Harpblog

Results of the Pencerdd Gwalia Competitions 2013

Here are the results of the two competitions of the Pencerdd Gwalia Festival. The final stages took place in Bridgend, Wales, birthplace of the great Welsh harpist John Thomas, last week on April 13th. 

Junior Competition - under 17 years of age:

1. Mared Emyr Pugh-Evans 
2. Molly-Rowan Sharples 
3. Cassandra Tomella

 

Senior Competition - under 25, but with no lower age limit:

1. Llywelyn Ifan Jones 
2. Elfair Grug Dyer 
3. Molly-Rowan Sharples

 

 

Congratulations to all laureates!

The final followed rounds of competition in South and North Wales. The competition day was rounded off by a concert to celebrate John Thomas' life and work, featuring performances by Catrin Finch, Hannah Stone, Katherine Thomas, Gary Griffiths and the Tabernacle Choir. We sponsored the concert, and the first prize in the Junior Competition was sponsored by our Cardiff partners, Telynau Vining Harps.

The festival website has a good collection of information about John Thomas, ranging from contemporary anecdotes and extracts from Thomas's own journals, to two articles about Bridgend in the 1830s and links to events, recordings and sheet music.  

 

A Dynasty of Harp Makers, by Ann Griffiths

Erard Louis XVI harp 2544/6610 (1894)

 
Anyone now preparing for the next USA International Harp Competition will have recently contacted Adlais Music Publishers, because it is they who have brought out one of stage two's set works: the Bochsa-Moretti Rondo on Zitti Zitti.

I say "they", but I should really say "she", because Adlais is run by the distinguished Welsh harpist and musicologist, Ann Griffiths - Premier Prix of the Paris Conservatoire in the class of the legendary Pierre Jamet, and author of 46 articles in the New Grove Dictionary of Music. The Adlais catalogue naturally contains many of Ann's own compositions and scholarly editions, and is a particularly good source for music by some of Ann's areas of specialist interest - John Parry, Krumpholtz, Dussek, Parish Alvars, John Thomas and Bochsa.

Ann has recently updated an article she wrote on the 250th anniversary of Sébastien Erard's birth. It's very useful to have an English-language biographical overview of the great man, which also points you in the right directions for further reading. So here it is! Many thanks to Ann for kindly agreeing to its publication on Harpblog.

Download A Dynasty of Harp Makers

 

Some restored, antique harps

At our factory in Mouzeil, we've been restoring some antique harps. On Facebook, Jakez has uploaded photo albums of two of the restored harps - you can find them on our page. As part of our upcoming fortieth anniversary celebrations in Ancenis, there will be an exhibition of Jakez's private harp collection, and both these harps will be on display.

 

 

 

Above: a single-action Challiot harp. It sounds great and should be playable, after some regulation.

 

Above: a single-action by Jean-Henri Naderman (1734-1799), harpmaker to Queen Marie-Antoinette. Unfortunately, this one is not going to be playable, but look how beautifully it was made!

 

 

 

Caernarfon Harp Festival, April 2nd-3rd, 2012

We're sending two Erard harps (a Louis XVI, and an Empire model) from Jakez's private collection to the Caernarfon Harp Festival this year. 2012's festival pays homage to two important harp world figures, born within a few days of each other - the Welsh "King's Bard" Edward Jones, and Sébastian Erard. Download the flyer below or go to the website for more information!

 

Just think what she could have done with a DHC Blue Light!

 

Carbon fibre electroharp prototype in the National Museum of Scotland

At the end of last year, we donated Camac's first carbon fibre electroharp prototype (pictured above) to the National Museum of Scotland. The museum is now set to reopen on July 29th, after a 46-million-pound refurbishment. The electroharp is ready for the grand opening, set as part of what senior curator of modern science Tacye Phillipson aptly describes as a "ghostly chamber ensemble" of electric instruments. Find out more in this article in the Scotsman newspaper!

International Harp Archives: now over 1000 scores online

Something more for scholarly harpists on the hunt for online resources. David Day from the International Harp Archives in Utah writes:

"This summer, we have been scanning harp scores for the Internet Archive, from our collection of more than 10,000 scores and recordings that feature the harp. Today we reached a milestone of scanning over 1,000 titles. The collection can be viewed by logging into the Internet Archive and in the search box entering the tag tag (byuinternationalharparchive), including the parentheses. The resulting URL of the search can also be used as a link if you wanted to create a resource link for other harpists. 

