Lever harp etudes?

[carl-swanson]

To everyone interested in the new Bochsa Revisited: I just got an email from a lever harpist who is anxious to get the lever version. She said that she had looked at the samples of the pedal version on my web site, http://www.swansonharp.com, and that they all looked playable on lever harp. So she asked me if she should wait for the lever version or just get the pedal version now.

Most of the differences between the pedal and lever versions occur later in each etude and etude variation, and the differences at times are substantial. I can’t tell you how much time it took to arrange all 20 original etudes and 20 etude variations for lever harp. Thank God Judy Ross was there to help me. She plays both lever and pedal harp, but more importantly, she knows everything there is to know about harmony and theory. The lever version has all of the lever flips written in, just as the pedal version has all of the pedal changes written in. So if you are a lever harpist, wait for the lever edition to come out, hopefully in about 2 to 3 weeks.

[Jerusha Amado]

Carl’s new edition of Bochsa’s etudes for pedal harp arrived today, and it’s wonderful! I just wanted to thank Carl for his excellent work and to tell him that I appreciate all that he does for the harp community! Hugs to you, Carl!

[carl-swanson]

Jerusha- You’re so sweet!! I hope you enjoy the book and get a lot of use out of it.

My editor at Carl Fischer told me today that the lever harp edition should be released next Monday or Tuesday. If that’s the case, then it will be available for purchase at all the usual places-Amazon.com, sheetmusicplus.com, swansonharp.com, Vanderbilt, Lyon & Healy, hopefully Melody Music and Sylvia Woods- the first or second week of December. Just in time for Christmas!!!

[carl-swanson]

I just wanted to give everyone an update on the BOCHSA REVISITED FOR LEVER HARP. Because it is so close to the end of the fiscal year, Carl Fischer is going to wait until January for the official release. BUT, I received some copies yesterday and it is now available on my web site, http://www.swansonharp.com. You can see samples of the lever version there too. After the official release it will be available at all the usual places that harp music is sold.

[allegra]

I wondered if any of you that is very familiar with Bochsa’s etudes could perhaps identify which one this is?  It sounds like it would be from one of the first easy collections, but I don’t know which – maybe it is in this new collection you have been talking about here? I think it would be playable on the lever harp, and I think it’s very pretty and would like to find out where it’s from.

[carl-swanson]

Allegra- It’s étude number 20 from Bochsa’s 40 Easy Etudes, Op. 318.  That one is one of the few that can be played on lever harp with no adaptation. I haven’t got the music in front of me, but I think there are two lever changes in the whole piece, and each one at the end of a section of music.  My edition, called Bochsa Revisited, ends with this etude and a companion etude variation.  So there are 19 other original etudes and additional etude variations in the book as well.  I don’t know where you are, but you can get Bochsa Revisited for lever harp(and a separate volume for pedal harp) at numerous places in the United States. It’s published by Carl Fischer Music.  If you are in Europe, I know that Camac sells it, and probably Magasin de la Harpe in Paris as well.

[patricia-jaeger]

Respectfully, another volume of studies for non-pedal harp exists, composed by Angelo Bovio, 1824-1909, virtuoso harpist and long time Harp Professor at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Milan, Italy. His most illustrious student was Luigi M. Tedeschi, formerly a virtuoso guitar player who succeeded him in that post. Bovio’s “Twelve Studies for the Harp, Opus 26, especially composed for those not yet advanced to using pedals” was edited into modern notation and easier access by myself and is distributed by Vanderbilt Music Company Inc., in Bloomington, Indiana.

[allegra]

thank you very much – that’s exactly what I needed to know.  I think both the pedal and lever harp books are available here, and through amazon.

[carl-swanson]

Patricia- I didn’t know about those etudes. Thanks for letting us know about them. What level of difficulty are they? Are they about the same level as Bochsa’s 40 easy etudes?  Also, given the period in which they were written, are they mostly for the right hand?  That was the biggest issue that I had with the Bochsa. While they are wonderful etudes with a lot of variation to the patterns, they are mostly right hand etudes, and that is the main reason I wrote each etude-variation.  The etude-variation shifts all of the technical material in the original etude into the left hand.

It amazes me, when looking at all those etudes written in the 19th century, how they are for the most part right hand etudes.  I currently have a very gifted student studying with me, and I’m taking her through the last set of 50 etudes by Bochsa(again, because I like the variety of patterns). But so many of those are right hand etudes as well. So very often, after she has learned the etude the way it is written, I have her work on it for another week or two playing the right hand part with the left hand.  I recently looked at the Dizi etudes at the suggestion of a friend of mine. She had studied all of them at the Paris Conservatory under Jacqueline Borot. Again, every single one is a right hand etude, with virtually nothing for the left hand to do.

[allegra]

I have found places I can order the books from (though turns out amazon is fiercely expensive and not the way to do it!), as well as an old original copy online.  I don’t think I’d have been able to identify it just looking at the music. I don’t think she is really playing it allegretto, but it is still pretty, even slowly, and there aren’t any metronome markings anyway.

 

I will look for youtube videos of some of the others as well, as it’s nice to hear them first, and etudes are not things you often find recordings of.

[carl-swanson]

Are you specifically looking for a lever harp version of the Bochsa? The original Bochsa 40 easy etudes won’t work on lever harp. You can’t imagine how much work it was to adapt them for lever harp. But they work really well.  The book is something like $35, and consists of over 80 pages of music, with an additional 12 pages of text about how to practice.  In addition, all of the etudes and etude variations have all of the lever changes(or pedal changes in the pedal version) included, and each etude is engraved over 2 pages instead of 1 the way all other versions of these etudes are printed. That makes them much easier to read.

[allegra]

I actually want the pedal version; I just thought this looked like it might well be in a lever harp book, so thus might be from this collection, which helped with identifying it, so thank you for that.

The books sound very useful, and good value (just not at the amazon price here, which I suspect is a couple of sellers importing it from the US, one at £53 and the other at £157!) – but there are a couple of music shops that stock them at normal prices to order from.  It was interesting to see the old copy online just so that I could follow along – but it’s not really something I could play from easily.

Did you make any recordings of them?

 

[carl-swanson]

There’s a place in the U.K. called The Harp Studio that carries both Bochsa books (Lever and pedal editions).  I don’t know what they sell for there.  In the U.S. they are sold at many places for $35 plus shipping. To ship one book to you in the U.K. would cost about $13 additional. So if you want to order it from someone in the U.S., that may be the cheapest way.

I haven’t recorded any of them. Maybe I’ll ask my student to record a couple and put them up.

[Gretchen Cover]

Carl, time to revisit the Godefroid Mes Exercises (published in 1891 according to Wikipedia.  No date in the book itself).  Both hands play equally.   I know you have a copy of this.

[carl-swanson]

Hi Gretchen- Yes, I do have them. The file is sitting right on my desktop.  I just looked through them again. You’re right, they do treat both hands equally. But of course they are exercises, not etudes.  Exercises, which are simply patterns of notes in different combinations, are good for coordination, and they certainly have their place. But my personal feeling is that that place is limited.  Etudes are more like pieces of music, and use the pattern of that etude in a variety of ways and in larger areas of the instrument then most exercises. Also, exercises can get real boring real fast. So their use in learning technique is limited.

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