Solo: harp - Simpler Language

Ensemble: solo harp

Duration: 7 minutes

Commissioned by: Lavinia Meijer

Premiered: Deventer Schouwburg, Deventer, Netherlands

Published by: Yes Daedalus Music

Note:

Simpler Language was written as an exploration and celebration of the unusual characteristics of the harp. It begins with bright glissandi: little bursts of energy that are rhythmically propulsive even while their rolled chords simultaneously obscure the metric footprint of the piece. These work themselves into increasingly knotted clusters before giving way to enharmonic trills: another unusual feature of the instrument in which separate strings can be tuned to the same pitch, in order to achieve a seamless alternation on one note. These trills gradually bloom into breathing arpeggiated chords; the busy surface blurring into a hypnotic texture to which the harp lends itself especially well. The final third of the piece lands in a new space: open, resonant chords without a metric grid—a simpler musical language that the player may “speak” at their own pace.

This piece was commissioned by my friend Lavinia Meijer, and was premiered at the November Music Festival in Den Bosch, Netherlands, in 2017.