SKU: PR.110406720
UPC: 680160001316.
I have always been fond of writing works for specific people or organizations. It has been my good fortune during most of my creative career to be asked to compose for many extraordinary performers. The Sonata for Harpsichord Solo is such a case in point: it was written in 1982 for Barbara Harbach, a superb performer, close friend, and collaborator on many musical projects. The Sonata was premiered on March 2, 1984, in a recital given by Dr. Harbach at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. During my formative years as a composer, one seldom heard of the harpsichord as a modern instrument, though while I attended undergraduate school at Boston University, some of us banded together to construct a small harpsichord from one of the first do-it-yourself kits which began to appear in the late '40s. It was also during this time that I heard the Sonatina for Violin and Harpsichord by my teacher Walter Piston and consequently specified that the accompanying instrument for my second violin sonata could either be a piano or a harpsichord. It was not until recently, however, that my interest in the harpsichord as a solo instrument for new music was aroused. This was because of the emergence of so many young virtuosi, such as Barbara Harbach, who are interested in the performance of new music besides the great harpsichord music of the Classical, Baroque, and pre-Baroque eras. The keyboard music of Domenico Scarlatti has always intrigued and fascinated me. The brevity, excitement, and clarity of this sparkling music is charming as well as exhilarating. It is this type of Baroque sonata that inspired the conception and form of my harpsichord sonata. The entire work is loosely based on the musical translation of Barabara Harbach's name, especially the conflict of the B (B-flat) and H (B-natural in German notation). This secondo rub or dissonance especially pervades the first movement, which is in a modified sonata form, pitting jagged and tense melodic elements against most lyrical and smooth lines. This second movement is a song-like melody accompanied by rolled chords which may be played on the lute stop of the instrument if this sonata is performed on a two-manual harpsichord. The final movement is an ever-driving joyous toccata which brings the work to an exciting close with a coda made up of accelerating repeated chords. --Samuel Adler.
SKU: CF.H84
ISBN 9781491165539. UPC: 680160924530.
Marcel Tournier (1879–1951) was one of the most important harpist/composers in the history of the harp. Over his long career, he added a significant catalogue of very beautiful works to the harp repertoire. Many of his solo works, almost one hundred, have been consistently in print since they were first published. But in recent years harpist Carl Swanson has discovered a treasure trove of pieces by Tournier heretofore unknown and unpublished. These include the Déchiffrages in this edition, as well as songs set for voice, harp, and string quartet, and ensemble arrangements of some of his most beloved works.All of the works that Carl Swanson found were in manuscript only. With the help of the great harpist Catherine Michel, he has put these pieces into playable form, and they are being published for the very first time. He and Catherine often had to re-notate passages to show clearly how they could be played, adding fingerings and musical nuances, tempos, pedals, and pedal diagrams.Tournier wrote these pieces when he was in his 20s, and before he became the impressionistic composer those familiar with his work know so well. They are written in the late nineteenth-century romantic style that was being taught at that time at the Paris Conservatory. They are beautiful short, intermediate level pieces by a first rate composer, and add much needed repertoire to that level of playing.Marcel Tournier (1879–1951) was one of the most important harpist/composers in the history of the harp. He graduated from the Paris Conservatory with a first prize in harp in 1899. He also studied composition there and won a second prize in the prestigious Prix de Rome competition, as well as a first prize in the Rossini competition, another major composition competition of the day. From 1912 to 1948 he taught the harp class at the Paris Conservatory. But composition, and almost entirely, composition for the harp, was the main focus of his life. His published works, including many works for solo harp, a few for harp and other instruments, and several songs, number around one hundred pieces.In 2019, while researching Tournier for my edition MARCEL TOURNIER: 10 Pieces for Solo Harp, I discovered that there was a significant list of pieces by this composer that had never been published and were not included on any inventory of his music. Principal on this list were his déchiffrages (pronounced day-she-frahge, like the second syllable in the word garage).The word déchiffrage means sight-reading exercise, and that was their original purpose. Tournier numbered and dated these pieces, with dates ranging from 1900 to 1910, indicating that they were in all likelihood written for Alphonse Hasselmans’ class at the Paris Conservatory. Tournier was probably told how long to make each one, and how difficult. They range in length from two to four pages, with only one in the whole series extending to five, and from thirty to fifty-five measures, with only one extending to eight-five. The level of difficulty for the whole series is intermediate, with some at the easier end, and others at the middle or upper end.We don’t know if they were intended to test students trying to enter the harp class, or if they were used to test students in the class as they played their exams. The fact that they were never published means that students had to not only sight read them, but sight read them in manuscript form!I worked from digital images of the original manuscripts, which are in the private music library of a harpist in France. She had twenty-seven of these pieces, and this edition is the second in a series of three that will publish, for the first time, all of the ones that I have found thus far. The manuscripts