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I asked my teacher about these today and she had performed #5. She said she was happy I’d reminded her of it, so she’s going to pull it out and get it performance ready again.
New York is an incredibly difficult place to do it. Everyone is interested in the “money” instruments that famous people play. I never saw a city with fewer harp students per capita. There should be thousands, but there are not. It depends on what area you are in. I don’t know what works, because nothing seems to work except being in directories and having a good background. If you can figure out something to do that will get you to be well-known, at least locally, that might help. People seem to get quite stupid when they decide to look for a harp teacher, they never know where to look. It also might help if you can open some kind of harp store.
Just a few thoughts Saul, from a gurgling baby as a harpist but a wizened old crone as a musician. Although of course the 12 Dances were written for piano, I really have heard them played by any number of traditional and non-traditional instrumentations. Some I like, and some I don’t. One of my children bought me a CD of them played on guitar, which sort of logically might work, from the standpoint of traditional Spanish sound and form, but the result is unfortunate.
They are often played by as orchestral versions, usually quite successfully, to my ear.
When I found my piano version the other day, I played through #4 (did I say several times that it was a favorite of mine?
It will be very helpful to have the copyright information, and I hope it explains the revised French policies that apparently allow no changes even to public domain works. I think sites like the IMSLP are helpful to musicians, but will kill music publishing, which is a terrible thing to do. Actually, much of publishing is already dead. Very few major publishers will publish instrumental music anymore, only that which is composed by their “house” composers. We are in a fairly disastrous situation, not remedied by self-publishing. One of the main reasons is the lack of professionalism. Presumably, a reputable publisher has skilled copyists, editors, and proofreading, which a self-publisher does not have unless they have a lot of money. Also, downloaded music does not print out in bound editions with good, strong paper. I think it should be viewable on the site, but not downloadable. Editions of public-domain composers like Beethoven keep the big houses alive, or they used to, so they can publish new music. That said, the site will undoubtedly provide me with more material than I can ever use for transcriptions and editions I’ll never find time to publish. Thank you for giving the information to us, I am not criticizing you for doing so, not at all. It’s just how making things free destroys our economy by eliminating businesses.
All I can say is that levers that push the string out of alignment with the other strings create a lot of problems. How about a push button that pops out a post that presses the string without pushing it? We need simplicity.
Um, I think these are very pianistic pieces and do not translate well to the harp except with very careful revision apart from #5. I have transcribed #4 for harp duo, and I don’t see any way of playing it well as a solo unless you don’t mind constantly jumping for those high notes. Number two has a very problematic area where the melodic line is in the bass and it descends very low, which is completely muddy on the harp unless you muffle very carefully, and if you don’t, you lose all the clarity and phrasing, which is very important. I think that multiple harps is the only answer for most of these dances, but that doesn’t mean they’ll really work. Zabaleta performed the Valses Poeticos at Carnegie Hall, and they totally fell flat, bombed, did not work as harp music. There are a few pieces by Granados elsewhere that are very natural to the harp, so let’s not get stuck on these beautiful dances. I actually think Salzedo’s Eight Dances are a more-modern equivalent to them.
I have an early to mid 19th century Sebastian Erard 43 string harp I will sell for $4,500. Please email me if you are interested and I will send you photos. I am located in Columbus Ohio if you want to look at it. Thanks! Dave
Wow. Finally, a really challenging and stimulating artistic discussion. It’s been a long time. Briefly, I will say that relying on grants tends to lead to this sort of ridiculous “music” because a proposal has to look good on paper. It’s also the kind of thing that indirectly lost us NEA support for classical music. Most people who call themselves composers are not, or at least, it does not mean they are musical or talented. Some of the least talented composers I have come across have been the most successful. And some, like Michael Torke, are lacking in taste and sensibility. Anyone who incorporates rock music and electric instruments into classical music is someone who does not think. Except about success and money. Most composers seem to be in it for the money, oddly enough.
I find it difficult for some reason to “get my music out there.” I think it is because I am a bit shy, it is truly beautiful and therefore needs protectiveness, it seems, and my limited energy is directed to writing new pieces rather than promoting. With performers too, because they probably don’t practice much, the worst people seem to promote themselves the most, with results that help them but help destroy the harp’s status, roughly speaking. It is our modern world, where people have little education or sensibility, we are stuck with a legacy of worshipping novelty for its own sake, as well as egoism and celebrity-seeking behavior.
Is Meijer covering for a lack of
Thank you both. #4 appears to be lever friendly. Zoraida, is the adaptation you mention for lever or pedal, or OK for both?
At least we may be grateful to the composer and performer for provoking this VERY interesting discussion.
David, I have what I suppose is a sort of morbid fear of the sort of mind control that allows totalitarian government to ban any sort
