Carlos Salzedo revolutionized prior
conceptions of the harp through his compositions, teaching and writing. He
developed a new technique for playing this instrument. Today it is known
as the Salzedo Technique. In 1930 Salzedo wrote in Overtones (the
monthly publication of The Curtis Institute of Music) about the
misconceptions associated with the harp. Unfortunately some of them still
hold true today.
"There is a paradox
as regards the harp. The less that people know about this instrument, the
more they tend to express authoritative opinions of its potentialities. A
statement generally made by reviewers who hear the harp for the first time
is that “the harp is the most ancient of musical instruments”. While this
is true historically speaking, it is, musically, a fallacy. For the harp
of the Jews, Egyptians, Greeks, Irish, and so forth, bears as much
relation to the harp of 1930 as an ox – historically the oldest means of
transportation – to an airplane, scientifically the most modern instrument
of transportation. The statement quoted above is often followed by the
remark that “the harp is a very limited musical instrument.” Another
fallacy! There will be less talk of these so-called “limitations” when
people become adequately informed concerning the most modern aspects of
the instrument." |