SKU: PR.114423960
UPC: 680160689293. 9 x 12 inches.
Shadowy lines traced in fading colors suggest a mountain range in silhouette against the night sky in this mesmerizing and poetic miniature for solo harp. The composer takes the instrument’s full range as her canvas, carrying the listener’s imagination from distant peaks to shrouded foothills. Particularly memorable is a recurring tremolo motifxa0 played with a wooden drumstick on the instrument’s lowest strings. DARK MOUNTAINS is artistically refined, but not virtuosic, making it a novel and approachable addition to the repertoire for developing and professional harpists alike.
SKU: HL.431600
ISBN 9781705163382. UPC: 196288064633. 9.0x12.0x0.234 inches.
Meticulously curated, Beautiful songs for Harp features 28 timeless melodies, thoughtfully arranged for harpists of all levels. Suitable for both pedal and lever harps, this new collection is perfect for harpists looking to enhance their current repertoire. Songs include: And I Love Her ⢠Bless the Broken Road ⢠Bring Him Home ⢠Can't Help Falling in Love ⢠For All We Know ⢠God Only Knows ⢠Hallelujah ⢠I Will Always Love You ⢠If Ever I Would Leave You ⢠Mia and Sebastian's Theme ⢠Morning Has Broken ⢠On the Street Where You Live ⢠The Rainbow Connection ⢠The Sound of Silence ⢠You've Got a Friend ⢠and more.
SKU: HL.720640
ISBN 9780960299089. UPC: 073999206401. 8.75x11 inches.
Arranged for beginning and advanced harpers, this book contains 40 of the best tunes by O'Carolan, the most famous of the Irish harpers and composers who lived from 1670-1738. Each of the 40 tunes has two arrangements: an easy play version and a more difficult version. Each tune includes chord indications that can be used by harpers or other instrumentalists.
SKU: ST.Y259
ISBN 9790220222559.
Far Across the Sea' (Ymhell dros y mor) is the latest instrumental work from a composer noted for her original and sensitive writing for harp and harp ensemble. In this gentle solo, what sounds like a folksong - and a very fine one - is in fact a newly composed tune, crafted with artful simplicity. But as the music journeys further from its characteristically Welsh opening, teasing out new suggestions from the material, the sense of nostalgia becomes definitely more contemporary than traditional, though the uplifting conclusion restores the tone of bardic rhetoric. This work would be a rewarding item for players of intermediate standard, and was recommended for the under 18 category of the 2009 Wales International Harp Festival.
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: HL.49005260
ISBN 9790001056502. 9.0x12.0x0.039 inches.
SKU: HL.48180013
UPC: 888680787660. 9.0x12.0x0.061 inches.
Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937) was a French composer, conductor and organist. Despite being predominantly remembered as a conductor, his Impromptu-Caprice remains a popular performance piece in the advanced harpists' repertoire. Pierné studied at the Paris Conservatoire before taking up the position of chief conductor for the concert series, Concerts Colonne in 1910. He remained in the post until 1933, and during this time, he notably conducted the world premiere of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird. Pierné composed for a variety of instruments, Impromptu-Caprice being one of four solo works by the composer. This Pierné piece for harp contains many characteristics typical of the French style, such as significant tempo changes, flourishes of semiquavers and many alterations in dynamics. Impromptu-Caprice is a varied piece essential to the repertoire of aspiring harpists.
SKU: HL.131541
ISBN 9780936661667. UPC: 888680025564. 8.5x11.0x0.031 inches.
Say Something is an original song by the American duo A Great Big World. The lyrics are about letting go when a relationship ends. It became an international hit when Christina Aguilera joined A Great Big World on a re-recorded version in 2013. Sylvia Woods has made a 4-page advanced beginner to intermediate arrangement, playable on either lever or pedal harp. This music features a pedal point (also called a pedal note or pedal tone), which is a sustained or continually repeated note that is held constant while harmonies change in other parts. A pedal point is usually found in the bass, but here it is in the middle register. Virtually every measure includes a middle C note on the downbeat. Sometimes it is played with the right hand, and at other times with the left. But it is almost always there. This pedal point harmony is what originally drew me into this beautiful piece of music the first time I heard it on the radio. The music is in the key of C, and no sharping levers are required, as there are no lever changes. Fingerings, lyrics and chord symbols are included. The harp range required is 24 strings from a low C up to an E. It can be played on 24-string to 26-string harps with a C as the lowest string if you play both hands an octave higher than written.
SKU: HL.48180090
UPC: 888680795412. 9x12 inches.
“Variations on an Ancient Tune” by Carlos Salzedo is the third and final work of a series called Three Pieces'for Solo Pedal Harp. Difficult to play, it requires good mastering of the instrument and of its technique, including the pedals. Using the full range of the instrument, this work features numerous trills, glissandos and accidentals among other technicalities and is divided between really fast and more quiet parts. Really delightful, this melodious piece is composed of a main theme and eleven variations: Main Theme (Maestoso) is composed of chords I. A tempo, Graziamente II. Tempo di Bourrée III. Scherzando IV. L'Istesso tempo V. Maestoso VI. Vigorosamente VII. Molto piú lento VIII. Vivo risoluto IX. Lento, tempo di Barcaruola X. Como un preludio XI. Fuga Finishing on the main theme “A Tempo,” this wonderful work is an amazing piece to include in a concert or a recital. Carlos Salzedo (1885-1961) was a French harpist and composer who wrote and transcribed numerous pieces for the harp. He also wrote some pedagogical publications for harpists.
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
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