Alberstoetter – Ballade, solo harp part
A German Romantic Concerto Movement
Genre: Late Romantic
Difficulty: 8
Pages: 7
Also available:
Ballade, harp and piano reduction
Ballade, conductor’s score
Ballade, orchestra parts (rental or purchase)
Alberstoetter – Concert-Walzer for solo harp
Genre: Late Romantic
Difficulty: 7
Pages:10
Carl Alberstoetter (1835-1921) was the harpist with the Dresden Opera for a long career encompassing much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is one of the harpists praising the Lyon & Healy harp in their 1899 Harp Book, reprinted in 1979. In this new edition, the Concert-Waltz brings back the nostalgic feeling of a bygone era, with a distinctly German feel, and is one of a handful of character pieces by this harp composer. His other pieces, published in Germany at the turn of the century, were the Romanze op. 4, Marsch op.5, Tokkata op. 6, grouped together as Drei kleine Vortragstücke in the Carl Giessel Catalogue, and Romanze op. 7 for violin and harp, still available from Zimmermann.
Bach, C. P. E. – Solfeggietto, tr. D.Piana
Genre: Late Baroque
Difficulty: 4-5
Pages: 2
A famous classic in an unadorned and un-arranged edition, yet ready to play, with fingerings and pedals marked, but no page turns! It can also be found in the collection La Lyre d’Orphée, Vol. I: European Travels from the Early to Late Baroque.
Beethoven – Sonata in G, op. 49 #2, tr. D. Piana
Genre: Classical
Difficulty: 6-7
Pages: 12
Of all of Beethoven’s sonatas, this is the only one that translates easily to the harp, notwithstanding a few “exposed” pedal changes at the start. Even though it was published later in Beethoven’s life, it is an earlier work, harking back to a time when the piano and the harp were still less distinct in aesthetics. The famous second movement looks particularly idiomatic for the harp. In piano pedagogy, the first movement is considered a good study in scales. Nonetheless, this “little sonata” in two movements has been performed and recorded by many a great pianist…
Completely marked new edition.
Bochsa, Trois Morceaux d’Expression op. 338
Genre: Early Romantic
Difficulty: 5-7
Pages: 9
If the celebrated harpist and all-around accomplished musician (Robert-) Nicolas-Charles Bochsa (1789-1856) hadn’t been so fickle, his considerable talent would have left behind a different trail... As it is, beyond his known - and still in use - etudes for the harp, he composed such a quantity of works that it is hard to be impressed when coming across another piece (or set of pieces). Yet there is definitely an arc to the development of his style, and some of his works stand out for originality, amid the music of his time and within his own output.
A study in contrasts, the Three Expression Pieces are later works written specifically for the new double-action pedal harp and are filled with Italian expressions such as: con anima, dolente, affectuoso, leggiero, pesante, con eleganza, con fuoco, con espressione parlante, agitato appassionato and more. Certainly an interesting premise!
A beautiful and clean facsimile edition.
Bochsa, Trois Sonates progressives
Genre: Early Romantic
Difficulty: 3-5
Pages: 23
Cover
Sonata I
Sonata II
Sonata III
Bochsa’s Three Progressive Sonatas present a good alternative to the well-known ones by Naderman. They are the easiest sonatas in the harp repertoire, presenting a young musical prodigy’s first foray into pedagogy, and the fun spirit behind the technical patterns lends them charm and spice. They also make very user-friendly material for sight-reading and for light background music, in an expressive late classical style still destined to the single-action harp.
Newly typeset, corrected and marked for easy understanding and performance.
Boussagol, Le Réveil des Sylphes op. 10
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 6-7
Pages: 6
Emile Boussagol (1854-1917) studied at the Paris Conservatory with Conrad Prumier, one of the teachers still recommending the use of the fifth finger at the time. He played the harp at the Opera from 1874 to 1897, and worked as maestro di capella at Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle and at Saint-François-Xavier. Among different administrative positions, he served as director of the local conservatory at Rennes, as well as conductor in La Bourboule and Luchon. He composed vocal and orchestral music, and a slew of compositions for wind instruments with piano accompaniment, probably for the yearly school exams.
The present edition of The Awakening of the Sylphs is a facsimile of the 1885 publication. Other works traceable are his Romance sans paroles op. 24 from 1906, and his Nouvelle méthode de harpe à double mouvement théorique et pratique, ancienne méthode de Bochsa, revised in 1904.
