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The “Little” Fugue in G Minor BWV 578 was transcribed by Dr. Erin Freund and is available on http://www.harpcolumnmusic.com. She also has a sound clip on the website.
Tacye, thank you for the link above.
Again, I encourage anyone interested in the Sonata to go to youtube and listen to Miriam Overlach play it. Her ornamentation is excellent and for me, the whole performance is outstanding. Now, that I have a better understanding of the Sonata, I re-listened to her playing the Bach sonata.
Unfortunately, the harp masters who recorded and/or performed this, such as Nicanor Zabaleta and Lucille Lawrence, are no longer alive. It would be so interesting to know their thoughts about the piece. Considering there has only been one manuscript in existence, the harp community is lucky it has survived to be played and have this discussion.
Below in verbatim is the reply I received from Laura Buch (no title given), C.P.E. Bach: The Complete Works, Packard Humanities Institute:
“The order of the movements that we have published for Wq139 (Adagio un poco / Allegro / Allegro) is intentional. This is precisely how the work comes down to us from the 18th century, according to the trustworthy manuscript source that we have for it. Indeed, C.P.E. Bach’s harp sonata exists in only this single source; it was never printed during Bach’s time, and no other handwritten copy has so far ever been uncovered.
“Fortunately, this manuscript (now preserved in Brussels) was made by Bach’s most trusted scribe, and was almost certainly copied straight from the exemplar in Bach’s own library. Movement i is clearly the Adagio un poco; there is no reason to read any other movement order. Furthermore, this common order of slow-fast-fast is also evidenced by all the rest of Bach’s three-movement solo sonatas (i.e., the sonatas for flute, oboe, or viola da gamba: all begin with a slow movement, followed by the two quicker movements. For further discussion of all this, I refer you to the Introduction and critical report for the volume of sonatas that contained the harp sonata (volume II/1 of our edition). We offer the introduction for free download at the following link, where you can also download scores for all the solo sonatas including Wq 139: (note from Gretchen – if the link I typed in does not work, go to the top of this thread for the link)
http://cpebach.org/toc/toc-II-1.html
“If you’d like to have a look at the 18th century source for the harp sonata, a facsimile of the manuscript has been published. See Carl Emanuel Bach. Sonata in G Major for Harp, ed Darrell M. Berg (Utrecht: STIMU, 1992)”
In a related matter about ornamentations in the harp sonata, there are references in the introduction. I had never seen a trilled turn which occurs in measures 3, 12 etc. of the Adagio movement. The citation for that particular ornament is Volume II/1, p. xviii. Laura Buch said it is “Bach’s own description of the ornament in his Versuch (Versuch I:2, 4 & 28 and Tab.V, Fig. LXIII-LXV).”
Tayce, I agree with what you say but if a musician sufficiently alters a piece of music, such as an important piece like the Bach Sonata, it would only be fair to label it as an adaptation or arrangement. Judy Loman in her version of the Sonata called it a “realization.” Considering this is the only work for solo harp by C.P.E. Bach and the first solo for harp, I think it does the piece justice on those fronts to keep it historically accurate – and that includes the ornamentations. The ornaments are difficult to play on a concert grand harp the way it would have been played 200 some years ago. The American Harp Journal has an article about the sonata and how to play it with ornaments. The article further discusses the importance musically of the ornaments. There are a number of websites with the proper ways to play the ornaments. One site I went to even had sound clips.
In the end, it is better for harpists to play the sonata in some fashion rather than have it disappear from the harp repertoire. But, be upfront about it IMHO.
I received a reply from the Packard Humanities Institute about the Bach Sonata in G wq. 139. I will post verbatim the information when I can access the internet. The order of playing is slow, fast, fast.
And Saul, you have no idea of the source information of the particular Sonata score being discussed. I fail to understand your comments about it being baseless unless you dealt directly with the researchers.
This is an important topic so I hope the discussion doesn’t dissolve into a Salzedo-French method-like debate. There appears to be good reasoning on both sides.
I could find the Zingel arrangement of the Sonata but the Lucille Lawrence version from 1966 published by Lyra is no longer in print. I could not find the Grandjany version, either. Perhaps someone could scan theirs into imslp.
I sent an inquiry to the Packard Humanities Institute asking about the proper order of movements for the Sonata in G.
FYI – The transcription on the CPE Bach website apparently has a major error or else other harpists have played the order incorrectly. The Sonata via the Bach link above starts off with the Adagio, then goes to Allegro and Allegro. Miriam Overlach on her excellent youtube clip plays the Sonata that way. Nicanor Zabaleta plays the Sonata with Allegro, Adagio, Allegro. Thoughts?
Interesting to read about CPE Bach on the website. To summarize the harp sonata: It was written in 1762 and is considered the first solo work for pedal harp. (The single action pedal harp made its debut in 1749.) Prussian court harpist Franz Brennessell was an apprentice to CPE Bach which may have inspired the sonata. In that era, the harp was used as an accompanying instrument. There are a number of videos of the sonata on youtube.
I rented a Salzedo for about 18 months prior to getting my new harp. I learned to play on a 23. The sound is very individual with harps so you cannot say the Salzedo sound is better or not than a 23.
The bigger issue to me is the age. When I sold my Salvi Aurora, which was 35 years old, the harp needed to be re-rivted. The harp was purchased by a beginner adult so probably in her lifetime, the work will not need to be done. However, with a harp that age, you don’t know necessarily from a photo if it needs a base repair, new neck, new soundboard, needs to be refinished, etc. That depends on how the harp was taken care of, how much it was moved, how it was played. I would advise you to get a harp tech or someone experienced to check out the harp. You can contact Lyon Healy to find out how much the harp sold for when it was new. You can check past sales and ask other harpists what the current value should be.
Congrats on the new harp and thank you for letting everyone know! PS/ Consider keeping your lever harp unless you need to sell it to help pay for the concert grand. Your Pratt harp is gorgeous – I saw the ad.
Carl, unfortunately for you this is not just a google problem. I tried to access your site via yahoo and the online gambling site came up. You cannot click on your links, either, without the online gambling site replacing yours. I thought perhaps you could be having a problem with your computer but it seems to be your website.
Karen, have you considered a Venus harp? http://www.venusharps.com
Karen, you have a difficult decision to make. I will add to the thought process that you can always use the lower D# as an Eb so that could possibly help with the E dilemma. If you decide to go with the Camac, I would encourage you to spend the extra money for an extended soundboard.
Another thought is to contact the local harp society and/or harp tech in the area where you live and ask if there are any smaller size used harps for sale. Many harps are sold word of mouth. You may want to research the Lyon Healey models – there are a number of petite and semi grand models now discontinued that could work well for you.
I am always on the lookout for music to play at church services so this prompted me to listen to the piece. I went to youtube and found a clip by Josh Layne. It turns out he, too, listened to recordings. He found in the notes of one recording that the piece is actually the first of four airs by French composer Martin Dalvimare. Josh then went to ISLMP and found the original air and confirmed this.
