(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Music open thread: Harp concertos [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-05-20

Hope our Canadian friends had a happy Victoria Day yesterday. Sorry about the idiot’s tariffs. If you can’t remember when Victoria Day is, just remember that it’s always the week before Memorial Day.

Queen Victoria ruled from 1837 to 1901. It was under her rule that the kingdom instituted the post of royal harpist. Well, “instituted” might be too strong a word. John Thomas was the first royal harpist, starting in the early 1870s. Then the post was vacant until 2000, when Catrin Finch was appointed by then-Prince Charles.

Since then there have been six other royal harpists, all also women like Catrin Finch. The exact title has changed over the years. The most recent royal harpist, Mared Emyr Pugh-Evans, calls herself the King’s Harpist, or more precisely, “Harpist to His Majesty the King,” on her official website.

There have been musicians prior to John Thomas whom some historians have called royal harpists. Maybe it was for one of them that naturalized British citizen George Frideric Handel wrote this harp concerto. But wait a minute, I thought this was an organ concerto?

x YouTube Video

Actually, it seems that the piece was indeed originally a harp concerto, which Handel himself later reworked as a concerto for organ, another instrument much beloved by the Brits. Yeah, I think the harp does make more sense for this concerto’s musical material.

Almost certainly the contemporary soloists for this concerto, in either version, were all men. Somehow in the 20th Century the harp became strongly associated with women in the United Kingdom.

I had written before about how certain musical instruments are very rigidly associated with one gender or the other in America. You certainly see this with the flute in an American high school, where likely all the flutists in the band are girls.

Not so much in college, I can quickly think of young men who played flute in my alma mater’s orchestra, even if I have a little trouble remembering their names. With the harp, this is much more pronounced. In college, I can only remember one man in the harp program.

It can’t be because the harp somehow requires any less physical dexterity than, say, the guitar, though the dexterity does involve different muscles: a harpist uses both hands to pluck the strings, whereas a guitarist uses one hand to pluck the strings and the other to press down on the strings.

A harpist also needs foot dexterity, especially when famous composers seem to have forgotten or not known that the harp is a very diatonic instrument with only seven strings for each octave. Alternating ascending and descending melodic minor scales are possible on the harp, but always a lot more work than on the piano.

Maybe it’s that the harp is perceived as being very delicate, and supposedly women are very delicate. The latter part of the previous statement is easily refuted, much more easily than the former part. The harp is definitely delicate in sound. In his Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Anton Bruckner asked for three harps, “zu möglich,” as he wanted the harp sound to cut through eight horns, three trumpets, three trombones, regular tuba and that’s just the brass.

Won’t hear that much brass in Alexander Baltin’s Harp Concertino.

x YouTube Video

I thought Joaquín Rodrigo wrote his Concierto Serenata for Carlos Salzedo (not to be confused with Mexican footballer Carlos Salcedo), but I was wrong, it was actually for Nicanor Zabaleta, and you can actually watch him on YouTube.

x YouTube Video

The open thread question: what is your favorite music with harp solos?

There’s one piece you might be thinking I left out, but I’m actually saving it for the open thread about concertos for two different solo instruments.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/20/2316519/-Music-open-thread-Harp-concertos?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/