![Heidi Lehwalder with Carlos Salzedo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Heidi_Lehwalder_with_Carlos_Salzedo.jpg)
Carlos Salzedo (6 April 1885 – 17 August 1961) was a French
harpist
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various way ...
, pianist, composer and
conductor. His compositions made the harp into a virtuoso instrument. He influenced many composers with his new ideas for the harp's sounds through his work with the
International Composers' Guild The International Composers' Guild was an organization created in 1921 by Edgard Varèse and Carlos Salzedo. It was responsible for performances and premieres of works by Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Erik Satie, Carlos Chávez, Henry Cowell, Cha ...
. His many harp students performed in prominent orchestras.
Salzedo started studying at the
Paris Conservatory
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
at age nine and won the ''premier prix'' in harp and piano when he was just 16. He started his solo recital career at age 18, and moved to the United States of America six years later, playing harp with the
Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. He toured extensively with the Trio de Lutèce, where he played harp with
Georges Barrère
Georges Barrère (Bordeaux, October 31, 1876 - New York, June 14, 1944) was a French flutist.Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001)
Early life
Georges Barrère was the son of a cabinetmaker, Gabriel Barrère, and Marie Périne Courtet ...
on flute and Paul Kéfer on cello. After being drafted into the French Army during World War I, Salzedo returned to the United States and continued touring with the trio. He developed a method of using gestures in his harp method, inspired by dancer
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (; rus, Вацлав Фомич Нижинский, Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky, p=ˈvatsləf fɐˈmʲitɕ nʲɪˈʐɨnskʲɪj; pl, Wacław Niżyński, ; 12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a ballet dancer and choreog ...
. He organized the Salzedo harp ensemble with his harp students, and also a harp trio. He performed as a soloist with many orchestras and organizations.
He co-founded the
International Composers' Guild The International Composers' Guild was an organization created in 1921 by Edgard Varèse and Carlos Salzedo. It was responsible for performances and premieres of works by Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Erik Satie, Carlos Chávez, Henry Cowell, Cha ...
with
Edgard Varèse in 1921, and was an active participant in many other societies to promote harps and new music. In addition to forming a summer harp colony in
Camden, Maine
Camden is a resort town in Knox County, Maine. The population was 5,232 at the 2020 census. The population of the town more than triples during the summer months, due to tourists and summer residents. Camden is a summer colony in the Mid-Coas ...
, he founded the harp department at the
Curtis Institute of Music in 1924 and taught at
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
until 1937. He developed new techniques and notations for these techniques, which he used extensively in his compositions after 1919.
Early life and education
Carlos Salzedo was born Charles Moïse Léon Salzedo on April 6, 1885, in
Arcachon
Arcachon ( ; ) is a commune in the southwestern French department of Gironde. It is a popular seaside resort on the Atlantic coast southwest of Bordeaux, in the Landes forest. It has a sandy beach and a mild climate said to be favourable for i ...
, France. Salzedo's parents, Isaac Gaston Salzedo and Thérèse Judith Anna Salzedo-Silva, who resided in
Bayonne, were vacationing in Arcachon when Mme. Salzedo fell down a flight of stairs, causing the two-month premature birth of Salzedo. Both parents were of noted
Sephardic (Iberian Jewish) families and fine musicians, he a singer, she a pianist. Their first child, Marcel, became a violinist, and military band leader in Paris. During this time, Mme. Salzedo was employed as the summer-court pianist to Queen Mother
Maria Christina in
Biarritz. Young Léon-Charles played the piano for Maria Christina at the age of three leading her to dub him "my little Mozart." Salzedo's mother died just two years later when he was five. The family then moved to
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
and a
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
woman, Marthe Tatibouet Bidebérripé, was hired to care for and help raise the children. Salzedo became deeply attached to her, and liked to think of himself as being culturally Basque. Some writers have attributed his fondness for five-beat rhythms to Basque traditions which often use five-beat rhythms. Léon-Charles, having begun playing piano by the age of three, wrote his first composition, a
polka called ''Moustique'' (Mosquito), which was published when he was just five years old. Though lost, the theme reappeared in the ''Polka'' of his ''Suite of Eight Dances.'' At seven, he entered the St. Cecilia School of Music of Bordeaux, where he won first prize in piano and
solfège
In music, solfège (, ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a music education method used to teach aural skills, pitch and sight-reading of Western music. Solfège is a form of solmization, though the tw ...
three years later, after which the family moved to Paris. Léon-Charles entered the Paris Conservatory at age nine, where he again won prizes in piano and solfège. He continued his piano studies with
Charles de Bériot, son of the renowned violinist Charles de Bériot and a pupil of Thalberg.
