Music for Harp for solo harp Op.116 (2011) c.15'00"

Commissioned by The American Harp Society in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its founding

First performed on July 30th, 2012 at the 50th Anniversary National Harp Convention in New York City by Sivan Magen

ABOUT

Music for Harp Op.116 was commissioned by the American Harp Society in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its founding, and was premiered at the society’s 50th annual convention by Israeli harpist Sivan Magen.  From an atmospheric and nocturnal opening, the piece unfolds in a series of connected episodes that form a free arc-like structure with a fast and virtuosic middle section.  Like most of my music, the piece has no programmatic inspiration, but rather is concerned solely with the manipulation of the musical materials at hand. In this case tonality, modality, octatonic and synthetic scales as well as atonal materials are mixed freely in an exploration of the harp’s abilities that, form-wise, has a distant kinship with the Fantasies of Mozart and Schubert.  I have written many times for harp, but only in the context of orchestral or chamber music:  this was my first attempt at a solo harp piece.  With the idiosyncratic set up of its strings and pedal mechanism, the modern harp is an instrument that was clearly designed with traditional tonality in mind, so that writing anything in a more complex harmonic language requires a great deal of ingenuity on the composer’s part.  It was this very aspect that made the writing of this piece challenging and enjoyable to me.

RECORDINGS

REVIEWS

“The major work on the disc is Lowell Liebermann’s Music for Harp. At almost 18 minutes, this is a major addition to the repertoire for the instrument, and it’s an impressively sustained piece full of distinctive ideas.”
Classics Today

“The most imposing work, at nearly 18 minutes, is Lowell Liebermann’s Music for Harp, Op.116 (from 2012); it’s a rich, ever-shifting exploration of the instrument’s tonal and harmonic possibilities, hewing mostly to quietude though breaking into a seductive dance in the middle.”
Santa Fe New Mexican

“His piece artfully moves from one harmonic style to another in order to map out the 17-minute work’s broad expressive terrain.”
American Record Guide