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Hey cameron, I know you’ve made your decision, but just wanted to say the Prelude is a fantastic harp.
The Saint-Saens Fantaisie is an interesting choice. It’s very difficult to do it extremely well. It can easily sound trite as the themes are very simple and presented simply. With a very rich and warm tone quality and even technique it can make an interesting impression. I would include it with a qualification. At least he’s a major name. As for Feerie, I don’t care much for the mood or harmonies. This kind of piece can really tire out the audience. Maybe it’s time has passed. Maybe not. It’s the kind of piece enjoyed most by other harpists, I think, or casual sorts of performance, afternoon tea programs, and such. It’s kind of post-Victorian.
I only skimed over this thread, but did any one mention any thing by our good friend Camille Saint Saenns? (sp?) He wrote SO much great stuff! One of my composers. I like his “Fantasie pur harpe” Its very showy and not that difficult. Always the “carnival of animals suite” i LOVE IT! i learned it on piano a while ago. I don’t think the majority of the peices would be doable on harp but…
OKAY THEN back on subject! How about Feerie by Tournier? Beautiful peice and very tricky at parts.
Well theres two. Saint Saens Fantasy and Tournier Feerie.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by bleooouugh, or how it sounds. When I’ve heard the Beethoven played well, it’s a wonderful small-scale piece. The Lucile Lawrence edition helps bring out its substance. I agree that Albeniz can sound great and natural on the harp as do the Debussy pieces you mentioned. I heard the Watkins a lot in the late 70s, and got quite sick of it. But it’s pretty good as harpist composing goes. I prefer his collection of Elizabethan lute and keyboard pieces. But lets get back to the core, essential pieces. Leave the twee with the tweedledee. What is twee? Cutesy? Sentimental? Chintzy? And I hope you are going to buy a full-size L&H concert grand. That’s the standard over here for orchestral playing. It may seem like a little old harp can be heard, but I can pretty much guarantee you that it’s not projecting. Even a Salzedo model can’t always be heard in a thick tutti. The recordings I have on old Erards and straight-sounding-board harps are very muddy sounding, with little or no pitch definition, just a wash. I can get the wash on my 23 but I still have pitch definition.
I could allow for Mathias Three Improvisations as standard repertoire in some instances or at a college or younger level. There aren’t quite enough notes otherwise. It surprises me how few pieces are leaping to mind without looking at a catalogue or in my files. Well that’s why I’m composing so many pieces for harp, to fill in those gaps.
There is also an excellent volume of serious contemporary music available for lever harp from the UK.
I bought my Prelude over the phone from the Lyon & Healy Company (not L&H West, the
one in Chicago). I got a Mahogany finish. I would have gotten it with the decorated
soundboard, but that option wasn’t available. Nevertheless, it’s still a stunningly beautiful
harp.Congrats on the Christmas party! I’ve heard many, many great things about the Prelude,
and I hope it lives up to its word. 🙂Thanks for your comments.I certainlythink a pre-ampmakes the instrument more manageable , and I can see the logic of Tony M’s stereo approach, but I doubt I’ll go down that route. I have recorded direct into the desk in stereo with the harp, and the cut-off takes some adjusting and panning to get a natural effect (I sometimes use four channels with different panning). I think ultimately it’s simply a matter iof adapting to the instrument, rather like a Spanish guitar player would with a Fender Strat. And just like the electric guitar created new music, so is the electric harp. I remember hearing Stivell playing his perspex ( I think it was) wire-strung electric harp in concert some ye4ars ago and the bass was very simple, with great sustain.
I have a funny story, I bid $800.00 on a L&H pedal harp acouple months ago. The bidding reached $10,000.00 and the harp was sold. A few days later I got an email saying the buyer pulled out and the seller wanted to know if I was interested in the harp. I wrote back and said I only had $1000.00, (I was sure he wouldn’t sell it that cheap) He wrote me back and said I could have it, I was floored !! I couldn’t believe I was getting a pedal harp this cheap. To make the story better I live in Ohio and the harp was in Pennsylvania, about a 4 hour drive. So I told him I would come pick it up and pay for it then. I couldn’t beleive it when I got an email telling me he was in England and I would have to send the money there first, then go pick up the harp. Of course I refused. I guess it’s really true what they say, “If it’s sounds to good to be true…….”
Hi,
As I’m sure you have noticed, some harp music distributors (like lyon and healy and vanderbilt, among others) have graded their harp music, so it helps you get a better idea of how hard the music is.
I pretty much agree about what makes transcriptions work. But we do have to deal with critics and critical audiences, so I stand by my position. The Spohr Variations are interesting, but a bit light, though more virtuoso than the Glinka for sure, but have you tried to play them? I don’t know anyone with large-enough hands to reach his notes. Hasselmans is a great example of a harpist-composer whose music does not hold up well with the kind of audiences I am talking about. There is not enough sophistication in form and harmony. Lolita La Danseuse is a strange piece, with a long interesting cadenza, and then a trite theme that doesn’t justify all the build-up. It suggests a third-rate Mata Hari stripping for a bored clientele in a dusty Moroccan saloon in the movies. Tournier can also be a risky choice for these audiences. And I speak based on thirteen years of observation of New York audiences at harp recitals. His Sonatine is a well-formed piece, but pianists find it so derivative of the Ravel Sonatine that they can’t bear it, I’ve found. I don’t know enough of his Images to say which ones are most suitable, but I like the Grey Donkeys. But one
I think I am entirely rational, to answer Nicole. I think the ideas forming the foundation for what we do are essential. Not everything is about making money, hard as that is to do with the harp.
I think these days, you find people of all techniques in each conservatory, and the teachers I see mentioned are not teaching only one technique over another. The Curtis Institute is very open that way. I’m not saying that’s better or worse. But I know at least one prominent harpist who graduated from Indiana who can still be seen to be a Salzedo harpist, or rather, a Chalifoux harpist. But who keeps score, anyway?
and lets all be “open” to different opinions when it comes to approaching the harp