Salzedo's father, by then a respected voice teacher, decided Salzedo should take up a second instrument, and the harp was chosen because he was felt to be too weak to play a wind instrument, and his older brother Marcel already played the violin. Beginners were not accepted at the Conservatoire, so Carlos took lessons from Marguerite Achard. After a few months, he had advanced enough that he was accepted as a pupil by
Alphonse Hasselmans, professor of harp at the Conservatoire. After a year of study with Hasselmans, he entered the Conservatoire as a fully fledged harp pupil at the age of thirteen. In 1901, at age sixteen, Salzedo won the ''premier prix'' in harp and piano on the same day, an accomplishment unmatched to this day, and was awarded a
Steinway
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...
grand piano. While a student, Salzedo freelanced as second harpist in the
Orchestre Lamoureux
The Orchestre Lamoureux () officially known as the Société des Nouveaux-Concerts and also known as the Concerts Lamoureux) is an orchestral concert society which once gave weekly concerts by its own orchestra, founded in Paris by Charles Lamoureu ...
as well as the orchestras of the Olympia theater and the
Folies Bergère
The Folies Bergère () is a cabaret music hall, located in Paris, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as an opera house by the architect Plumeret. It opened on 2 May 1869 as the Folies Trév ...
night club. The director of the Conservatoire,
Gabriel Fauré, approved Salzedo for a counterpoint class after he wrote a Bach fugue from memory.
When Salzedo graduated, he was hired as a solo harpist, first orchestral harpist, and solo pianist at the New Casino in Biarritz under conductor/composer Piero Luigini. The following winter he toured Europe with the
Concerts Colonne
The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne.
History
While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead ...
orchestra, followed by solo appearances as pianist and harpist with that orchestra. He made his Paris recital debut at age 18 as a harpist and pianist, in 1903, for which occasion he decided to change his name to Carlos from Léon-Charles Moise. About this time, a
stroke paralyzed Gaston Salzedo, who handed over his position as synagogue music director to young Carlos. Salzedo also toured in solo performances around Europe, receiving glowing praise in the papers.
America, first marriage, and war
In 1909,
Arturo Toscanini invited Salzedo, via an agent, to play in the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, and so Carlos left France for the United States of America, not knowing any English. Salzedo became a member of musical society, where he was often invited to soirees such as those held by Alice Ditson. It was at on such soiree that Salzedo was introduced to Viola Gramm, a respected pianist and singer.They became romantically involved and they traveled through the
château
A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions.
Now ...
country of France in 1913, and then were married on April 30, 1914, in New York City. Salzedo wrote a wedding
cantata for the occasion, which was performed by his friends. Gramm is often referred to as "Mimine", Salzedo's pet name for her.
After resigning from his position at the opera in 1913, Salzedo formed the "Trio de Lutèce" with Georges Barrère on flute and Paul Kéfer on cello, which toured extensively in the United States. The trio was scheduled to play in England, so Salzedo and Mimine took the opportunity to honeymoon in Europe; in England, they were introduced to various members of the nobility, and at one point, Salzedo performed for the Princess of
Battenberg. When World War I began, they moved to
Menthon-Saint-Bernard
Menthon-Saint-Bernard (; frp, Menton), commonly referred to simply as Menthon, is a commune on the eastern shore of Lake Annecy in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France. In 2018, it had a populati ...
(in the
Rhône-Alpes
Rhône-Alpes () was an administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the river Rhône ...
region) to have more time together, but Salzedo was soon drafted into the French Army.