Burgmüller, Rondo op. 1 for piano or harp, ed. for harp by D. Piana
Genre: Early Romantic
Difficulty: 5-6
Pages: 9
Pianist and composer Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller (1806-1874) was the son of the organist and conductor Johann August Franz and was eclipsed in fame by his highly gifted but short-lived younger brother Norbert, who was favorably compared with Schubert. After 1832 he settled in Paris, where he adopted a pleasing salon style that endeared him to the public and students alike. Even his easy piano studies are adorned with poetic titles… He enjoyed the friendship of his more brilliant contemporaries, to whom his works were often dedicated, even if critical acclaim escaped him then, and his music is still judged severely in some quarters (like Grove’s…). Wrongly so, as there is room for charm and lightness of being in the music pantheon.
Dedicated to Madame Pringle, his early Rondo op. 1 was published in 1826 by Peters in Leipzig, with the help of Ferdinand Ries, a composer (and former student of Beethoven) who did not shy away from writing for the harp himself. It is a substantial piece filled with gusto and infectious drive. The writing obviously favors the pianist’s hands, but once it is understood how brackets work across patterns, it will accommodate the harpist’s hands too, while the clear timbre of the harp enhances the sprightly character of the music.
This new edition has been prepared with ease of reading in mind. Burgmüller’s short studies, L’harmonie des anges and Consolation, are published for harp in the romantic collection Tendresses, also available on this website.
Chopin – Prelude # 15 Op. 28 (Raindrop), tr. D. Piana
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 6-7
Pages: 4
As harpists, we sometimes miss the famous classics of the repertoire, since most of the great composers did not write for us. Thus we must resort to transcriptions, if we can’t live without certain composers and pieces.
The fifteenth in a collection of preludes written in each of the 24 keys in imitation of Bach, this Prelude was considered “the most important and most highly finished of them all” by the French pianist Alfred Cortot, in his practice edition. Chopin’s “accompanied melody” style bears close resemblance to Bellini’s cavatina. His unique sentimental expression could be derived from habits such as dwelling on the dissonant note of appoggiaturas, moving between major and minor modes or, as illustrated in this particular prelude, lingering in a “harmonic daydream” upon repeated notes and chords, acting as a hypnotic drone.
In this transcription, once the central modulation from Db Major to C# Minor is taken care of enharmonically by carrying through the key signature of five flats to the end, there are no more serious obstacles to performing it on the harp; that is the necessary “infringement” of the rules. The music may look “atonal” in places, but the ear will recognize the charged harmonic fluctuations as the ones the heart already knows and wants to hear.
Deleplanque – Sonata for Harp with Violin Accompaniment, includes score
Genre: Classical
Difficulty: 7-8
Pages: 18 pgs., Harp part, 13 pgs., Violin part, 3 pgs.
Includes Violin and Harp score
Deleplanque (1746-1801) was a Belgian harpist born in Liège who, like so many other musicians, moved to Paris to seek his fortune as a performer and teacher. Most of his extant compositions date from the 1780’s and 1790’s. His Sonate de caractère in two movements stands out with its rare key of C minor that brings a touch of Sturm und Drang to a (single-action harp) repertoire known for its restraint.
This modern edition provides a score, and separate violin and harp parts with attention given to making page turns practical. The harp is obviously the solo instrument, and the violin provides unobtrusive accompaniment. The Sonata was recorded by the Belgian harpist Yvette Colignon, on a record entitled Florilège de la harpe for Musique en Wallonie (MW23) in 1978, under the direction of musicologist Philippe Mercier.
Finko – The Harp of King David
Genre: Modern, Jewish Music
Difficulty: 6-7
Pages: 3
Russian composer David Finko was born in 1936 in St. Petersburg and, following in the footsteps of his father, became a naval architect with a specialty in Submarine Design. He also graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov School for the Performing Arts in 1958, continuing to study composition at the Leningrad Conservatory. Upon winning First Prize at a New Composition Contest in 1965, he became a full-time composer. In 1979, he moved to the U.S. for political and religious reasons, and taught at various American universities: Yale, University of Texas, Penn State and others.
