Recommendations for harpsichord music written after 1990?
I’ve played and taught (and hence also in fact: listened to) Mark Janello’s Six Harpsichord Miniatures (2012), which are really quite nice, more on the “sounds well on the instrument” side on the spectrum of options, as opposed to the “literally quite smashing” side. I found some more recent pieces involving the harpsichord on his list with recent compositions (below on this page). Much of it can be listened to on Youtube.
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In November 2019 I heard a lovely new piece: /Enno Kastens –
Schattenreise. /It was played by Medea Bindewald in Oxford {UK}. Sounded
a bit like an unmeasured prelude.//If you’re interested, I can provide
Medea’s contact info. Regards, Dale =================//
Sorry for posting this at the wrong topic, but for some reason I could not post this message, so I tried by replying.
I also can’t log in at The Jackrail.
The Passacaglia sounds great (Ligeti-ish) and you can’t be free!
Please. I don’t know if you can PM through this site, but I am on Facebook.
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I can provide pdfs of works by two Mexican composers I know:
Hébert Vázquez’ Caprichio sopra SC [014] (1997),
Leonardo Coral’s Suite para Clavacîn (2010), written for Michael Tsalka.
Email me at fssturm@unm.edu.
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This may be OT, since I think some of the music dates from before 1990, and it’s not a recommendation since I haven’t heard it. But I’m passing it along, for better or worse, because it is not every day that something of this ilk comes to my inbox!
I just got the newsletter from Hyperion Records. The lead item is an album called Musique? by Mahan Esfahani (link). The description reads:
“Under Mahan Esfahani’s hands—and occasionally fists—the harpsichord is transmogrified into an elemental force, by turns supported or menaced by an astonishing arsenal of electronics. Concerned listeners please note: no harpsichords were harmed in the making of this album.”
Hyperion newsletters often list albums of theirs that made the classical bestseller lists in the UK. Somehow I think this won’t be among them . . .
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I am planning a concert in the fall of 20th and 21st century works for harpsichord in ensemble. I am hunting for works featuring alto or mezzo and harpsichord with or without other instruments, up to full strings and winds of 10 or so players.
I am already planning Berio’s arrangement of Beatles songs (they are wonderful). I was looking for something else. There are Tippett’s Songs for Ariel, which I like, but my soloist perhaps less so.
Any other possibilities?
I would recommend to check the wonderful website earsense.org. It list a huge repertoire of al sorts of chamber music.
If you do advanced search, select all works including a harpsichord written after 1900 it gives you 451 results, starting with Da Falla’s concert for hp, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin and cello (1923) up to Gary Bachlund’s suite for flute cello and hp from 2021.
You might not like all works, it might be time consuming to find scores, but it gives you a choice.
Good luck with your concert, it might be necessary to extend it to a three days-festival now…
Hi.
Hendrick Bouman ( formally from Musica Antica Koln) has written a lot of harpsichord, fortepiano, instrumental solos as well as chamber music and orchestral, all in period style…
Hendrikbouman.com
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Thanks for this.
I checked it, and it’s a laudable effort, but there is nothing in the database at all for harpsichord and any voice, like Argento (in fact nothing at all by him), Tippett or Heggie.
Still, it is very useful to find new non-vocal harpsichord works. You are right, it’s a resource for future concerts.
Keith
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I wrote a set of Robert Burns Songs about 10 years ago for Soprano AND Tenor with Flute, Oboe, Violin Viola, Cello, Harpsichord and 2 percussionists (light stuff, tambourine, bodhran, etc.)
They are “half 18th century, half Celtic and half Fairy Tale” and were premiered by some friends in LA (Lower Alabama), University faculty in Mobile. The Burns Night audience was most appreciative!
About half the songs are for tenor, the other half for soprano; only one duet. Maybe some of these would fit your needs?
There are also a few strictly instrumental pieces sprinkled throughout the “show” (It works like a two-person operetta but each song could be a stand-alone piece as well.)
Good players and singers can put it together with 1 or 2 rehearsals, not too difficult. There was a commercial CD; recordings were available at Amazon, CD Baby and iTunes at one time, I haven’t looked lately, but perhaps you could get an idea of the music.
Let me know if interested; if not, that’s fine too.
Brian Joyce
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Brian,
Thank you for this. I especially love the poetry of Robert Burns. For this concert, I am looking for something for mezzo, possibly alto, so this would not be a good fit.
However, I’ll look around for a performance of it. I schedule a “Herd of Harpsichords” concert every year, and about every 5 years focus on modern works. This sounds like a great candidate for a future concert.
Keith
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