Salzedo was made head cook for his
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...
unit, and happened to be in the same unit as several painters and musicians. He had a sympathetic leader, and was able to organize them into a performing group that sang for soldiers and toured hospitals, for which he arranged traditional French folk songs. He got an extended leave to see Mimine, but when he returned, a new captain was in charge who did not permit the musical activities. Salzedo became seriously ill with
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
and a form of
paralysis, for which he was hospitalized for several months before being finally discharged from the army. In order to get passports (which had not been necessary in 1914) to leave France, Salzedo and Mimine had to prove their identities by marrying a second time in Paris, August 1915.
During this early period of his adult life, he was very active in musical high society and high society otherwise. He neighbored the
Rockefellers
The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brot ...
at
Seal Harbor, Maine
Mount Desert is a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,146 at the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1789, the town currently encompasses the villages of Otter Creek, Seal Harbor, Northeast Harb ...
. He counted among his musical friends
Edgard Varèse,
Josef Hoffmann
Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrian- Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architectural work is the Stoclet Pa ...
,
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...
and
Ossip Gabrilowitsch
Ossip Salomonovich Gabrilowitsch (Осип Сoломонович Габрилович, ''Osip Solomonovich Gabrilovich''; he used the German transliteration ''Gabrilowitsch'' in the West) (14 September 1936) was a Russian-born American pianist, ...
. He was sought after for performances at social occasions where he could be quite the life of the party.
Return to America
On the Salzedos' return to the US in 1916, Carlos reunited with the Trio de Lutèce. Salzedo and Mimine began spending summers in Seal Harbor, where Salzedo became friends with
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (; rus, Вацлав Фомич Нижинский, Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky, p=ˈvatsləf fɐˈmʲitɕ nʲɪˈʐɨnskʲɪj; pl, Wacław Niżyński, ; 12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a ballet dancer and choreog ...
, the legendary Russian dancer, with whom he developed a series of esthetic gestures for playing the harp that became an essential part of the Salzedo Method for the harp. In 1918 he formed the Salzedo Harp Ensemble, which was made up of his students. The group was very popular and played for a week at the
Capitol Theatre in New York in 1920. He organized the Salzedo Harp Trio in 1919 with Marie Miller and Elsie Sorelle. The Trio de Lutèce was reformed in 1932, with Horace Britt as cellist instead of Paul Kéfer. Bernard Wagenaar wrote a Triple Concerto for the trio, which they premiered. One critic said was a "piece of convenience", while fellow composers praised the work's strength and personality. The Trio performed all over North America, including in Mexico and Canada. The Trio and toured regularly until 1937, when Barrère joined the Barrère-Britt Concertino, as it was impractical to travel with a harp.
From the 1920s onward, Salzedo appeared as a
soloist with many orchestras. He performed as a soloist with the
Philadelphia Orchestra, the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kansas City Little Symphony, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Friends of Music (New York), and with multiple choruses. He performed with chamber music societies including the Pittsfield Festival, the International Composers' Guild, the Beethoven Association, the New York Chamber Symphony Orchestra, and the Letz Quartet. Salzedo returned to France in 1925 and 1930, performing concerts each time. During his 1925 visit, he went to London to give the first live broadcast harp recital over the BBC. His last visit to France was for two weeks in 1959, on his way to Israel to judge the first International Harp Contest.
Music groups and fundraising
Salzedo was involved in many arenas, including the burgeoning "new music" circles in New York, where he co-founded the International Composers Guild with Edgard Varèse in 1921. The Guild presented the most prominent European composers and others in concert, figures such as
Bartók and
Honegger
Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 to ...
. Two wealthy patrons ensured the finances of the guild, while Salzedo conducted many of the concerts.
Louise Varèse
Louise Varèse (; ; 20 November 1890 – 1 July 1989), also credited as Louise Norton or Louise Norton-Varèse, was an American writer, editor, and translator of French literature who was involved with New York Dadaism.
Early life and educatio ...
, Edgard's wife, wrote the program notes. Volunteers and friends helped with publicity mailings and other secretarial work. In 1927, Varèse ended the guild's concerts, stating that the goals of the guild had been met and it was becoming more common for concerts to feature living composers.
Salzedo became the chairman of the National Association of Harpists in 1919, and was the editor-in-chief of its publication until 1933. He was also the president of the National Association of Harpists in 1920. By 1933 the National Association of Harpists was no longer active. It later became the
American Harp Society The American Harp Society, Inc. (AHS) is a non-profit organization. Founded in 1962, the AHS is an organization of harpists with more than 3,000 members from all 50 states and 20 countries. The organization is currently led by President Lynne Aspnes ...