His output straddles all genres, from opera to symphonic works, and concertos for different instruments (including one for harp premiered by legendary harpist Tatiana Tauer) and chamber music. He has also written two short pieces for harp: The Harp of King David, available here, and Mask, which uses many modern techniques.
The Harp of King David was written in 1957 and first published in the Soviet Union, then republished in New York by Transcontinental Music Publications. It is now offered here in a new edition created by D. Piana after recording it on a CD of the same name.
Galeotti – Fantaisie pour harpe op.138
Genre: Early 20th Century, French
Difficulty: 9
Pages: 16
Cesare Galeotti (1872-1929) is another composer standing on the edge of the musical mainstream. He studied piano in Italy with Sgambati, a student of Liszt, and moved to Paris where he studied composition with Guiraud at the Conservatory, whose other students were Debussy and Loeffler. He composed large-scale works (operas and symphonies) and three pieces for solo harp: Fantaisie op. 138 (1908, Enoch), Légende, op. 139 (1910), and Scherzo-caprice, op. 159 (1920).
The Fantaisie, dedicated to Henriette Renié, was the morceau imposé for Alphonse Hasselmans’s class in the yearly Concours at the Paris Conservatory in 1908. In the second half of her celebrated Method, dealing with “Syntax”, Renié shows an excerpt of the Fantaisie as an example of medium articulation in rapid arpeggios (p. 134 in the French edition), another as an example of wrist motion (p. 144), another as an example of harmonics doubled at the octave (p. 159), and there is also an excerpt of Légende (on p. 151) regarding the voicing of octaves.
What happened to pieces such as this? They are very difficult and do not readily confer attraction on the performer or listener, but they are filled with special musical thoughts and subtle états d’âme that make the effort worthwhile, even if not immediately grateful.
Godefroid, F. – 2 Mosaïques pour la Harpe sur les principaux motifs de Norma de Bellini – 1. Deh! con te, con te li prendi – Si fino all’ora, 12 pgs.
Romantic
Difficulty: 7
Pages: 12
Godefroid, F. – 2 Mosaïques pour la Harpe sur les principaux motifs de Norma de Bellini – 2. Casta Diva – Ah! bello a me ritorna
Romantic
Difficulty: 7
Pages: 11
Godefroid, F. – La Fidanzata del Marinajo, scène pour harpe op. 192
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 9
Pages: 13
Godefroid, F. – La Harpe éolienne from Six nouvelles mélodies
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 4-5
Pages: 5
Godefroid, F. – La Mélancolie op. 23 from Trois Etudes caractéristiques
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 6-7
Pages: 6
Godefroid, F. – Les Rives de la Plata, Romance de T. Labarre Variée
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 6
Pages: 8
Godefroid, F. – Pensées Musicales Book I
Songs Within:
1. Prière (Prayer)
2. Le Roseau (The Reed)
3. Vieille Chanson normande (Old Norman Song)
4. Divin Calme (Divine Calm)
5. La Laura
6. Hymne à la Paix (Hymn to Peace)
7. Les Abeilles (The Bees)
8. Mystérieux Vallon (Secret Vale)
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 4-5-6
Pages: 21
Godefroid, F. – Pensées Musicales, Book 2
Songs Within:
1. Sancta Madona
2. Chant Indou (Hindu Song)
3. Jadis (Long Ago)
4. Bois Solitaire (Lonely Wood - Waldeinsamkeit)
5. Les Voix de la Nuit (Voices of the Night)
6. Naples
7. Le Pardon (Forgiveness)
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 5-6-7
Pages: 24
Godefroid, F. – Psaume de David
(Chantez au Seigneur un cantique nouveau/ Sing to the Lord a new song…)
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 5
Pages: 5
Grétry, attr. to – Collection
Songs Within:
Ah, vous dirai-je Maman (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
Menuet Du Roy de Prusse
Menuet de Locatelli
Marche des deux Avares
Marche Du Huron (in G)
Marche Du Huron (in Eb)"
Genre: Classic
Difficulty: 4-5
Pages: 23
Kastner – Deux Esquisses
Songs Within:
1. Mélancolie
2. Joie
Genre: Late Romantic
Difficulty: 5-6
Pages: 10
Kastner – Zwei Stücke, op. 12.
