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I played on a Venus harp with an extended extended sounding board, full size model, and it did have a deep plush tone. As it had Savarez strings on it, I couldn’t fully compare it to a Lyon & Healy sound, but I would prefer it to a Salvi or Camac. I don’t care for the design of some of their models, but some are quite nice. I would venture to say it is a big step forward for them, but would prefer to know what the differences are, if it is a matter of thickness and design, or if they are using different materials than spruce and maple.
My student and I have been observing how Salzedo’s Tiny Tales are really rather tricky for a beginner, and it became clear that his approach was to make comfortable the most challenging things about the harp such as unusual fingerings, intervals, raising, not connecting, jumping; and how much easier it makes that to play the typical pieces with scales and arpeggios. If one is too dependent on the idea of having security, how hard to leave it, but if you learn right away that there is no security in playing the harp, that you have to land where you need to go, how much stronger you are. So I mix them with Medieval to Modern and that sort of thing, for good results.
Karen Gottlieb, in San Francisco, would be one. She may still teach in Marin County. She is on the faculty of San Francisco State University, I believe. She can certainly refer you to someone if necessary. If you can’t find a way to reach her, email me.
Here’s something that explains the behavior of a lot of pianists: in Feruccio Busoni’s too-too popular edition of Bach’s Two-Part Inventions, he writes the following execrable advice: “The incomprehensible Arpeggiando sign, which one finds before this chord (the final chord) in many editions, is contrary to the manly style of this piece, and may be classed in Bach’s phraseology as “styleless.” Against such effeminacies in this and in analogous cases, the student is especially warned.”
Well, that surely scared a lot of piano-players straight. But a far better man than Busoni, Wanda Landowska, dismissed him outright as someone completely ignorant about Bach’s ornaments. So there.
I would note that the Bax is a Sonata for Harp and Viola. The harp part is mammoth, and even for you, might take six months or more to get a handle on. It is a great piece.
I would suggest:
Henk Badings: Cavatina, very difficult to finger, very atmospheric
Caltabiano: Lyric Duo,Very well written for the harp, rhythmically difficult, a lot of 5 against 4 or other combinations, somewhat tonal but extreme, dramatic, can be highly effective, was premiered by Catherine White.
Glazunov: Elegy, not easy, very lovely, hard to read because the print is too small. You might want to get the Belaieff edition for viola and piano.
Gounod: Hymne a Sainte Cecile, don’t know it, but if it’s Gounod, it must be goudenough.
Houdy: Suite, don’t know it, but he’s a pretty fine composer
Ravel: Pavane, needs no recommendation
That’s all for that catalog, so that leaves room for lots of Baroque and Classical pieces.
There are also the 24 Preludes for Viola d’Amore and Harp by Casadesus, in every key, which are very nice, neo-classical sort of pieces. They may be adaptable to the viola, or perhaps you can work with a violist who can play d’amore. In that case, you should get in touch with Joan Ceo, whose husband is a violist/d’amore-ist, and who have a lot of repertoire together.
I wonder how you make the chord progression more clear if you are playing the chords unbroken, because that makes it harder to hear the inner notes. I agree, Carl, that after the melody line, one must also hear the bass, but what often gets neglected are those inner notes, and developing them brings the richest tone. But you can still voice it so top and bottom are most audible. I practice such chord passages in several ways to bring out the inner voicings that are so important. Isolating each finger, singing each line as you go through the passage are just two ways. I am currently working on Recessional by Salzedo, which is about six pages of chords of massive proportions and there are many inner voicings that must be detailed. Any pianist worth his salt learns how to bring out the inner voices as a basic tool of interpretation. One thing harpists must do is not only hang around other harpists, but hear what pianists do, and other musicians, especially singers.
I agree with much of what you said, only I don’t think of rolling chords as more delicate. For example, the Faure Impromptu, as you mention, with the chords all rolled can be as rich and powerful as the ocean, depending on your crescendo. I was taught to play the opening chords of the Debussy Danses with the left hand broken and the right hand unbroken. I wouldn’t do it in the Faure. Now in the Interlude from the Ceremony of Carols it is not necessarily clear what Britten wants unless you listen to Osian Ellis. It is also a question of how much liberty you want to take in a situation where you more-or-less know the intent of the composer.
I have found that since I began working on arpeggiating all chords with a conscious rhythmic value to each note, that it has really changed the shape and flow of pieces, and brought a lot more clarity. I didn’t realize how vague I was playing even though I always finished on the beat. When you consciously choose to break some chords slower or faster than others you have so much more phrasing in your control. So, even if you always break chords, you have so much subtlety available to you. I think that it is just the voice of the harp, and the contrast is important. I think the rolled chord is more sensual, sexual and passionate because it is shaped, delayed, completed, and is more visually detailed.
Thank you, Krieg, for that link. I may have read that a while ago. It confirms my suspicion about pianist’s chords. A shame more don’t hear the early recordings, to know the real style left behind. I heard them on the Ysaye recording of Faure’s Berceuse. After all, it was Beethoven who said that the piano must develop its own voice, one apart from the harp; implying that they were one and the same until his midlife. While interpretive gestures may have seemed distasteful for a century or so, I hear music that is just wrong without a real shmear in the violin. The fanaticism for cleanliness and cold perfection is deadly, dulling, and personality killing. I just wish I had full-time access to recording like Gould did.
I was kind of making the point that breaking chords isn’t a personal style. I’ve never heard it over done, but flat chords, yes. We can’t just go by composers’s markings unless it is clearly specified, or it is clear by their writing that they know the harp well enough to communicate how it will sound. That is not often the case, and we have to help realize their intentions. Perhaps that is where this is arising from. I don’t think that is interfering by the harpist, or arrogant or anything like that. Their training in writing for harp is minimal at best. Have you ever read the harp sections in orchestration books? That is about all they have to go by, I suspect. I have found and observed that when the composer works with a good harpist who helps them find the best expression in idiomatic language the best results are obtained. This being said, when a harpist starts telling me, a harpist, how I might better rewrite something, I am a bit insulted. But that only happened once. The composer does have to want input. Some don’t. And so we have odd parts by Stravinsky, for one example.
Additionally: I totally agree with learning the complete context of a piece. I have always strived to do so on my own. You are fortunate to have such instruction. Far too few musicians I have known ever tried to do that.
To clarify, I certainly didn’t mean an absolute beginner. I was thinking of students who can play scales and solos like the Impromptu-Caprice, who have the opportunity to play with an orchestra. They can learn the Debussy and work on exactly the details you describe Carl, which is the point in giving it to them, so they become aware of all those fine necessities. I just feel they won’t have the maturity in most cases, and having learned it young might inhibit their later interpretation somewhat. Perhaps it wouldn’t because the music is so great.
My first concerto was indeed the Dittersdorf. I think it is not so difficult on the surface, but when I went to play it several years ago, as an adult, at full speed, the scales in the first movement were quite difficult to play smoothly, evenly and melodically up to tempo, at least with less than two weeks to prepare it.
I didn’t quite get all of your post, Esme, who or what is profs?
Dewey Owens also has a collection of original pieces called Six Piece for the Harp, pedal or non, which are very well-written, enchanting pieces (at least the first two are), and are right in that pocket, Carl. The second one in particular is good because the left hand plays a lot of repeated figures, so the student can master one figure, 4-2-1, 4-2-1 cgc; and learn to keep everything round, and learn a bit of oscillation, while concentrating on playing melodiously with the right hand.