. Salzedo founded the Franco-American Musical Society with E. Robert Schmitz in 1920, and was its vice president in 1924. In 1923 Salzedo was a board member for the International Society for Contemporary Music and served as vice-president for a time. In 1928 he helped organize the Pan American Society of Composers, a society for promoting Latin American music. In 1925, Henry Cowell made Salzedo an honorary member of the New Music Society of California's endorsement board.
Salzedo raised money to buy a
pipe organ in Seal Harbor, with matching funds from
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
, and later, was most notably able to raise sufficient funds to aid Vaslav Nijinsky and his family to escape into safety in Switzerland.
Teaching
Salzedo based his teaching technique on the aesthetics of arm movement, focusing on the movements of specific body parts. He taught that a harpist's elbows should be parallel to each other and the floor, and that a true legato was impossible on the harp, while Grandjany taught that the left arm should be lower than the right and that advanced finger techniques could produce a legato on the harp. Nijinski once commented that Salzedo's hands "explain the music before the music starts." From this a subsequent discussions, Salzedo developed principles of gesture for harpists that enhance listeners' enjoyment. Salzedo also paid special attention to finger and pedal markings on the harp, to the extent that harp composers started to include finger and pedal markings in their music. Mariette Bitter describes his charisma as a teacher: "He could bewitch a young harpist with his charm and understanding inside of a half hour, even though she knew and felt his iron will was lurking underneath."
At Josef Hoffman's invitation, Salzedo founded the harp department at the
Curtis Institute of Music in 1924. He also taught at
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
until 1937. An average of thirty-five harpists populated the harp colony during each summer in Camden, which started in 1931. Some studied with Salzedo while others studied with other harp teachers. Salzedo's students had two or three lessons per week. As popularity increased, up to 300 harpists have been to the colony in a single summer. Salzedo was teaching at Camden until his death in 1961, after which Alice Chalifoux took over as head of the colony.
Composing
Salzedo began composing at a young age. When he was twenty-five, he started composing significantly, with Fauré stating that his "Piece Concertante, Opus 27" was promising. While Salzedo was in the French army, he arranged pieces for the soldiers to perform. When he secretly taught
Olga Samaroff
Olga Samaroff (August 8, 1880May 17, 1948) was an American pianist, music critic, and teacher. Among her teachers was Charles-Valentin Alkan's son, Élie-Miriam Delaborde. Her second husband was the conductor Leopold Stokowski.
Samaroff was ...
harp, he composed a piece based on her name for her to perform. In 1917, he wrote five preludes, including ''Iridescence'', which he followed with ''Five Poetical Studies'' in 1918. Also in 1918, he composed a symphonic poem, ''The Enchanted Isle'', after the death of Debussy. Shelley Archambo characterizes the works from 1910 to 1918 period as impressionistic.
Salzedo included ''Five Poetical Studies'' in his ''Modern Study of the Harp'' (1919), where he introduced his notation system for indicating certain harp techniques. One technique, ''con sordino'', requires harpists to mute strings with a strip of paper interlaced between strings. A crescent shape over notes indicates that they should be played with fingernails. Square notes indicate that the harpist should press on the string with one hand and pluck with the other, giving it a sound like a xylophone. Rapid glissandos are represented with arrows in the vertical lines of notes, and "L.V" instructs harpists to "let vibrate". Salzedo collaborated with
Lucile Lawrence
Lucile Lawrence (February 7, 1907 in New Orleans – July 8, 2004 in Englewood, New Jersey) was a leader among American harpists. At the end of her life, she was actively teaching as a faculty member of Boston University and the Manhattan Schoo ...
to write ''Method for Harp'' (1927), where he furthered his notations using specific techniques like these. Archambo calls post-1919 compositions part of Salzedo's "mature period" and writes that, aside from his pedagogical pieces, melodies are not supported by traditional harmonies, but are accompanied by sound clusters. Archambo states that Salzedo's main goal in composing was to "make available to the harpist and contemporary compose every possible sound and effect on the instrument."