Songs Within:
1.Souvenir
2. Arabeske
Genre: Late Romantic
Difficulty: 6-7
Pages: 9
Labarre – A Favorite Air from the opera Anna Bolena by Donizetti – “Come innocente giovane,”
Genre: Early Romantic
Difficulty: 5-6
Pages: 3
Labarre – Variations sur Beatrice di Tenda de Bellini, op. 113
Genre: Early Romantic
Difficulty: 5
Pages: 6
Liszt – Two Ave Maria (Arcadelt/Liszt, tr. Dubez) + Ave Maria (Schuëcker)
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 7-9
Pages: 18
Liszt – Vol. 1 Sacred Meditations
Songs Within:
1. Ave verum Corpus de Mozart
2. Ave Maria in G major
3. Recueillement (Contemplation)
4. In Festo Transfigurationis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi
5. Sancta Dorothea
6. Psaume (from the Church at Geneva)
7. O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden
8. Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan"
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty:
4-5
2-3
4-5
4-5
4-5
6-7
4-5
4-5
Pages: 21
Liszt – Vol. 2 Christmas Tree (excerpts from Weihnachtsbaum)
Songs Within:
1. “Psallite” (Old Christmas Song)
2. O Heilige Nacht! (O Holy Night)
3. Die Hirten an der Krippe (In dulci jubilo)
9. Abendglocken (Evening Bells)
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty:
4-5
4-5
4-5
6-7
Pages: 12
Liszt – Vol. 3 Lyric Reflections
Songs Within:
La cloche sonne (The Bell Rings)
Frühling (Spring) after Chopin
Meeresstille (Stillness of the Sea), Lied by Franz Schubert
Romance oubliée (Forgotten Romance)
Vier Klavierstücke (Four Piano Pieces) 1. Sehr langsam
2. Lento assai
3. Sehr langsam
4. Andantino
Berceuse (first version)"
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty:
2-3
4-5
4-5
4-5
6-7
6-7
4-5
4-5
4-5
Pages: 12
Liszt – Vol. 4 Otherworldly Musings
Songs Within:
Wiegenlied
En rêve
Schlaflos! Frage und Antwort
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty:
6-7
6-7
6-7
Pages: 8
MacDowell – Six Poems after Heine: II Scotch Poem, V The Shepherd Boy
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 4-5
Pages: 7
Mendelssohn – Praeludium op. 35 #1 in E minor, tr. D. Piana
Genre: Early Romantic
Difficulty: 7-8
Pages: 4
Oberthür – Le Réveil des Elfes, Morceau caractéristique, op.181
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 8
Pages: 9
Oberthür – Song without Words #1 in E flat, op. 24, Dans ces instants où le coeur pense
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 4-5
Pages: 3
Oberthür – Twenty Four Preludes, Modulations from one key to another
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 5-8
Pages: 15
Poenitz – Drei leichte Stücke
Songs Within:
1. Ständchen
2. Die Spieldose
3. Wiegenliedchen
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 4-5
Pages: 4
Ponce, Manuel – Serenata Mexicana, freely arr. for harp by Chucho Ferrer
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 5-6
Pages: 6
Posse – Sechs (Six) kleine Stücke
Songs Within:
1. Neckerei (Teasing)
2. Nachtstück (Nightpiece)
3.Träumerei (Dreaming)
4. Gavotte
5.Lied ohne Worte (Song Without Words)
6. Kleiner Marsch (Little March)
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 5-9
Pages: 16
Rossini – Soirées Musicales: La Partenza, La Promessa et l’Orgia, arr. P. Alvars
Genre: Early Romantic, bel canto
Difficulty: 6-7
Pages: 13
Schubert – 3 Romances (Lieder) arr. Liszt/Parish Alvars
Genre: Early Romantic
Difficulty: 8-9
Pages: 13
Schumann – Widmung (Liebeslied) from Myrthen, op. 25 #1, arr. Liszt, tr. D. Piana
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 6-7
Pages: 4
Snoer, J. – Kleine Vortrags-Uebungen Op. 24 (29 little performance-studies)
Genre: Late Romantic
Difficulty: 3-4
Pages: 21
Zabel – Ballade, op. 20, ed. D. Piana, 11 pgs.
Songs Within:
1. Die Erwartung am See
2. Die Begegnung
3. Der Abschied
Genre: Romantic
Difficulty: 8-9
Pages: 11