Chamber Music harp
SKU: CF.H84
Composed by Marcel
Tournier. Edited by Carl
Swanson. Collection -
Score. Carl Fischer Music
#H84. Published by Carl
Fischer Music (CF.H84).
ISBN 9781491165539.
UPC:
680160924530.
Marce
l 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unknown and unpublished.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 Ã
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.
the Pope