He wrote ''Four Preludes to the Afternoon of a Telephone'' (1921) based on the telephone numbers of four of his students. He stated that he composed ''Concerto for Harp and Seven Wind Instruments'' (1926) because contemporary repertoire lacked a harp concerto. He dedicated the composition to Lucile Lawrence. ''Pentacle'' was a suite of five pieces for two harps, which the ''Milwaukee Senetinel'' described as "ultra-modern" in 1931.
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge aka Liz Coolidge (30 October 1864 – 4 November 1953), born Elizabeth Penn Sprague, was an American pianist and patron of music, especially of chamber music.
Biography
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's father was a we ...
commissioned Salzedo to write a piece for harp and chamber orchestra; ''Preamble et Jeux'' premiered in 1929. In ''The New York Times'',
Henry Prunières
Henry Prunières (24 May 1886, in Paris – 11 April 1942, in Nanterre) was a French musicologist, and international proponent of contemporary art in various forms, including music, dance and painting. He occupies an important place in the art wor ...
said the work had "extraordinary refinement, delicate explorations in sonority, and nice balancing in timbre" while Herman Devries, writing for the ''Chicago American'' wrote it was "just another of those modern things." In 1932, Salzedo arranged Manuel de Falla's ''Seven Popular Songs'' for two harps and voice, specifically for Nina Koschetz to sing with. Using the note-alphabet correspondence he developed for Olga's name piece, Salzedo composed songs for his students as wedding presents. These pieces are called ''Wedding Presents''. He composed ''Diptych, Two Pieces for Right Hand Alone'' (1950) for a student who injured her hand. The themes for the pieces were based on her name. In 1953, Salzedo wrote a second concerto for harp, but he did not complete the orchestration for it. During this time he mostly composed small pieces and arrangements.
Personal life
In the 1920s, Salzedo and Mimine began to grow apart, as she was spending more time in Rome, and Carlos was spending more time with teaching, recitals, and "lightly concealed liaisons." They had an amicable divorce in 1926, remaining lifelong friends, and in 1928 Salzedo married Lucile Lawrence, a student of his for the past ten years who had developed into a virtuoso player. The two were married for eight years. A year after their divorce in 1937, Salzedo married Marjorie Call, another student of his. Call and Salzedo divorced in 1947. Owens writes that Salzedo constantly appeared in public with a young woman, often a favorite student, and that "it was simply a matter of fact that he was a 'faithless husband.'" In her biography of Barrère, Nancy Toff wrote that Salzedo could be "caustic, superior, and disagreeable"; Barrère often apologized to others on Salzedo's behalf.
Death and legacy
Salzedo died on 17 August 1961 in
Waterville, Maine, at the age of 76, while adjudicating Metropolitan Opera regional auditions at
Bates College
Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...
. Lucile Lawrence inherited his music, papers, and correspondence.
Salzedo's performances, compositions, and arrangements brought prestige to harp technique and literature. He composed specifically for the harp, in a way that showed how specialized harp music is. He introduced new notations for indicating certain harp techniques, colors, and effects. His compositions made the harp into a virtuoso instrument. He influenced many composers with his new ideas for the harp's sounds through his work with the International Composers' Guild. Stravinsky used muffled harp chords and notes plucked near the sounding-board in ''Symphony of Psalms''. Schoenberg used flat-handed chords in his ''Variations for Orchestra'' (1929) Bartók also used the flat-handed chords in ''Music for String Instruments, Percussion, and Celestia'' (1936) as well as chromatic octaves.
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
's
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'', Op. 34, is a 1945 musical composition by Benjamin Britten with a subtitle ''Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell''. It was based on the second movement, "Rondeau", of the ''Abdelazer'' sui ...
used all of Salzedo's published harp techniques. Other works to include Salzedo's techniques are ''Variations for Orchestra'' by Elliott Carter and Concerto for Harp by
Alberto Ginastera. Prokofiev, Milhaud, Anton Webern, Hindemith, and Ernst Krenek all wrote for the harp in ways that used Salzedo's techniques. Most composers explained the techniques in the music rather than using Salzedo's notation, because no single source compiled the effects and their notations. Specialized harp symbols were not common until 1960. Luciano Berio, Jose Serebier, Richard Felciano, and Robert Capanna used special symbols for harp techniques, with some similar or identical to Salzedo's.
