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Also, Rhett Barnwell has some truly beautiful voice and harp transcriptions of sacred music, a couple with obbligato cello parts.
(BTW, given your specific requirements, you should know that ‘Basically Bach’ mentioned earlier in this thread consists primarily of only the A sections of most of the pieces in it, so you might want to take a look at that one before purchasing, if you can. A few of them are the whole thing, but many are not.)
I especially like Rhett’s arrangement of the Requiem Aeternum from the Faure Requiem (available only as a single piece of sheet music). It’s also possible to play that one as a solo from his arrangement if you look at it a bit. His Serenade for the Soul collection is also excellent–mostly solo, but vocal parts to a few of the pieces it contains.
Another person who has some nice classical transcriptions for solo harp who hasn’t been mentioned in this thread is Anne Marie O’Farrell, the goddess of lever flipping. Her published arrangements are not that difficult. They’re available for download from her site. (A few, like her Recuerdos de Alhambra are for pedal harp although not marked as such in the list.)
*blush* Thanks, Tony and Liath!
One thing I would like to point out: I see a lot of lever harpists knocking themselves out to play from pedal harp transcriptions, when it’s the very changes that the arranger made to make the piece more idiomatic for pedal harp that make it hard for levers (transposition to key with tons of flats, enharmonic doublings and substitutions, for example).
So for music originally written for keyboard, you are often better off going back to the original, although a pedal harp transcription can be very helpful for fingering.
There are a couple of harpist dealers, like Jan Jennings in Orlando, who sells L&H and Thormahlen, but they are not stores. They just order them for you, or they may have a used harp or so for sale. But if you want to see a lot of harps on display, Atlanta’s as close as it gets, I’m afraid.
>My next book on the list is Ray Pool’s ‘Blazing Levers’ – I’ve had the pedal version highly recommended. Sadly, whoever distributes it for him keeps sending my music supplier multiple copies of the pedal version
That’s because it’s “Clever Levers”. Only pedals blaze. 🙂
Glad you’re enjoying the books.
I’m not suggesting that she’s a scofflaw, just that copyright is confusing and harpists often think things are okay when they’re actually not.
Is that legit, Poly? I ask because I never could get permission from his estate and certainly except for that and the Villa Lobos, everything else on her site is more or less Public Domain.
Well, one problem is that the harmonics are in a different place depending on whether the string is in flat, natural, or sharp, since the disc changes the speaking length of the string.
Dear Hannah,
If you are serious enough about music to be entering the AHS competition, may I suggest that if you plan on a career in music these days, it is absolutely essential to understand the marketplace and how it has changed?
You MUST familiarize yourself with these methods of distribution (and their impact on what you can expect to earn), since CDs are quickly going the way of the 8-track tape. (I have a good friend who currently makes a very good living from CDs alone, but even he says he figures one more year and he won’t be able to sell physical discs at all.)
This is the world you will be living in and you need to start thinking of how you will function there, unless of course you are just entering the AHS competition for fun.
Don’t you have itunes? Many recordings of each by well-known harpists there.
Also, Mr. Grandjany hiimself recorded the Haydn Fantaisie, in the LP recording that used to be available through the AHS. Don’t know if that’s been remastered to CD.