The collection includes scores from the 18th century through to 1922. It may also be of interest to researchers working in the history of music publishing or other musicological topics such as the repertory of arrangements of popular opera arias from the 19th century. Some titles are duplicated in the collection of scans, because we keep variant printings and copies that may feature markings by well known harpists. We are still scanning additional scores from the collection. I hope it will reach the 2,000 benchmark before the end of the year.

Enjoy! David Day"

 

Centre Sébastian Erard website now live

More good news about the fantastic Erard exhibition currently taking place in Nice. The historical instruments curator at the Musée du Palais Lascaris, Robert Adelson, writes:

"To coincide with the exhibition "Erard and the invention of the modern harp, 1811-2011," I am pleased to announce the opening of the website of the Centre Sébastien Erard, dedicated to the study of the history of the piano and harp.

The Centre Sébastien Erard is the research branch of the Gaveau-Erard-Pleyel archives, deposited at the Musée du Palais Lascaris in Nice by the AXA insurance group in 2009. The centre was created in 2010, in partnership with the Association Ad Libitum, Centre International du Pianoforte, in order to make the archives more accessible to scholars.  

This site will make accessible many rare documents from the Erard, Pleyel and Gaveau firms, including:

1. Ledger books and early administrative documents

2. Correspondence

3. Iconography

4. Photos of instruments

Please return regularly to the site, as we will continue to add more and more documents."

The Elysée, our model inspired by Erard harps

The original Empire Erard from which we cast the Elysée's bronze ornaments

The watercolour study for the Empire Erard.

Etude pour une harpe Erard, N° d'inventaire D.2009.1.1631, Fonds Gaveau-Erard-Pleyel, dépôt du Groupe AXA au Musée du Palais Lascaris, Nice

Exhibition: "Erard and the Invention of the Modern Harp, 1811-2011"

At the Palais Lascaris in Nice, between May 13th and October 17th 2011, is a lovely exhibition dedicated to the double-action harp since its invention by Sébastien Erard in 1811. The exibition includes some key instruments, including Georges Cousineau's "14-pedal" harp of 1782 and Sébastien Erard's first harp from 1786.

The exibition has an associated concert programme, moreover one that is completely free: see here for details. Upcoming concerts are:

June 18th, 4PM, Palais Lascaris: Duo Sébastien Erard (Virginie Tarrête, Erard harp, and Alain Roudier, Erard piano). 

October 8th, 4PM, Palais Lascaris: "Autour de la harpe de Naderman du Palais Lascaris" Maria Christina Cleary, harp.

December 2nd, 8:30PM, CNRR Auditorium, Nice, in partnership with the French Association des Amis de la Harpe. Programme: Kikta "La luce delle tacite stelle" for mixed choir, baritone, soprano and harp sextet; Andrès "Un prince oriental" for mixed choir, baritone, soprano, flute, oboe, double bass and harp sextet.

You can also download the full catalogue to the exhibition free of charge. This catalogue includes fantastic, extensive introductory essays about Erard's life and work, as well as an interview by Dr Laure Barthel with Jakez about Erard's influence on modern harp manufacture. 

The catalogue is in French. If enough people write in saying they would like an English version, I will ask the museum if I can have permission to translate it. Send your request to harpblog@camac-harps.com, or put it in the comments box to this post. 

 

Left: Camac's Elysée harp, inspired by the genius of Sébastian Erard

Louise Nordmann, the Harfenjule of Berlin

The Harfengalerie Camac Berlin are in the news again as part of an interesting article in Berlin's biggest newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, about Louise Nordmann, the Berlin "Harfenjule".

The Harfenjule was the most famous of the many travelling harp players found in Germany during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She was born blind, although an eye operation carried out in childhood did recover some sight in one eye. She could be heard playing on the streets of Berlin in all weathers, until shortly before her death in 1911. She is considered a true "Berlin original" who enjoyed considerable popularity during her lifetime, and who has gone down in the city's folklore, and was immortalised by Klabund in his volume of poetry "Die Harfenjule" (1927).

Today is the 100th anniversary of her death, and at her graveside in the Luther Cemetary in Lankwitz historical harp specialists Judy Kadar and Nancy Thym have organised a concert in her memory, of music and stories about her.