Salzedo's students numbered in the hundreds. Many continue to perform in symphony orchestras including the Philadelphia, Milwaukee, New Jersey and other symphony orchestras, and formerly occupied the Principal chairs in a great many American orchestras, as well as teaching positions at conservatories and universities. A brief list of some of the most notable students of Salzedo in chronological order includes
Florence Wightman
Florence Wightman was an American harpist of the 20th century. She began her orchestral career in Philadelphia theaters, and then served as Principal Harp for the Cleveland Orchestra, making her the first woman to hold a principal position in the U ...
,
Casper Reardon
Casper Reardon (April 15, 1907 – March 9, 1941) was an American classical and jazz harpist. He studied classical harp at the Curtis Institute of Music and went on to play for the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. L ...
, Lucile Lawrence,
Sylvia Meyer
Sylvia Meyer (November 23, 1907 – March 26, 2005) was an American harpist who became the first female member of the National Symphony Orchestra. She was a founding member of the World Harp Congress.
Early life
Sylvia Meyer was born in Madison, ...
,
Edna Phillips
Edna Phillips (January 7, 1907 – December 2, 2003), later Edna Phillips Rosenbaum (though she never changed her professional name and was still known as "Miss Phillips"), was an American harpist long associated with the Philadelphia Orchestr ...
,
Alice Chalifoux, Lynne Wainwright Palmer, Reinhardt Elster, Marjorie Tyre, Edward Druzinsky, Marilyn Costello Dannenbaum,
Judy Loman
Judy Loman (born 3 November 1936) is a harpist and harp teacher, born and educated in the United States and active in Canada. She was the principal harp of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1959 until her retirement in 1991, and won a Juno aw ...
and
Heidi Lehwalder.
Salzedo worked with Lyon & Healy in Chicago to produce a Salzedo model harp. These harps had an extra 1/8 inch spacing between notes in the middle register to reduce buzzing. Forty Salzedo harps were made from 1931–1954.
[; ] New "Salzedo" harps were in production in 2018.
List of compositions
Pedagogical publications
In alphabetical order:
*''The Art of Modulating'', Carlos Salzedo with Lucile Lawrence (Schirmer), containing text on improvisation, sight-reading and modulating in commercial music, with original compositions by Salzedo
*''Conditioning Exercises'', Carlos Salzedo (Schirmer)
*''The Harpist's Daily Dozen'' (exercises), Carlos Salzedo (Schirmer, Lyra)
*''Method for the Harp'', Lawrence/Salzedo (Schirmer), containing the music Preludes for Beginners by Salzedo, and tone colors with notation, with photos and text by Lawrence
*''Modern Study of the Harp'', Carlos Salzedo (Schirmer) with tone colors and text in English and French, and Five Poetical Studies, music
*''Pathfinder to the Harp'', containing Pathfinder Studies Lawrence/Salzedo (Peer-Southern); according to collaborator Lucile Lawrence, Salzedo contributed the music for "Conflict" and reviewed the remainder prior to publication, but "accepted" a composer credit for all the pieces, the remainder of which were actually composed by Lucile Lawrence
References
Bibliography
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External links
Scores by Carlos Salzedoon archive.org from the
International Harp Archives
The International Harp Archives (IHA) is a collection of archives from the World Harp Congress, American Harp Society, and individual harpists. It is located at the Harold B. Lee Library in Brigham Young University (BYU). The archives began as a c ...
Dewey Owens collection on Carlos Salzedo MSS 7763,
L. Tom Perry Special Collections,
Harold B. Lee Library
The Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) is the main academic library of Brigham Young University (BYU) located in Provo, Utah. The library started as a small collection of books in the president's office in 1876 before moving in 1891. The Heber J. Gr ...
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Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
Salzedo Harp Colony records MSS 7835, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Salzedo, Carlos
1885 births
1961 deaths
Basque classical musicians
French classical harpists
20th-century French male classical pianists
French classical composers
French male classical composers
Composers for harp
French male conductors (music)
French emigrants to the United States
French music educators
Impressionist composers
20th-century French Sephardi Jews
20th-century French conductors (music)
Members of the International Composers' Guild
Harold B. Lee Library-related music articles
Spanish male musicians