October 21, 2024

Why Harpist Beginners Need Bach Too - PHH 179

36 minutes

A little while back, I did a podcast episode about the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and why I believe studying and playing that music is so important for harpists. If you want to go back and listen to that episode, it is Episode 154, and I will put a link to that episode in the show notes.

Understandably, after that podcast aired, I was asked why I was emphasizing the music of Bach who didn’t write anything that we know of for harp, when there are brilliant harp composers whose music we could study. I agree that studying music written for the harp is important for every harpist. But the music of Bach has been considered foundational for generations of music students, and it’s no less important for us harpists. In fact, it is precisely because Bach didn’t write for harp that we need to be extra-intentional about including his music in our studies.

There is a drawback, however. The difficulty factor of much of his music makes it inaccessible to beginning students, and beginning students, particularly adult beginners, could benefit so much from studying his music. So today, I have three goals. First, I’ll show you what you can learn, even as a beginner harpist, from Bach’s music and I’ll demonstrate how you can learn it. Second, I’ll share a practice page that you can use as a warm-up or for more practice on this material. And most importantly, in the course of our time together today, I want to help you connect with the beauty in Bach’s music. Even though he never wrote anything for harp, he surely did write music that is beautiful, even transcendent, when it’s played on the harp.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: