MASTERARBEID REPORT

Student’s name: Elsa Garcia de Andrés

Study program: MAUT - Master of Music Performance

Instrument: Harp

Teacher: Isabelle Perrin

REPERTOIRE

MASTERFORUM

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PUBLIC CONCERT

REFLECTION NOTE

The process of doing my master’s project has been a very inspiring and educational experience. This project has changed and evolved through time and it has brought me new resources and connections that will be very helpful to have in the future.

Since writing the project’s description, I did a lot of research to find more women composers, as well as to expand my knowledge about their life and work. Due to that research, I decided to change my initial idea of the repertoire I wanted to work on. Instead of working on pieces from completely different composers, I decided to reduce the number of composers while keeping a connection between the two concerts. I focused on three main composers: Henriette Renié, Germaine Tailleferre and Caroline Lizotte.

Henriette Renié was one of the best harpists, composers, and teachers of her time and, although her work is well-known in the harp world, I felt that it was important to have two of her pieces in my program. Not only are they pieces that I will be able to take with me through my life, but they have made me improve as a musician to be able to reach the demanding technical difficulties and musical depth.

On the contrary, Germaine Tailleferre is unfortunately not as well-known and it’s quite rare to have her Concertino for harp and orchestra in any concert. I definitely think that her music should be played more and that’s why I decided to play her Sonata for Harp and the Concertino for harp and orchestra.

Finally, I wanted to have as well a contemporary composer, as I strongly believe that performers should support the current artists by playing their music, and for that reason, I chose Caroline Lizotte, who in my opinion is one of the best living composers for harp. This gave me the great opportunity to work with her on two of her pieces, Suite Galactique op.39 and La Madone op.43. It was truly inspiring to see through her eyes the stories of her pieces and it gave a whole new dimension to the music.

Apart from these three main composers, adding Salutation angelique by Esmeralda Cervantes to my first concert had a special meaning for me. Esmeralda Cervantes, whose real name was Clotilde Cerdà, was born in Barcelona in 1861 and became an extremely successful harpist, being praised by many composers and playing all over Europe and America, sometimes including in the repertoire her own compositions. She was engaged as well in the political issues of her time; she was a driving force of the antislavery movement and she founded an academy of science, arts, and crafts for women in Barcelona. Although her great success during her lifetime, she has been almost forgotten and that’s why it was very important for me to play the only piece that has been found of her.

Last but not least, through my research, I found many great pieces that were not written for harp but that I still wanted to play. Due to the difficulty to play them on one harp, I thought they would work better on two harps and it opened the doors for me to the world of arrangements. I started with Juni, from the cycle Das Jahr, by Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn, and since then I have arranged other pieces by Clara Schumann, Teresa Carreño, and Rosalind Frances Ellicott. I have found a great passion for writing arrangements for harp duo and it feels very fulfilling to expand the harp duo repertoire with works by magnificent women composers.

What started as a project for my master, has developed into a long-term project that I want to pursue after finishing my studies at NMH. I have found something that I’m passionate about and that has endless potential, and thanks to all the resources that I have found during this time, I am full of ideas about how I can continue to support women composers and bring to the audience wonderful music that has been overshadowed for far too much time.