# seeking some good harp music



## Mattd

I've recently been exposed to more harp players than I have before. This seems to be a very small genre, does anyone know of any good recordings that feature the harp?


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## altiste

*flute viola harp repertoire*

There's a surprisingly large repertoire for the chamber music formation flute, viola and harp which began with Debussy's Sonata for this combination. It's been well recorded with several versions available so is a must to hear if you don't already know it. Another early work for this instrumentation is the Bax Elegiac Trio.

I've played both of these two works myself and was inspired to write my own work for flute, viola and harp: Terrestrial Mirror You can listen to the second movement on my web page.


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## Krummhorn

There is a group associated with our University of Arizona, called HarpFusion. I've heard this group perform (live) many times and they are excellent - some are even harp majors. They are under the direction of Carrol McLaughlin, DMA, and have this website with more information.

Some of her students also arrange music for the group - might possibly be a requirement for graduation, but not entirely sure of that.


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## altiste

There's also a multiple-harp group based in Paris called Naccara.


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## LvB

Ravel's Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet, and String Quartet is one of the most magical pieces out there. Reinecke's e minor Harp Concerto is, like so much of his best music, fluid and lovely and, in the slow movement, quite haunting. And you should definitely check out the harp music of Henriette Renié (1875-1956). She was a virtuoso who wrote almost exclusively for the harp, solo and in ensemble work; her music is not especially profound, but it's thoroughly enjoyable, and must be nightmarishly difficult to play. Her almost exact contemporary Reinhold Gliere also wrote a beautiful harp concerto.

All of these composers have been recorded reasonably frequently, so you should have no trouble finding their music.


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## altiste

There was a quintet of flute, violin, viola, cello & harp called the _Quintette Instrumental de Paris_ that was active from the 1920s. The group commissioned 30 or so works including Serenade Op. 30 of Albert Roussel, and works by Vincent d'Indy and Guy Rpoartz among others.


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## Ciel_Rouge

Bach's Minuet on harp:






And these harps are a bit different:

www.yasmeensong.com





Cecile Corbel


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## lülü

For Concertos, Handel's Harp Concerto in B flat and Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp in C are the best known. A french composer called Boieldieu has a concerto for the harp, I love its 3rd movement. Villa-Lobos, Rodrigo, Parish-Alvars and Gliere have also written harp concertos.

Debussy's 2 Dances for Harp and Strings are amazing. Saint-Saens's Morceau de Concert and Pierné's Concertstück are also good examples of music for harp and orchestra. Ravel's Introduction and Allegro is a very considerable work, as LvB has already mentioned.

Besides these few works concerning the orchestra, harp repertoire is mostly made up from solo works written exclusively by harpist-composers like Tournier, Hasselmans, Salzedo, Grandjany, Godefroid... etc. Fauré's Impromptu (written actually for the piano), Spohr's and Saint-Saens's Fantasies are astonishing, to my opinion.

C.P.E Bach, Scarlatti and Hindemith have written beautiful harp sonatas. Britten and Hovhaness have written suites. Bach suites and Debussy preludes also go well with the harp. 

Well, enough for a while I guess. good harp listenings. =)


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## Mark Harwood

Catrin Finch (DG 477 8097) and Sylvain Blassel (Lontano 2564 69199-6) have both recorded the Goldberg Variations on harps.


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## Kuhlau

Two CDs I can thoroughly recommend:



















FK


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## myaskovsky2002

*I like this!*

Gliere: concerto for harpe, nice and easy.

Martin


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## Vaneyes




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## myaskovsky2002

I'd already mentionned this, remember.

Gliere.

Martin


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## Art Rock

For me the most beautiful harp concerto (and indeed one of the most beautiful concertos of all time, regardless of instrument) is William Alwyn's Lyra Angelica.


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## CTCarter

Krumpholtz - Exquisite harp music from the France of Louis XVI. Beautiful, elegant, finely crafted, and as civilized as any music I can imagine.


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## tdc

I would definetely agree with the above poster who mentioned Ravel's introduction and allegro from his sheherazade. Also this:






From the stuff I've heard Ibert is an under-rated composer!


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## LordBlackudder




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## canarina

oh gosh, well I play in a harp ensemble, and I'd say that we play some pretty nice stuff, so you should definitely check us out. Cx 
www.harpensemble.org

and also, I know it's not really harp music, but Aquarium played on the harp is amazing. c:


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## Sid James

I've posted this before elsewhere, but *Elliott Carter's*_ Mosaic _for harp & chamber ensemble (1995) is a work featuring the instrument that I quite like. This is a kind of tribute to the late harpist Carlos Salzedo, who was Carter's friend, and pioneered many of the techniques in this work (Salzedo composed mainly for his instrument, but I haven't heard any of his works as yet, there is a disc on the Australian Tall Poppies label which looks to be superb). I'd basically describe this work as kind of "atonal" & modern, but many of the sounds here wouldn't be out of place in things like those mentioned above of Debussy or Ravel. Despite some of his "thorny" sounds, Carter comes across to me as a "softie" at heart. The video of the work below is on a Naxos double CD-DVD set that I own, incl. a number of works as well as an interview with the composer. The sound is good, but the video has these wierd kind of 1960's retro-kaliedescopic visual effects which is more "arty" than showing the concert performance in the usual (proper?) way...

(The work is in one movt., but here it's split up in two parts on youtube) -


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## LordBlackudder




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