themselves consist of little more than notes on the page: no pedals written in, no fingerings, few if any musical nuances and tempo markings, and no clear indication as to which hand plays which notes. These would have been difficult to sight read indeed! My collaborator Catherine Michel and I added musical nuances, fingerings, pedals and pedal diagrams, and tempo indications to put them into their current condition.At the time these were written, Tournier would have been in his twenties, having just graduated from the harp class himself (1899), and might still have been in the composition class. These are the earliest known pieces that he wrote, and they were written at the very beginning of a cultural revolution and upheaval in Paris that was to completely and profoundly alter musical composition. Tournier himself would eventually be caught up in this new way of composing. But not yet.All of the déchiffrages are written in the late romantic style that was being taught at that time at the Paris Conservatory. Each one is built on a clear musical idea, and the variety over the whole series makes them wonderful to listen to as well as to learn. They are also great technical lessons for intermediate level players.The obvious question is: Why didn’t Tournier publish these pieces, and why didn’t he list them on his own inventory of his music? Actually, four of them were published, with small changes, as his collection Four Preludes, Op. 16. These came from the ones that will be in volume three of this series from Carl Fischer. His first large piece, Theme and Variations, was published in 1908, and his two best known and frequently played pieces, Féerie and Au Matin, followed in 1912 and 1913 respectively. We can only speculate because there is so much still unknown about Tournier and about these unpublished pieces. He may have looked at them, fresh out of school as he was, as simply a way to make some quick money. The first several pieces that he did publish are much longer than any of the déchiffrages. So it could be that, because of their shorter length, as well as the earlier musical style that he was moving away from, he chose not to publish any more of them. We may never know the full story. But all these years later, more than a century after they were composed, we can listen to them for their own merits, and not measured against whatever else was going on at the time. The numbers on these pieces are the ones that Tournier assigned to them, and the gaps between some of the numbers suggest that there are perhaps thirty or more of these pieces still to be found, if they still exist. They will, in all likelihood, be found, as these were, in private collections of harp music, not in institutional libraries. We can only hope that more of them will be located in years to come.—Carl SwansonGlossary of French Musical TermsTournier was very precise about how he wanted his pieces played, and carefully communicated this with many musical indications. He used standard Italian words, but also used French words and phrases, and occasionally mixed both together. It is extremely important to observe and understand everything that he put on the page.Here is a list of the French words and phrases found in the pieces in this edition, with their translation.bien chanté well sung, melodiousdécidé firm, resolutediminu peu à peu becoming softer little by littleen diminuant becoming softeren riten. slowing downen se perdant dying awayGaiement gayly, lightlygracieusement gracefully, elegantlyLéger light, quickLent slowmarquez le chant emphasize the melodyModéré at a moderate tempopeu à peu animé more lively, little by littleplus lent slowerRetenu held backsans lenteur without slownesssans retinir without slowing downsec drily, abruptlysoutenu sustained, heldtrès arpegé very arpeggiatedTrès Modéré Very moderate tempoTrès peu retenu slightly held backTrès soutenu very sustainedun peu retenu slightly held back.
SKU: UT.LB-4
ISBN 9788881094479. 6.5 x 9.5 inches.
â??During my career spanning half a century, like all my fellow harpists I constantly had to grapple with the commonly held view that the harp has neither music nor history of its own.Fortunately, over the years I have been able to give the lie to this myth and have tried to bring to light some of the vast repertoire, both early and modern, expressly composed for this instrument which has been treated somewhat as an outsider in the musical world.The research work for my books on Italian and Swiss harp music was plain sailing because source materials were specific titles and title pages. Were I to write books on French, German, Austrian, British, Bohemian, Spanish, Portuguese or Scandinavian harp music, the work involved would be equally smooth and straightforward.However, where Dutch music is concerned, the approach is rather different, because here it is the painters, treatise-writers and historians who provide the evidence and guidance necessary to discover the musical customs and traditions where the harp played a significant part.Performers looking for pieces of music may use this book as follows: chapter II deals with treatises, chapter III with paintings, chapter IV with history and research accounts. Chapters V and VI are concerned with confusions in terminology. Chapter VII describes recent developments and chapters VIII and IX cover composers and pieces of music. Libraries and publishers are listed with their addresses in chapters X and XI, and finally chapter XII consists of the index based on the various groups of performers.In this last chapter harpists will find the composers most suited to their programme, and can then turn to chapters VIII and IX for details. The actual pieces can be obtained by consulting chapters X and XI. I wish you every success in your search, in your rehearsals and in your concerts !In order to define what is Dutch or non-Dutch in early music, I have followed the current approach, i.e. all art and history prior to the separation of the â??Seven ProvinÂces in the 16th century is the common heritage of the Low Countries, whereas everything pertaining to those courageous lands from then onwards is specifically Dutch..
