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The arm should provide plenty of stability. I believe it has been observed that Salzedo did sometimes play with his wrist touching, being a Frenchman, though he did not teach that, far as I know.
Why are you calling it a Bolero? I never thought of it as one. I think that is the rhythm of the Chanson dans la nuit, though.
There is a historic film of Lucile Lawrence which I believe will be posted soon, and there is one, silent of Carlos Salzedo which I wish would be posted.
It looks to me like the playing of an early Salzedo pupil, which she was, so maybe for filming purposes she relied on his teaching of showmanship. Resting or letting the right arm touch the sounding-board is a traditional way of playing for many harpists, but not at all necessary.
Your view is reasonable. It is important to have the best possible teacher whenever possible. Lucile Lawrence always took beginners. She felt it was important to do that.
I totally disagree. It is a magnificent piece in just about every edition, and each one shows it in a different light. To me, the Grandjany edition is very reminiscent of French Romantic Organ style, the Salzedo is very New York 1940s, etc. Consider also that those are written for modern times, modern harps, modern orchestras. Since Baroque music was written in times when performers would customarily improvise and embellish the music, I think they are more in the spirit than playing only the bare notes given by Handel. In any case, doubling octaves is quite normal, for that matter, anything an organ or harpsichord could do in that time is fair game, as the piece can be played on either instrument. To me, this is an unfortunate side-effect of the “period-instrument” movement, the thinking that it is the only way to play or hear the music-that is really a marketing tactic more than a valid philosophy. It was the dissatisfaction of composers even more than performers with current instruments that led to the constant improvement of instruments, as I understand musical history. You are of course free to play it as your talent dictates. I have studied the urtext and found it allows for quite a bit of variation in how to play it, because you have to realize the harmony, meaning you have to add inner voices here and there.
I think that there was an upswell, but it has ended for at least a few years to come until people’s economies have recovered.
I’ve had enough trouble without naming names. If one bothered to read all the posts one would know. At this point, it is rather like the sardines in “Noises Off”.
Those notes that sound wrong were corrected in the Salzedo edition. Thank you for the corrections; now I’ll have to re-learn the piece. It does sound better. I think, if it is extremely well-played, the tremolo effect in the opening does work as written; it points toward the bisbigliandos later on. I rather prefer the piece as written wherever possible. Pierne had a terrific ear. I believe this is the contest piece with which Salzedo won his premier prix in harp.
