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The accompaniment is there ONLY for the first two measures, not for measures three and four of that passage. So when the orchestra stops playing, there is no longer a diminished chord.
What’s truly bizarre is that in all of the other solutions I have found- and I’ve found 5 so far-each solution deals with the real problem, which is the pedals. Salzedo is the only one who simplifies the notes, irrespective of necessity in pedaling. In other words, he apparently felt that the notes were hard as well as the pedals. I’ve never felt the notes, meaning the strings you have to hit, were difficult in this passage, and I don’t think anyone else does either. It’s exclusively the pedals that cause nightmares. At least Jamet’s solution, which may have been his or may have been Renie’s, sounds like the original, which is the goal of any simplification. Salzedo’s does not.
And by the way, two different Salzedo harpists sent me copies of what they do in that passage, and they’re both the same. So I think I’m using the version that Salzedo forced on his students.
I would say also that when I played the piano regularly, I rarely looked at the keyboard. The advantage of the piano is that there is a configuration to the black and white notes that makes it easy to feel your way around. Not so on the harp. I have to look much more at my hands and the strings, probably because I don’t play regularly enough to easily feel distances. If I’ve been away from the harp for a while, the first thing that goes is the ability to feel octaves, chord positions, etc. It comes back very fast, but if I worked as a professional harpist and played all the time, I wouldn’t have that problem.
The larger visual problem on the harp, which was addressed not too long ago here, is being able to focus on the whole plane of strings. Those of us beyond a certain age have an awful time getting glasses that will allow us to focus on the entire range of strings, and usually have to settle for one end of the instrument or the other being fuzzy.
I agree with Briggsie. You may be too close to the instrument. You may have to lean slightly forward while sitting further away from the instrument to find the right balance point. Maybe too, you just have to get used to the feeling of playing a smaller instrument and that it’s not that bad once you adjust. I’m 5’11” and I play a 45 string semi-grand built in 1899 as my preferred instrument. I sit quite low(on a diningroom chair) and I’m very comfortable. When I play a concert grand, I have to sit higher.
+There is nothing indefensible about it. Really, that’s a ridiculous thing to say. +
Alright, I just took another look at the Salzedo version, with the complete score right next to me, and the Salzedo version is even more ridiculous than I thought.
The whole sequence is a series of diminished chords, which consist of four different notes(all a minor third apart). Salzedo eliminates two of the four notes in each chord, completely changing the harmony, particularly in the third and fourth measures of the Animez, where the orchestra stops playing completely and the harp, all alone, has to provide that diminished chord harmony. So the core harmony of the passage is missing.
IN ADDITION, in the original, as well as every other solution to this passage I have found, the left hand provides emphasis to the right hand notes that start each beat. Debussy has double stems on those notes to indicate that they are to be emphasized. So in the original version those notes are played in octaves. In the Salzedo version they are not.
So please, I think I’ll add the qualifier ‘idiotic’ to indefensible!
+There is nothing indefensible about it. Really, that’s a ridiculous thing to say. +
Alright, I just took another look at the Salzedo version, with the complete score right next to me, and the Salzedo version is even more ridiculous than I thought.
The whole sequence is a series of diminished chords, which consist of four different notes(all a minor third apart). Salzedo eliminates two of the four notes in each chord, completely changing the harmony, particularly in the third and fourth measures of the Animez, where the orchestra stops playing completely and the harp, all alone, has to provide that diminished chord harmony. So the core harmony of the passage is missing.
IN ADDITION, in the original, as well as every other solution to this passage I have found, the left hand provides emphasis to the right hand notes that start each beat. Debussy has double stems on those notes to indicate that they are to be emphasized. So in the original version those notes are played in octaves. In the Salzedo version they are not.
So please, I think I’ll add the qualifier ‘idiotic’ to indefensible!
+There is nothing indefensible about it. Really, that’s a ridiculous thing to say. +
Alright, I just took another look at the Salzedo version, with the complete score right next to me, and the Salzedo version is even more ridiculous than I thought.
The whole sequence is a series of diminished chords, which consist of four different notes(all a minor third apart). Salzedo eliminates two of the four notes in each chord, completely changing the harmony, particularly in the third and fourth measures of the Animez, where the orchestra stops playing completely and the harp, all alone, has to provide that diminished chord harmony. So the core harmony of the passage is missing.
IN ADDITION, in the original, as well as every other solution to this passage I have found, the left hand provides emphasis to the right hand notes that start each beat. Debussy has double stems on those notes to indicate that they are to be emphasized. So in the original version those notes are played in octaves. In the Salzedo version they are not.
So please, I think I’ll add the qualifier ‘idiotic’ to indefensible!
That is the most pathetic defense of Salzedo’s indefensible solution to that passage that I have ever heard!
That is the most pathetic defense of Salzedo’s indefensible solution to that passage that I have ever heard!
That is the most pathetic defense of Salzedo’s indefensible solution to that passage that I have ever heard!
I can think of only one time that the background really threw me. It was about 10 years ago when I was giving a solo recital for the Connecticut chapter of the AHS. It was in a church meeting hall and the rug was a vibrant green with HUGE red roses all over it. Holy Christmas did that throw me. I managed to find a solid color blanket to place on the floor area that I would be looking at through the strings and that took care of it.
Saul, you’re unbelievable! You jump all over the Jamet version for leaving out two notes(really one, because it’s the same one when the pattern repeats an octave lower), and then praise a version that is so far out in left field as to not bear the faintest resemblance to the original version. And why? Because it was written by Salzedo! When I complain about the cult-like mentality that I have observed so often over the years, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!
Saul, you’re unbelievable! You jump all over the Jamet version for leaving out two notes(really one, because it’s the same one when the pattern repeats an octave lower), and then praise a version that is so far out in left field as to not bear the faintest resemblance to the original version. And why? Because it was written by Salzedo! When I complain about the cult-like mentality that I have observed so often over the years, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!
Saul, you’re unbelievable! You jump all over the Jamet version for leaving out two notes(really one, because it’s the same one when the pattern repeats an octave lower), and then praise a version that is so far out in left field as to not bear the faintest resemblance to the original version. And why? Because it was written by Salzedo! When I complain about the cult-like mentality that I have observed so often over the years, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!
Jamet’s solution omits two notes, and at full tempo, even knowning that you are listening to his version, you can’t hear these omissions. Salzedo’s version leaves out the entire left hand, and then divides the right hand 16th notes between the two hands and drastically alters the harmony!!!
