Harpblog

Jean-Michel Damase, 1928 - 2013

Jean-Michel Damase, while president of the jury of the Concours Cité des Arts, 2011. Photo: Jean-Marc Volta

 

As many of you will have already heard, Jean-Michel Damase died the day before yesterday, at the age of 85. Son of the great harpist Micheline Kahn, he leaves behind him an exceptional, prolific and imaginatively diverse contribution to our instrument. From absolute beginners to the most virtuoso artists, a concert harpist's repertoire is not complete without at least one work by Jean-Michel. Those fortunate enough to have known or met him personally equally treasure his kindness, open-mindedness and good humour. Like many distinguished musicians, he was first and foremost an exceptional human being. He will be sorely missed. 

Camac Voice, April 2013: Benoît Wery

The distinguished harpist-composer Benoît Wery has just released a new words-music CD, with flautist Philippe Pierlot, and one of France's most famous actors: Marie Christine Barrault. April's Camac Voice is an extract from the final track on this album of French poetry and music: L’Isle de la Fée for harp and narrator, by Benoît Wery, based on the tale 'The Island of the Fay' by Edgar Allen Poe. 

 

Benoît Wery is much in demand both as a performer and composer, in and beyond the harp world. He has particularly made a name for himself as a champion of French music. He was awarded five diapasons for his CD "musique française avec harpe" (Chant de Linos CL0946), and his discography also includes a disc of French violin and harp music (CL1061) with Jean-Pierre Wallez, and one of French flute, bassoon and harp music (REM 311283).

 

Interview with Attila Reményi

 

 

The closing date for the Third International Harp Competition in Szeged (November 28 - December 3, 2013) is not until the 30th of September, but if you're going in for the competition you're probably working on your programme already. In which case: there's an interesting interview with Attila Reményi, whose Miniatures are the set work in the competition's senior cateogry.

The Miniatures, which won the Third International Composition Competition in Fukui, Japan in 1998, are not Reményi's sole contribution to the harp repertoire. He has written no less than ten solo and chamber works (catalogued at the end of the interview), including for pedal harp, lever harp, harp duet, harp ensemble, flute and harp, and fl/vla/hp trio.

Catrin Finch makes Dubai debut

 

Classical music, in its generic sense, is the art music stemming from Western liturgical and secular traditions. Today, one of its most interesting aspects is how it travels. The harp has long benefited from amazing work in the Asia Pacific region, like in Singapore, Thailand, China, and Japan. Increasingly, for all they are ringed by desert, the Gulf states are also proving a fertile source of new musical life. The ongoing success of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra is one example, and another is what's going on in Dubai.

Dubai has quite a lot of job opportunities for harpists to play in its luxury hotels. This was how Shelley Frost first arrived in the country, having taken such a job in order to fund a new harp. She has stayed, taken playing for corporate events to an entirely new stratosphere, and has now applied her vision and professionalism to developing the concert scene. In 2009, we blogged about The Fridge, Shelley's arts centre. Since then, she has also, together with her composer colleague Joanna Marsh, created an organisation specialising in art music: The Score. Shelley and Joanna's concept is not only to bring top performers to the audiences of Dubai, but also to feed into the grass roots of the local music culture. As a result, all of the concerts in the season are surrounded by an array of workshops, master classes and music educational activities. 

Under the auspices of The Score, Catrin Finch will be making her concert debut in Dubai on March 25th. This will include a masterclass for professional harpists of the region, a matinée for and with school children, and the world premiere of a work by Joanna Marsh, "A Short Handbook of Djinn". This work consists of three movements, each about a different djinn, and each preceded by a short narrative explaining their role in Arabic culture. 

Camac Voice, February 2013: François Pernel

The Camac Voice of February is one of the artists who recently performed at Camac Ibérica’s birthday party in Madrid: François Pernel. The extract now playing on camac-harps.com is part of François’s own arrangement of J S Bach’s first cello Suite. The cello suites are tricky to bring off on the harp – perhaps because of the very different colour of bowed cello bass notes – and it’s impressive to hear this one, the most famous, so successful on the lever harp. If you like that, check out François’s SoundCloud page, where you'll find everything from a Vivaldi-based classical waltz mix, to "Irish groove", "Celtic Breton jazz", and "Rachman'hip'hop".

