The Rumba and Tango are from Salzedo's Suite
of Eight Dances. There is a big diffrence in the two
schools of harp music. You can either be taught the "French
Method", or the "Salzedo" method. (Must be nice to have a
method named after you personally!)
Anyway, Haley is being taught the French
method, and her teacher is pretty much exclusively French.
But when the required repertoire is put out every other year
for the American Harp Society's National Harp Competition,
you can be sure that there is ALWAYS a Salzedo piece
included. So what is a French player to do?
We love Salzedo's works as well and are
lucky enough to have had instruction from a terrific teacher
and friend by the name of Susan Bennett Brady from Atlanta,
GA, who is also one of the directors of the harp camp Haley
attended in 2005. She was a HUGE help with these pieces in
particular and was instrumental in Haley being a finalist in
2005. Susan had Haley rent the movie "Shall We Dance" to
try to get a feel for the ballroom atmospehere the dances
should reflect. Haley just likes to think of her cat Kugel
(model for Kitty Loveharp) dancing around on his back legs
with a big red rose in his mouth.
Like many of his contemporaries, French-born
Carlos Salzedo studied harp at the Paris Conservatory with the
legendary French master Alphonse Hasselmans. His influence on
today's harpists is evidenced in the enduring popularity of his
technical approach to harp playing, commonly referred to as the
"Salzedo Method."
Salzedo's legacy of compositions for the harp, such as "Suite of
Eight Dances", "Song in the Night," and "Variations on a Theme
in Ancient Style", have become time-tested staples of the harp
repertoire.
One of this century's most respected (and sometimes
controversial) harp teachers, Salzedo solidified his position in
the teaching circle by establishing the harp department at the
Curtis Institute of Music in 1924. He later founded the Salzedo
Summer Harp Colony, in Camden, Maine, where he taught until his
death in 1961.
