited The Hague extensively in such festivals.
Probably way too late, but I would suggest Ernestine Stoop, http://www.ernestinestoop.nl,
All information about the tenth World Harp Congress 2008 can be found on the next internet pages:
http://www.worldharpcongress.org
Because I didn’t check this forum anymore, I had to read a lot! And now I have forgotten a lot…
Of course, I should play what I want to, but the opinion of a non-harpist-musician is very important for me, because they can change the “status level” of the harp.
I recently have received a lesson on Mozart KV 330 from a very renowned forte piano player. He told me after having played the first movement: “Isn’t this a harp sonata?” He was surprised that it’s rarely played on the harp. KV 330 is not very chromatic, but is quite often played on the piano (which shows its importance and depth). It was a wonderful lesson and an eye-opener, as it wasn’t just making it “beautiful”. After the lesson, he told me which sonatas would be sounding fine on harp as well!
About Carter: I often play his Bariolage and the audience likes it! And recently, my teacher Ernestine Stoop played “Mosaic”, an ensemble piece with a solo part for the harp, written for the Nash Ensemble in 2005. Of all the pieces played in this concert, the Carter piece was best appreciated! I think Carter can touch the soul (but I know there are many people disliking Carter’s music).
Ok, I actually meant Debussy pieces in general, I know that many of the Debussy preludes are unplayable on harp (however, I wish I could play them!).
Why do you think particularly European harpists care less about the quality of composition? I think you are right about some harpists, but there are many European harpists who have encouraged the important composers to write for the harp, for example Ursula Holliger (Martin, Yun, Carter and many, many more) and Francis Pierre. I also see many other harpists in Europe focusing on contemporary music. (I think you’ve noticed that I’m European, hehe)
However, the harp as a dominant instrument would be an utopia, but it should get more attention, absolutely. I’m just afraid that it’s more difficult to write for the harp, as we can’t play chromatically as fast as other instruments.
I haven’t transcribed anything yet; I haven’t changed anything in Bach and Mozart yet (although perhaps I will change a quite fast chromatic scale at the end of Mozart KV 330). I’m playing Ravel’s Sonatine in an arrangement by Salzedo for flute, viola and harp. In general it sounds very fine. But there are some quite big differences with the original; not even merely the notes
Why not playing piano/harpsichord pieces on the harp? Of course, just a
small part of the piano repertoire is possible, but for example,
preludes and fugues by Bach, sonatas by Mozart (330 or 545), Scarlatti
sonatas, Debussy preludes, I’ve seen some Brahms intermezzos on
programmes (though I myself am not a fan of these intermezzos)…for
some reason, Beethoven doesn’t sound so nice on the harp.Oh, and if you are searching for a technically demanding contemporary
piece which is very appreciated by the public, you should try Partita
(II) by Heinz Holliger.Congratulations! What pieces will you play?
I think it’s nice for the other harpist that she plays another instrument, because then she can also play the pieces with one harp.And yes, you should know the piece 100%. If possible, listen to recordings and play along with it. When I was in youth orchestra, I didn’t know the piece 100% and I was very embarrassed during rehearsals. Now I’m replacing in professional orchestras and I’m always preparing the piece very well, no matter how simple it is! In fact, the easier the piece, the more difficult the rehearsals, as one is intended to pay less attention to the easy piece!
I think the “oe” in Poenitz is spoken like the “eu” in “feu” (French), just a bit more stretched. Is there any English word with this sound? I think it shouldn’t be pronounced like the “oo” in “book”, that would be a Dutch pronounciation (“boek” (Dutch) sounds almost the same as “book” (English)).
“I should also add that, when I walk out on stage to play a recital(always from memory) 100% of my concern is that I will have a memory slip that I can’t get out of. I don’t worry about difficult passages or missed notes. Of course I’m going to miss some notes. That’s live performance and it’s not worth worrying about. But I do worry about memory problems. But the reality is that, with the system I use for memorizing, I almost never have memory problems at all, and the few times I do, I can get out of them easily.”
This is very funny, I have exactly the same experience! A couple of years ago, I had the following system to memorize: when I knew the piece well, I started to play the piece (or first parts of the piece) with left hand only and right hand only by heart. I played the left hand and thought of what the right hand should play and vice versa. I also played one hand and thought of what the playing hand is playing. I also practiced without any hands, just the pedals, playing both hands in my head. Since I’m doing this, I’ve never had big trouble in pieces in recitals, and if I lost it somewhere, I always could recover quite easily. By doing this, it’s also a lot easier to play a piece again after having not played it for a long time.
Also in the train or bicycling I’m playing pieces in my head.
Then the solfege: I believe there’s a “French” system and another system. The French system is naming the notes singing, not considering the distances. As we in The Netherlands have quite the same system as in Germany (g sharp is called gis, b flat is called bes), it’s quite easy here to sing on note names.
Furthermore, I have heard of a combination of this: as “fa diese” takes a lot of time, one can sing “feu” (I don’t know how to bring this into American syllables, this should be pronounced in the French way), I can’t remember the vowel for “bemol”, maybe a b-flat is called “sais”? (again, French pronunciation). And one can indeed sing on base of the tonal system: the tonic is called “one” or “do”, the dominant “five” or “sol”, but one has to analyse the harmony a bit first, because of modulations.
By the way, I’m always impressed by how fast the French can say those note names so quickly! Perhaps they are used to speaking with many syllables per second? 😉