 

Despite the sound of its name, traditional music is an exceptionally creative medium, adapting and adopting whatever musical styles it finds and likes. In the lever harp world alone, you’ll find so-called “Celtic” music (itself native to at least five different countries and traditions) married to classical, jazz, world music, rock, pop, electronica and the avant-garde. With its spirit of constant discovery, this music is anything but entombed in aspic, and proves that tradition is as much a question of individual talent as anything else.

François Pernel is one of the lever harp’s most individual talents. Composer, arranger, performer and teacher, his music is distinguished by a particularly skilful appropriation of diverse influences. He has released more than a dozen albums - which you can order here, or download as MP3s -  from his composition ‘Gnossienne’ in homage to Eric Satie, to his album ‘Harpe Corps’, on which all the tracks feature amplification and sound processing in one way or another.

 

 

New electronic composition projects with Maria Christina and Dominic Murcott

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance has long been an exceptionally innovative and musically open-minded conservatoire, and it was during the Camac Harp Days we held there in 2009 that we met Dominic Murcott, head of composition there. He has been a fantastic creative partner to several harp/electronica projects we have done since then, most notably in the development of Graham Fitkin's MIDI harp concerto. We have never made any secret of the fact that we don't yet know what directions the MIDI harp will take, which is why we've not yet put the harp into commercial production. As a non-harpist specialist in electronic and avant-garde music, Dominic's response to the instrument has been very educative and encouraging. When Gabriella Dall'Olio approached him about the Camac Days, he was initially sceptical: because MIDI technology is so widespread outside the harp world, it had become more or less synonymous for Dominic with "bottom range" electronic music, on cheap synthesisers or basic computer programmes. On seeing the harp, however, he changed his mind, perceiving at once the instrument's potential and suggesting many ideas we would never have thought of without him. All in all, he has been an invaluable source of artistic focus and support.

 

Dominic Murcott and Jakez working with the MIDI harp. Photo: Yvonne White

 

Maria-Christina

There is now another exciting piece of news from Trinity's composition department. Maria Christina, the avant-garde Greek harpist who won the pop harp competition at the Wales International Festival in 2010, is now based in London and this year has begun a PhD with Dominic. As part of this, she is collaborating with composers to write new music for the harp - "and to write really for the harp", MC explains, "not for something somewhere between a piano and a guitar".

 

Dominic Murcott

Maria Christina's commissioning process started last summer. The works will be for pedal harp, sometimes amplified, sometimes not, often exploring the tension between the nature of acoustic and processed sound. We can look forward to a new work from Rhodri Davies, and last week we also sent a blue harp to London for MC to work on with Dominic, who is writing a piece for her himself. The music will explore feedback, and the extent to which we can control sound waves.

 

 

While the blue harp was in London, Maria Christina also gave a workshop about it to the Trinity harp class. The more opportunity there is for conservatoires to hold such workshops, the better, as the harp cannot enter the electronic music scene without instruments that are capable of participating fully, and harpists knowing how to use them. We're really looking forward to the results of Maria Christina's work with Dominic at Trinity. It's wonderful to see artists we at first encountered at one-off events going on to collaborate so richly and substantially. 

 

 

Closing date for the sixth Félix Godefroid International Competition

A quick reminder from Belgium that the closing date for the sixth Félix Godefroid International Competition is fast approaching (October 5th). The competition has long been a fixture in the world harp calendar and offers a great chance, with a generous age limit of thirty-five, to compete at international level in four categories. All details for how to apply are on the competition website. 

 

Félix Godefroid

It is also a chance to get your teeth into the works of Godefroid, and indeed many from the remarkably distinguished roll-call of harp composers who come from Wallonia. What harpists have on their music stands is heavily influenced by big competition programmes, and it so happens that there's not so much Godefroid around right now - but this is a pity. Félix Godefroid was a highly feted virtuoso: praised as far afield as Russia and the Middle East, while Hector Berlioz remarked that "The talent of Mr. Godefroid is comparable to Parish Alvars's, the king of harpists; there is nothing exaggerated in this appreciation. Mr Godefroid, an absolute master of his instrument, has nothing to fear from any comparison." Sophie Hallynck, the Concours Godefroid's artistic director, also highlights the fantastic amount of little-known études and study material left behind by Félix (despite him not being a profilic teacher himself). 

In Southern California, Celia Chan Valerio and Dominique Piana have also collaborated to raise the profile of both Godefroid brothers, Félix and Jules. Jules was actually even more popular than Félix in his day, although it is the more lyrical quality of Félix's compositions that has better stood the test of time. If you're interested in finding out more, Dr Valerio's PhD thesis on the two brothers includes a useful catalogue quoting the first theme of each work, and ratings on a clearly defined scale of difficulty. She also notes where particular technical issues occur, such as multiple thumb slides. To complement this, Dominique has recently published a large number of their works. 

