Earlier this month, on September 6th, in association with the contemporary music festival International Gaudeamus Music Week, the Dutch Harp Festival hosted a workshop at the Conservatory of Utrecht to familiarize composers with the harp. The workshop was free and open to anyone who was interested, but it was especially geared toward helping composers get a start on their pieces for the upcoming Composition Contest. Harpist Marleen de Bakker, producer of the Composition Contest, reported that there were about fifty composers in attendance: “We had quite an international audience, I believe half of the people I approached didn’t speak Dutch. Some visitors had even traveled from abroad!”
Saskia Rekké opened the afternoon with an introduction to the harp. After some brief comments on the history of the instrument, she explained the basic structure of the harp, for anyone who has never had a chance to meet one up close. Non-harpists often don’t realize that there are seven pedals, each with three possible positions, which make the strings sound sharp, natural or flat; and even if they know that the harpist must tune each of the 47 strings individually, they may not realize that tuning (and staying in tune) is a whole art in itself. Then, because composers often tend to approach composing for the harp as they would for the piano, Saskia highlighted a list of ways in which the harp is not a piano and discussed how to compose in a more idiomatic way, giving tips such as “no more than seven pitches in a scale”, “no more than two pedals at a time”, “no fast and virtuosic trills or scales on wire strings”, etc. She even covered the wide range of special effects and colors that are possible on the harp, providing notational examples, especially from the work of Carlos Salzedo, and assisted by Sabien Canton who demonstrated the effects at the harp.
Once the audience’s imagination had been captured by the possibilities to be explored at the harp, it was time to hear some real-life examples in a “Zapp Concert” featuring fragments of 20th century harp repertoire, performed by Miriam Overlach and Sabien Canton. The program included “Pour le tombeau d’Orphee” by Marius Flothuis, “Sequenza, II” by Luciano Berio, and selections by Ravel, Aperghis and Saariaho.
The audience was then treated to some wisdom directly from one of these experienced composers for the harp. Roel van Oosten. He gave important insight into how he approached the creation of his harp concerto, taking a more “traditional” approach and mostly avoiding what he called the “playground of strange sound effects”, so often overused by composers impressed with the novelty of such effects.
The workshop finished by allowing the composers in the audience to split into smaller groups, thus having the chance to go further in depth by interacting directly with a harpist, asking questions and trying out their ideas on the instrument. In the end, the workshop helped stir up discussion and get people brainstorming. Hopefully, everyone came away from it motivated to run home and start scribbling notes down on the page. We’re looking forward to seeing what creations come out of it and what new voices emerge.