Harp Column Blogs: Samuel MilliganArchive

A lot of misinformation is floating around the web these days about a Czech school of harp playing sometimes mistakenly called the Attl method.  The school is properly called the Trnecek method after the founder, Hanus Trnecek (1858-1914), who evolved a rather different way of tone production.  His ideas were brought to America by the Attl brothers.   

Hanus Trnecek (tur-NEE-check or truh-NEE-check, depending on who you're talking to) started out as a pianist.  Apart from harp, his main claim to fame is his edition of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas, published by Breitkopf.  He was also a conductor, but ended up serving as professor of harp at the Prague Conservatory beginning in 1888.  As far as the harp was concerned, he was a total autodidact, owing nothing whatever to any other method, school or style of playing.  Judging from the wide stretches called for in his published works, he must have had enormous hands.  Few of his compositions or transcriptions are heard today, except for a fun transcription of Smetana's Moldau.  And very rarely one encounters the less interesting Schubert Fantasy.

Coming to America

Among his students were Kajetan A. Attl (KAI-yuh-tahn OTT-ul) and his younger brother Vojmir (VOY-meer), both of whom immigrated to the United States.  I'm not sure just when, but either before or after his position as principal harpist with the San Francisco Symphony, Kajetan was hired to serve as a private harp tutor for the daughter of a very wealthy Denver man who had made a fortune in mining.  

Having no other duties in Denver, he found time to teach Laura Newell, who became perhaps the main exponent of the Trnecek Method in this country.  Stanley Chaloupka was also an Attl student, but told me at the Denver AHS Conference that he made a lot of modifications to the degree that he wouldn't call it the Trnecek Method anymore.  Vojmir's wife, Olga, did some teaching, but how closely she adhered to the method I don't know.  (Maybe someone in California could bring us up to date on Attl affairs.)

But Laura Newell was a great defender of Trnecek's principles in their purest form.  

Since Attl had no university connection, Laura next entered the New England Conservatory to study with Alfred Holy whom she soon came to despise, mainly because of his racism.  He also tried to get her to abandon the Trnecek technique.  Big mistake on his part.  In spite of affecting a little bird-like voice, she could be tougher than a two dollar steak.  

Afterwards, apart from a brief stint as principal harp in Pittsburgh, she spent the rest of her life in New York City, playing with such as Toscanini's NBC Symphony, Thomas Scherman's Little Orchestra Society, the Bell Telephone Hour from the first radio broadcast till the last telecast, and so on.  She was in the orchestra for the opening of the Roxy theatre, and lived long enough to see it razed for a newer building.  Like many incredible sight readers, she had problems with memorization.  I once asked her why she never played a New York recital.  "Because," she said, "I can't remember two notes in a row."  Then adding "Damn Clara Schumann anyhow," referring to Schumann's introduction of playing recitals entirely by memory.

High-stepping horses, Bourbon Whiskey and General Tso's Chicken

I was her only harp student, so far as I know.  She had the cleanest technique of any harpist I ever encountered, and I wanted to know how she did it.  She agreed to teach me, but refused to take money.  But in return, I kept her two harps in the best shape possible.   If there was any hint of a problem, it would be corrected before the lesson began.  After the lesson we would knock back a snort of bourbon or two, then I would treat her to dinner, generally at a little Chinese place on Amsterdam Avenue, a hangout for members of the extinct NBC Symphony.

Describing the Trnecek method will be difficult, but here goes. 

He thought that pulling the strings horizontally, at right angles to the plane of the strings, would produce the best sound.  The forearm is parallel to the floor and the wrist curved to allow the palm of the hand to be parallel to the plane of the strings.  The fingers are placed rather deeply, and in moving, impart a twirling motion to the string.

To try it, place all four fingers on, say, III-G, A, B and C with the forearm and palm as I said.  Taking the index finger as an example, the first joint (closest to the nail) remains relatively straight, the movement done wholly with the second and third joints. The finger does not close, but simply backs away, so to speak, the pad setting the string in motion as it passes it.  Visually, the finger moves "like the leg of a high-stepping horse," as Laura described it.  The thumb does not close, but moves in a sort of circular motion after leaving the string.  Trnecek, as I said, owed nothing to anybody.  As you can see, it is totally unique.  Bizarre, even.

That's as clear as I can describe it.  Demonstration would be best, but barring that, you might look up Laura's article in the Spring, 1968 number of the American Harp Journal where you can find several illustrations taken from Kajetan Attl's Method for the Harp, published by Carl Fischer in New York.  (Could it be that this book gave rise to referring to Trnecek's system as the Attl method?)

As a playing technique, it is difficult to maintain.  You absolutely must work every day to keep it under your fingers.  

All in all, I found the Trnecek method to be about as natural as Chinese foot binding.  Laura could do it beautifully with splendid results.  However, I could not, so after some months, we gave up on it.   I returned to my old technique and we went on to strictly musical matters, after which the lessons were a great success.  

By the way, she would begin her practice session every day by freshening up the Tzigane cadenza.  "You never know when lightning will strike," she said.

Sticking to Principles

We had only one musical disagreement.  I was working on a little miniature by Federico Mompou called Secreto, which is written in C-sharp Major.  Laura didn't like the key.  "It has no presence," she said, and suggested that we move it to C Major.  I argued that the piece demanded the rather more constricted sound of the sharper key.  I didn't want presence.   I wanted an attenuated, sort of ghostly feeling.  Unknown to her, we achieved a compromise.  During the lessons I played it in C.  When she wasn't around, I played it in C-sharp.  Victoria Drake plays it in her superb CD "Spanish Gold."  As to her choice of key, you can figure it out after you buy the CD which you should own in any case.

Laura would doubtless approve my duplicity.  She was a great one for sticking to your principles.

I said above that I returned to my old technique.  This is not strictly true, for I did incorporate some Trnecek ideas into my playing.  For my technique is a conglomerate, which I think is a good thing.  Over all, I have studied with exponents of three different schools, taking what I found usable from each.  In the end, it's how Sam Milligan plays the harp that's of most importance to me.  How Salzedo or Grandjany did it is interesting, but not my main concern.  

Methods are valuable only to the degree that they prove useful.

One last thing---Laura said that Kajetan Attl was the most handsome man she ever met in her life.  Surviving pictures from the 1920's suggest that her evaluation was accurate.  And from what I've been told, Vojmir was no mud fence either.

Sam Milligan
Brooklyn, NY