 

The Phantom of the Opera

The lever harp will feature in the world premiere of "The Phantom of the Opera", by Pierre Thilloy (resident composer of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, supported by the Catherine Gide Foundation and the Dokhan Foundation since April 2006, and rewarded many times for his work as a whole).

 

The new work is a commission for the "Cinéconcerts" of the Toulouse Cinémathèque, for the music of Robert Julian's 1925 film of the same name. This panorama for trio, which will go on tour in France and Asia in 2011 and 2012, will be performed on December 10th at the Toulouse Cinémathèque. Ameylia Saad Wu (soprano and prize winner in the 2009 Jakez François International Lever Harp Composition) will sing and play lever harp; Stéphane Escoms (pianist, accordionist, composer, arranger and specialist arranger for jazz and contemporary music) will be on the keyboards, computers and accordion, and the third musician will be DJ Guillaume Flamen: pianist, repetiteur, co-founder and artistic director of the collective EleKtrolYr, and of the Netlabel Giraphone Records.

Double first

Speaking of question of the week - I am going to send two DVDs to Ruzanna Arustamyan of Armenia, for not only answering correctly that Ravel left the score of the 'Introduction et Allegro' at his shirt-makers, but for sending me the entire anecdote!

"In the spring of 1905, Ravel, then thirty years old, was invited to go on a yacht trip. The composer had just come through a bruising scandal: he had been denied the Prix de Rome for the third consecutive year, and the resulting outcry had forced the resignation of the director of the Paris Conservatory. Now he was anxious to put this strain behind him and go sailing to Amsterdam, then up the Rhine as far as Frankfurt, and back to Le Havre.

But complications stood in the way of Ravel’s yachting holiday. First, the Erard Company, maker of harps and pianos, had commissioned a work for harp that he had to finish before he could go. Usually a slow and meticulous worker, Ravel finished this piece in "a week of frantic work and three sleepless nights". And then there was the matter of proper clothing. Ravel was the most fastidiously dressed composer who ever lived (for his American tour of 1928, he would take along twenty pairs of pajamas and fifty pastel shirts); now he hurried to his tailor to order the proper clothes for a yacht trip. In his haste, Ravel left the manuscript of the Introduction and Allegro sitting on the tailor’s counter. Fearing the worst, he returned from the trip several weeks later to find that the tailor had carefully saved it for him."

 

[Link to lovely star clipart, pastel like Ravel's shirts, here!]

Bernard Andrès in Lagny-sur-Marne

Many thanks to Matthieu Dupont, who has written to us about a recent visit by Bernard Andrès to the music school in Lagny sur Marne, France !

"On March 13th, 2010, Bernard Andrès came to the CRC (Conservatoire à Rayonnement Communal) in Lagny-sur-Marne. Elisabeth Bassereau, harp teacher at the conservatoire, had organised a masterclass for the occasion focused on repertoire by Bernard Andrès: solo, harp ensemble and chamber music pieces.

During the day, pupils benefited from the composer's advice, and applied it during the concert that evening. Thanks to how Bernard Andrès structured the masterclass, pupils were able to ask questions and get the answers they were hoping for. "It was a familial moment", Bernard Andrès confided to us, happy to be able to pass on his knowledge and experience to the young musicians.

That evening, the public were able to hear works such as the "Pavane" (an extract from "Automates"), "Zerbina", "Contes vagues", la "Ragazza", and the "Algues" collection (accompanied by instruments such as the violins and recorders, to Monsieur Andrès's great surprise). We also heard "Safran" and "Cannelle" from "Epices", adapted by the composer for harp, 2 flutes, 2 guitars, percussion and double bass. This adaptation is now published and is available, for example, in Camac's online boutique!"

I was present at the day of lessons and the concert on March 13th. Many people came to the masterclass: parents and friends of the harp class of course, but also pupils from other instrument classes, curious to see the composer "in real life". It was wonderful to see these young harpists happy to perform their work, if also a little anxious to have to perform in front of Monsieur Andrès...the composer put them at their ease, told them about the conditions under which he had written the pieces, recounted stories from his student and teaching days...all the while remaining rigorous in his technical and musical advice.

Elisabeth Bassereau's pupils put his advice into excellent practice during their performances in the concert that same evening! The day finished around a table of sweets, and raising our glasses in friendship. Claude