Carlos Salzedo
Carlos Salzedo's harp works treat the instrument as a powerful solo voice of colour, gesture and rhythm, not soft accompaniment. Ballades, Poetical Studies, dances and the glittering Scintillation show how far he pushed its sound.
After 1919 his writing often sets line against sound clusters and specialised effects: nails on the strings, muted strips, stopped xylophone-like tones, and precisely notated vibration. The Five Poetical Studies hide technical goals inside atmospheric pieces; Scintillation is almost a compendium of what the harp can do, built on idealised dance patterns. The Suite of Eight Dances turns to neo-classical charm, with Basque-tinged five-beat metres among the steps. Bolmimerie, for seven harps, lays out those textures on a larger scale. He also arranged Bach and traditional material so the harp could carry melody and pulse with the same clarity he demanded in original scores.
Carlos Salzedo is featured on the following titles
Salzedo: Works for Solo Harp
Alice Giles is one of Australia’s finest musicians, and this disc gathers some of Salzedo’s seminal works for solo harp. Her beauty of tone and unabashed virtuosity bring clarity and vigour to the music.
Compositions by Carlos Salzedo also appear on
Bolmimerie: SHE
SHE is the only harp septet in the world, and this is its first recording.
Arranger: Arranged By