SKU: UT.MAG-221

ISBN 9790215318625. 9 x 12 inches.

Martin-Pierre Dalvimare, born in 1770, in Dreux (Eure-et-Loir), from a distinguished family, learnt music as an entertainment art, and was obliged to make it a resource for his existence, after the troubles of the Revolution in 1789. He had acquired a remarkable talent for the harp; when he arrived in Paris he made a very good impression. Then, man of the world, knowledgeable in many fields, which is rare for a musician, he was welcome everywhere, and very soon came in friendly terms with some of the most renowned artists and men of letters of his times. The marriage certificate of the poet Legouve (15 pluviose of the year XI, or February 1803, 12th municipality of Paris), shows that Dalvimare was one of his best men and that at the time he was thirty-two years old. He became harpist of the Opera in the year VIII (1800), and was definitively confirmed in the month of fructidor of the year IX. At the time of the institution of the emperor Napoleon's private music, M. Dalvimare was appointed as his harpist. In September 1807 he obtained the title of harp master of the empress Josephine. A lucky change of his fortune allowed this artist to renounce to practise his talent for living, he resigned from all of his positions on March, 12th, 1812, and he retired in Dreux, where he still was living in 1837. For a peculiar weakness, he does not like to speak about his artist career, which had been entirely honourable, and he would like to forget his success too. His first composition was a symphonie concertant for harp and horn, which he composed with Frederic Duvernoy, and published in the year VII (1798); notwithstanding, he counted as his first opus a collection of romances with accompaniment of piano or harp, which he later published with Pleyel.

In 1809 Dalvimare composed, for the theatre Feydeau, a one-act opera-comique called The Marriage for Imprudence. The music was weak; the work did not succeed, and people used to say that the greatest imprudence had been the one of the authors who had it performed. Nevertheless, the score of this opera was published in Paris by erard. (Francois-Joseph Fetis).

SKU: FG.55011-912-3

ISBN 9790550119123.

Luonnonjumala (God of Nature) is Tauno Marttinen’s adaption for harp of his piano suite Taara op. 34. The manuscript for harp was found in January 2024 by Rauno Marttinen, composer’s son.

Duration: c. 15’
Movements:
1. Virran ääniä | The Voices of the Stream
2. Luonnonjumalan lähde | The Spring of God of Nature
3. Metsässä tuulee |The Wind Blows through the Forest

Tauno Marttinen (1912–2008) studied in Viipuri and later in Helsinki at the Helsinki Conservatoire. His piano teachers were Ilmari Hannikainen and Selim Palmgren, but he soon became increasingly interested in composing. Marttinen was also the conductor of the Hämeenlinna City Orchestra in 1949−1958 and the founder and principal of the Hämeenlinna Music Institute.

Marttinen started his composing career in late Romantic vein. However, his first concerts in the 1940s met with criticism since the winds of Modernism had already landed in Finland. He then became interested in Dodecaphony and studied under Vladimir Vogel in Ascona but later abandoned strict dodecaphony and found his own, personal style incorporating elements from Neo-classicism and free-tonality with a hint of mysticism – he was called the Shaman of Hämeenlinna (his hometown).

Tauno Marttinen was an incredibly productive composer; he wrote around four hundred works with opus numbers as well as a wealth of other pieces. His oeuvre includes 10 symphonies, concertos for various solo instruments, operas as well as vocal, chamber and instrumental works. Many of Marttinen’s pieces have become popular standard repertoire, such as the piano piece Kimalluksia (Gleams).

SKU: HL.48180090

UPC: 888680795412. 9x12 inches.

“Variations on an Ancient Tune” by Carlos Salzedo is the third and final work of a series called Three Pieces'for Solo Pedal Harp. Difficult to play, it requires good mastering of the instrument and of its technique, including the pedals. Using the full range of the instrument, this work features numerous trills, glissandos and accidentals among other technicalities and is divided between really fast and more quiet parts. Really delightful, this melodious piece is composed of a main theme and eleven variations: Main Theme (Maestoso) is composed of chords I. A tempo, Graziamente II. Tempo di Bourrée III. Scherzando IV. L'Istesso tempo V. Maestoso VI. Vigorosamente VII. Molto piú lento VIII. Vivo risoluto IX. Lento, tempo di Barcaruola X. Como un preludio XI. Fuga Finishing on the main theme “A Tempo,” this wonderful work is an amazing piece to include in a concert or a recital. Carlos Salzedo (1885-1961) was a French harpist and composer who wrote and transcribed numerous pieces for the harp. He also wrote some pedagogical publications for harpists.

SKU: UT.HS-231

ISBN 9790215324558. 9 x 12 inches.

Tarascone; Tarantella Capuanese; Valzer; Polka di Vittorio; Tarantella Stiglianese

The history of the Viggianesi, strolling musicians, winds over a period of about four centuries and esprimeun ‘unicum’ musically and anthropologically. Heirs of a travelling musical tradition that from the late Middle Ages inhabited more than just the streets of the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples, the harpists of this extraordinary story made their first appearances as early as the end of the 1600s engaged in musical practices at shrines.
Armed with an urgent need to make a living together with a strong musical inclination, adaptability and versatility, the groups of musicians, almost always belonging to the same family circle, became the promoters of the great Italian musical tradition (Southern in particular), and with their harps on their shoulders they became the identification symbol of a well-defined and limited area of Italy: the Agri Valley, in Basilicata.
From the many documents examined, a very wide and varied musical repertoire emerges mixing the pastoral tradition with classical tradition (mainly opera, devotional music with songs from the cities (from the Neapolitan tradition to international production). The pastoral repertoire, the subject of this publication, consists of a strongly characterized native repertoire which the Viggianesi had consolidated in both public and private ritual occasions in their native land, even if performing in distant lands.

This collection is included among the compulsory pieces of The 7th International Harp Contest in Italy Suoni D’Arpa, 2017, Category A – Associazione Italiana dell’Arpa – www.associazioneitalianarpa.it

SKU: HL.14043600

9.0x12.0x0.058 inches.

Simon Holt 's the man in the wind and the west moon was composed for Solo Harp in 2013, having been commissioned by The Tanza Trust. The piece takes its title from a line in a Dylan Thomas poem named 'And death shall have no dominion'. The four sections of the work see shifting harmonies throughout, with the first section repeating but also changing ever so subtly. The unique thing about the piece is that each section is dynamically different, but is left open to interpretation by the player.  The man in the wind and the west moon  was   first performed on the 2nd of June 2014 at Milton Court Concert Hall in London by Alex Rider. The piece lasts around 7minutes, and the bottom C and D strings should be tuned to C# and D# respectively.

SKU: HL.48181028

Composed by Bochsa, Twenty-Five Studies, Op. 6a is a set of part of the Favourite Studies from the same author for intermediate and advanced harp players. Reviewed by Alphonse Hasselmans, each studies has a different difficulty level and can be played separately. This set of studies will help the harpist to gain in flexibility and speed, and would ideally be played on pedal harps. In the same series, Bochsa also composed a set of Forty Easy Studies, Op. 318, a set of Twenty Studies in two books and one called Fifty Studies, Op.34. All these sets have been reviewed by Alphonse Hasselmans, professor at the Paris Conservatoire, who also indicated the best finger positions to use.