Trio for Flute, Harp and Cello

[rpearl]

I wrote this about 2 months ago - then the school year began, and it got buried under work. Time to give it a little air...
I've thought about arranging the harp part for guitar. This might be a good avenue to pursue as a) it's my instrument, and b) I may have made the harp part unplayable. I'm going to sit down with a harpist and go through it and see what I did wrong - first time writing for it, in any real sense.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1l1e9/s...files/trio.mp3

As always, any feedback is most appreciated.

R. Pearl

[etLux]

It's always a pleasure when you show up, Ron -- and this piece is no exception.

I was surprised at the fullness you brought forth with this combination of instruments; and the composition is beautifully melodic and skillfully developed. (Nice ending!)

And classic Pearl -- the tone of the composition -- you know what that emotion is; but you could never put a name to it...

You know, were it me, if I were going to revoice this, I think I might consider rescoring that harp part for marimba, by the way.

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

[rpearl]

It's always a pleasure when you show up, Ron -- and this piece is no exception.

I was surprised at the fullness you brought forth with this combination of instruments; and the composition is beautifully melodic and skillfully developed. (Nice ending!)

And classic Pearl -- the tone of the composition -- you know what that emotion is; but you could never put a name to it...

You know, were it me, if I were going to revoice this, I think I might consider rescoring that harp part for marimba, by the way.

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

David,

Marimba, eh? I hadn't thought of that, but will consider it. I confess that the harp is pretty seductive; again, I don't know if it's playable - there may be too many rapid pedal changes. Arranging it for guitar won't be simple, as the keys are not too guitar-friendly. I can't really transpose it, as the cello part needs to have certain open strings to make the double stops work.

Thanks for taking the time to listen.

Next one up will be faster and louder. Promise. Actually I do have some guitar quartets that are very active, but alas, there is no GPO component, so I won't post them here. As an aside, there must be something about recording/sampling a classical guitar that makes it difficult to render well.

Perhaps I should have taken up the cello...



Ron

[etLux]

You seem a bit puzzled, Ron... lol -- not that I blame you... it's a slightly off-center suggestion. My thinking was more or less along these lines:

The harp *is* seductive -- and sounds great in this piece. But like you, I think maybe there are a few parts in there where you'd need a professional tap-dancer to do the pedal changes [though I'd need to see the score, really]. Likewise, the guitar might not have sufficient "bottom" to carry this;and some parts of it might be quite a neck-scrambling challenge. You could stick a piano on it, but it would ruin the whole flavor of the piece, having a bit too much horsepower for the situation.

So... what's left? Harpsichord, maybe -- but to me, that would be too brittle for the character of the piece.

Marimba came to mind in that it's amply agile for the part, and especially with, say, a medium mallet, would probably blend well without overpowering; and still retain enough of the percussive edge to reminisce the flavor of the harp.

And then there's the laziness factor. You probably would not need to rewrite a single note...

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

[rpearl]

And then there's the laziness factor. You probably would not need to rewrite a single note...

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

Laziness factor? That's called inspiration in my book!

Ron

[etLux]

Laziness factor? That's called inspiration in my book!

Ron

Anybody who thinks the easy way ain't necessarily the right way just doesn't live right... lol.

I've saved myself the trouble of writing tens of thousands of needless notes with that kind of thinking.

David
www.DavidSosnowski.com
.

[beach]

As David says, Bravo!!
The composition is beautiful and also the melody is particulary good and skillfully developed!!!

I take a long time to download it, but it worths the time!!

Congrats, my friend.

Best to you,
Roberto

[Garritan]

Ron,

Very nice work. I like the way you developed the piece and the intermingling of the instruments. The texture of the harp, cello and flute go together quite well.

As a harpist, I agree with David that this would be difficult to pull off (unless you're an octopus ). Maybe two harps can do it.

Thanks for posting this.

Gary Garritan

[valhalx]

A very enjoyable piece. In view of the on going discussion concerning the harp I can only say that, in my opinion, the harp is the foundation of the piece. To substitute anything else would diminish it. As for playability, remember it took 50 years for someone to play Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata as written . OK, OK, maybe a Sitar.
Bill

[rpearl]

Ron,

Very nice work. I like the way you developed the piece and the intermingling of the instruments. The texture of the harp, cello and flute go together quite well.

As a harpist, I agree with David that this would be difficult to pull off (unless you're an octopus ). Maybe two harps can do it.

Thanks for posting this.

Gary Garritan

Thanks Gary - I want to sit down with a harpist and go over it. I realized about halfway through that I might be creating problems. I'm happy to re-write to make it playable. It's just that the GPO harpist is TOO good. Maybe you should have a little audio clip that kicks in to say "Are you sure you want to write that? Do really think someone can play it?" It could work the same way that notes out of range work (or don't sound).

Thanks for listening!

Ron