SKU: UT.HS-231
ISBN 9790215324558. 9 x 12 inches.
Tarascone; Tarantella Capuanese; Valzer; Polka di Vittorio; Tarantella StiglianeseThe history of the Viggianesi, strolling musicians, winds over a period of about four centuries and esprimeun ‘unicum’ musically and anthropologically. Heirs of a travelling musical tradition that from the late Middle Ages inhabited more than just the streets of the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples, the harpists of this extraordinary story made their first appearances as early as the end of the 1600s engaged in musical practices at shrines.Armed with an urgent need to make a living together with a strong musical inclination, adaptability and versatility, the groups of musicians, almost always belonging to the same family circle, became the promoters of the great Italian musical tradition (Southern in particular), and with their harps on their shoulders they became the identification symbol of a well-defined and limited area of Italy: the Agri Valley, in Basilicata.From the many documents examined, a very wide and varied musical repertoire emerges mixing the pastoral tradition with classical tradition (mainly opera, devotional music with songs from the cities (from the Neapolitan tradition to international production). The pastoral repertoire, the subject of this publication, consists of a strongly characterized native repertoire which the Viggianesi had consolidated in both public and private ritual occasions in their native land, even if performing in distant lands.This collection is included among the compulsory pieces of The 7th International Harp Contest in Italy Suoni D’Arpa, 2017, Category A – Associazione Italiana dell’Arpa – www.associazioneitalianarpa.it
SKU: CA.1630200
ISBN 9790007099695. Language: all languages.
The viola solo courbe 2 is based on an excerpt from the viola part in the Trio for flute, viola and harp << courbes >> - sequences. In the densest time curve of this piece the viola plays the leading role for a span of almost three minutes. This material is taken from the Trio, presented and divided into separate parts. courbe 2 is three times longer in duration than the Trio excerpt from which it is derived. The musical text of the individual fragments remains as it is in the original, but, pulsating, demarcated in seconds. Fissures emerge between the fragments, windows open: - to harmonic fields, central sounds, taken over from the reverberations, from which new tone material is derived; the fields in turn are distorted and spacialised by the electronics - to metrical structures and pulses freed from the individual motives of the original musical text, which forms new variants in interaction with these fields. Thus in courbe 2 which, as already indicated, is three times longer in duration than the original, three musical levels are interpenetrated, whereby all three are derived from one tone, which plays an absolutely central role in most of my works. It is a reference to the French writer Anne-Marie Albiach (and to her great text << H II >> lineaires), and it remains as the only tone at the end of the piece, definitively, determining everything, b = 247 Hertz. Walter Feldmann.
SKU: HL.50511754
ISBN 9790080143582. B/4 quer inches. Hungarian, English. Laszlo Tihanyi.
Greek mythology seems spontaneously to have offered the figure of linos as the central character in a work for solo harp. (Linos was a poet, believed to be the brother of Orpheus, and according to Greek tradition no greater musician ever appeared among mankind.) The musical material, conforming to the characteristics of the harp, consits of two interesting seven-degree note rows incorporating all the possible pedal combinations, their mirror inversions and the five-degree noterows that fit between them. The nine-section composition is made up of scenes from the imagined life of Linos, an imagined 'Linos's hymn', and laments played in his honour.
SKU: CF.H77
ISBN 9781491153840. UPC: 680160911349. 9 x 12 inches.
This critical edition of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro has been carefully prepared by Carl Swanson. The preface includes historical and performance information on the piece, including a comparison of the separate parts of all seven instruments to the full score with a list of corrections for each instrument. It has been published the way that it is actually played, making it clear to read and consistent with Ravel's music and musical intent.
SKU: PO.PE017
ISBN 9781877218170.
Commissioned by Carolyn Mills, principal harpist of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, this mysterious solo work dwells somewhere between consonance and dissonance, evoking the otherworldly quality of the ancient. The work's spacious, senza misura opening gradually reveals its scalar material, coloured with harmonics, before eventually settling into an undulating odd-metered pattern. Musical elements never remain static, with incremental harmonic changes taking place alongside gentle tempo fluctuations.
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