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I think that it is interesting that in Salzedo’s Tiny Tales, in the first piece he wrote for beginners, there is NO placing. Rather than allow a student to develop a false sense of security from placing and holding or grabbing onto strings, he has the student become comfortable with the air and with finding strings. What a great idea. I tell students, there is NO security in playing the harp, ever, and the sooner you become comfortable with that, the better off you are.
Raising comes from the shoulder and especially the muscles under the shoulderblade, so the lower arm and biceps and hand can indeed relax while raising. And relaxation helps the harp to resonate more, and removing the hand and arm from the vicinity of the string just played allows the soundwaves to escape and project more easily, and the continuous movement from playing to raising does indeed help sustain the note played. The sound and tone are definitely influenced by what you do after playing. I wonder what Bochsa had in mind when he wrote “vibrato” by a chord…
Raising has indeed been adopted internationally by concert harpists, only mostly with the left hand, while the right hand doesn’t quite know what to do except hang around doing nothing, which really says a lot to the audience. Imagine a pianist who only moved their left arm in the air and the right hand never left the keyboard.
I understand that in early 19th century methods, perhaps it is Cousineau, he instructs the harpist to have the right arm NOT touch the harp. Perhaps Salzedo only rediscovered an existing tradition.
The Salzedo Method written by Lucile Lawrence comes from his teaching in the decades in which they worked (and lived) together, not later. The use of wrist does differ slightly between students of Miss Lawrence and Miss Chalifoux. Chalifoux emphasized wrist movement when coming off the string. Miss Lawrence used it but not as much, except when trilling, or playing octaves, and such.
The point of teaching is to help the student improve. Not teaching them something that would be helpful is doing the student a disservice. It is better, in my mind, to completely represent a particular esthetic approach to the harp than to mix and muddle. As one grows, one naturally develops beyond what one is taught.
Adults can be difficult to teach, as some are impervious to improvement.
And Carl, next time you are in Philadelphia, I will be happy to spend some time with you showing you how it is all really meant to work. It sounds like you have gotten the wrong impression, is all.There are some harpists in Europe who can probably help you. Claudia Valsi is in Freiburg, Germany; Judit Kadar in Berlin, Catherine White in London, to name a few. Floraleda Sacchi in Italy had some studies with Alice Chalifoux.
By the way, his name is Grandjany, and it is NOT pronouned Grand-ja-nay. It is Grand-ja-nee. I think if we study 19th century harp methods, we will find some of the same differences occurring then. Conflicts between schools of playing are an inherently French tradition! The French harp tradition has a few schools of playing, but the piano tradition has many! Just imagine that.
I have played it both ways. I see the logic of assuming Glinka was writing the sounding pitches and adding the characterization of sons harmoniques, rather than using a harpist’s notation of sons harmoniques. Another solution is to play the earlier version of the piece which does not have that variation at all.
Yes, and along those lines, how much time should be allowed for pedal changes, particularly between chordal glissandi, as you have to muffle as well as change pedals. Composers often want to know that.
Speaking of repertoire, I have been laboring for about three years to edit the Deux Pieces by Florent Schmitt, originally for chromatic harp, as pedal harp pieces. I believe I have finally completed that process, and can move on to finishing learning and publishing the pieces. These are huge pieces, perhaps the biggest in scale yet seen for the harp. They are together, close to twenty minutes in length, at least fifteen, a very sophisticated romantic style, somewhat like Faure but with much more elaboration and length, very masterful music. Florent Schmitt was a major composer, but perhaps the least known of the famous French masters. He and Salzedo served together in World War I. He also wrote a piece for chromatic harp and string quartet that I have edited, but not copied. It is also very large in scale and very demanding. None of these pieces are actually that chromatic except in a few spots.
I have added Bochsa’s advanced etudes into my practice to see what would happen, along with some of Damase and a few others. I do feel some strengthening. After doing exercises, they seem to clear my mind before going on to solos. However, I am also remembering old patterns, where I tend to only sight-read them, as they are too boring for detailed practice, or too consistent to present clear challenges, and I am fatigued if I play one more than twice. Thus they present frustration and challenges that are not well overcome, when they have one sticky spot. I remember as a student that I benefitted much more from extensive use of exercises, and working on orchestra parts and literature. I think the biggest problem is the lack of first-rate etudes. I think that we need a project to have many composers writing etudes. Harpists who compose have a difficulty in overcoming their great knowledge of the instrument to be truly creative. It is also a rather stale genre. Damase’s etudes are good, but seem to mostly make it much more comfortable to play his vast oeuvre of harp music. They do create much familiarity with diatonic harmonies. Bovio’s look good, haven’t really used them yet. The Bochsa, Dizi, Godefroid seem too limited, especially in left-hand use, and harmony, and rather stuck in keyboard ideas. Hasselmans is a cut above, but doesn’t seem to have many. You can’t really beat La Source or his Prelude for arpeggiated etudes. Salzedo’s are, of course, supremely difficult and specialized. I have completed a few transcriptions from Paganini’s Caprices, but may not do more, because so much of them are engaged in chromatic scales, and how much of that do we really need to work on? Naderman’s Sonatas, the long one, make certainly good etudes, as do Krumpholtz, Rossetti and Cardon. Not necessarily great music, but some pieces stand out. It would be a good thing to find more solo music by Boieldieu, if there were any. Why has the original ms. or publication of his concerto never surfaced?
You said serious music, so get a copy of Telynn by Pierick Houdy, or the Quatres Caprices Diatoniques by Alexander Tcherepnin, of which I gave the U.S. premiere.
I think it is grossly unfair to decide that no one appreciates a harp just because they get it for free. Giving a harp to an institution can be a bit of a burden if funds for its maintenance don’t come with it. Ideally, you would leave a small trust for its upkeep. I would suggest leaving it to a school that has a or will start a teaching program, a church or temple where it will be played in services, or a concert hall where it will be used in concert (perhaps the best place.)
Dussek is the classical master when it comes to harp, followed by Spohr, Boeildieu, Krumpholtz, Meyer and many others.
Thank you, Tony! How inspiring to hear that. I have been working on and off on several ideas.
As for this paper, I note that you don’t seem to be comparing exact duplicates, in that I don’t believe McDonald was a pupil of Granjany’s, so a more-exact comparison might be Hasselmans-Salzedo-Chalifoux-Kondonassis and Hasselmans-Renie-McDonald. I think you should also read the book “French Pianism” for background. It is very relevant.
One of the areas where you will find the most divergence will be fingerings and transcriptions, which are conveniently print-oriented and easy to compare.
The house has been so severly altered, it bears no resemblance to what it was. On the other hand, having been expanded, the living room is now enormous and a wonderful size for a recital.
