Samuel O. Pratt (1877–1962) was an American harpist and composer known for lyrical, expressive works. The Little Fountain is an interesting piece that brings out a smooth yet vibrant flow of notes through rippling arpeggios and churning glissandos.  Its elegant and dominant style conveys the harp’s beauty and power. A popular piece for advanced beginners, it displays both musical difficulty and imagination.

Johannes Snoer (1868–1936) was a Dutch harpist and composer known for his expressive and elegant harp music. Elfentanz (Dance of the Elves) is a lively piece that shows the playful movements of dancing elves or fairies. With rapid arpeggios and beautiful melodies, it brings out the harp’s unique versatility.  

     Ballade, published in volume 2 of Harp Solos - Graded Recital Pieces, is a piece in A minor composed by Susann McDonald. It makes me think of bittersweet memories, given the feeling of chills produced by all those minor chords. At the same time, it also brings a kind of lightness of being, balancing the bitter with the sweet. It makes me think of the movement of water, rippling strongly yet softly, hopefully yet sadly. It is like the poem of life itself, mirroring the ups and downs experienced by every person in this world.

     "Dance From One Blade of Grass To Another, Pearls of Dew" was chosen from the collection Haiku for the Harp, composed by Susann McDonald and Linda Wood Rollo. This piece evokes feelings of being surrounded by trees, hearing water softly rippling in the distance, trees rustling, grass swaying, the smell of rain, and the pleasing chirping of birds and insects. The harmonics represent the tender pearls of dew. It is inspired by the haiku of the title, written by the samurai Hattori Ransetsu (1654-1707). Ratsetsu developed as a haikai poet under the guidance of Matsuo Bashō, who was considered the greatest in the field during the Edo era. A haiku is a 17-syllable, miniature poem from Japan, written over three short lines. Ratsetsu is remembered for his diary entries that preserved his refined observations of travels in Southern Japan.

     Esquisse, or Sketch, is composed by Henriette Renié, a prominent French harpist and composer known for her many unique and original pieces. In Esquisse, the composer uses the key of A♭ minor at the beginning and the key of A♭ major at the end, creating a contrast between moods. Renie uses the key change to create a contemplative and reflective quality. The contrast between the minor section and the major section are separated by a series of arpeggios that create a beautiful interlude between the gloomy beginning and the hopeful end.

      The composer of Pistache is Bernard Andrès. Andrès was born in Belfort in 1941. He studied music at the Besançon Conservatoire, Strasburg Conservatoire, and the Paris Conservatoire, where he won the First Prize for harp. He has taught in many establishments around Paris and published several teaching works for the harp. He holds a musing teaching certificate and an ‘Aptitude Certificate’ for teaching the harp in French regional conservatoires. Since 1969, Bernard Andrès has been a soloist for the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France while also being a composer for harp, choir, orchestra, and chamber ensembles.

Pistache is written A-Oriental-Minor. The intro is full of eight notes, triplets, sixteenth notes, and sextuplets, along with a few rolls of oriental chords. Next, at a little faster speed (𝅘𝅥𝅮=104), the left hand takes the beat and the right hand plays with ‘son pincès.’ Then, in the Cadenza, we start with sixteenth notes, and then gradually accelerate into thirty-second notes, and into sixty-fourth notes as well. This is along with a ‘cres—cendo e accel—lerando molto’. Then there is a crashing loud glissando from the high treble clef to the low bass clef. After that, we play ‘son naturels’ and ‘xylo’ at 𝅘𝅥𝅮=88. Following that is a series of triplets, sixteenth notes, quintuplets, sextuplets, and chords. Lastly, we play the ‘son pincès’ section again, followed by the left hand beat with right hand chords and a double harmonic at the end.

The composer of Palace Lake is Grace Vamos Becker. Vamos grew up in Berkeley, California. She was a cellist. Vamos studied pedagogy at the Paris Conservatoire with, then received a Damrosch scholarship to live in France and study at the Fontainebleau School of Music. She returned to California and taught cello and composition at Mills College, where she studied composition. In 1937, Vamos traveled to Hungary to study composition as well. She left Hungary in 1939. Vamos returned to San Francisco where the Oakland Symphony performed her piano concerto in the premiere performance of a piano concerto by a female composer in the state of California. She formed the Trio Moderne with flautist Christine Howells Pfund and harpist Marie Hughes Marguarrie, which performed frequently, often playing arrangements by Vamos. Grace endowed several scholarships and awards.
Palace Lake has many areas where it uses techniques not usually used in music, such as the up and down glissando. Another example is the pedal change were you go from G♮, B♮, and D♮ to G♭, B♭, and D♭ all at once.

     Today, I’m going to be playing Sonatina by Sergei Natra. My teacher, Mrs. Linda Rollo has offered a unique, interpretive approach to this piece. She encouraged me to imagine the piece as a story to make it my own. As I play the piece, I imagine lucid, striking fjords cascading (present in the introduction), and the delicate tendrils of a passionflower (pictured in the glissando section).

     Natra was a prolific artist who composed and consumed a wide range of music from Cantatas, Sonatinas, and Instrumental music to Dizzy Gillespie and works from the jazz genre.

     The piece begins with a shocking, urgent introduction which spirals into 3 distinctive passages, whimsical and hypnotic, majestic yet intense, and culminates with a mystifying passage which is rendered nearly incomplete (in my opinion) by its last page, though intrinsic to the piece’s nearly meditative atmosphere.

       La Source or Am Springbrunnen, which imitates the movement of water, is one of the Romantic era composer Albert Zabel’s most famous works. Zabel (1834-1910) began studying harp under the harpist Louis Grimm, and began touring at the young age of eleven. At age fourteen, he became harpist to the Berlin opera and solo harpist with the Mariinsky Ballet in 1855. Zabel taught harp at the St Petersburg Conservatory, also earning the title honorary distinguished professor. 

     George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist who wrote popular, jazz, and classical music such as Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. He began his career as a song plugger, later composing Broadway works with his brother and film scores in Hollywood. Eleanor Fell was a world renowned harpist, co-owner of Vanderbilt Music, and arranger of contemporary music on the harp, including some from Gershwin, Ellington, and the Beatles. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Harp from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, later performing throughout the U.S. 

     Rhapsody in Blue is a key composition that defined the Jazz Age. This work combines elements of both classical music and jazz influence. An American in Paris is a jazz-influenced tone poem inspired by the time Gershwin had spent in Paris during the Années folles, a period of social, artistic, and cultural collaborations in 1920s France.