This harp music was originally recorded as a thank you to family and friends who helped me realize my dream of owning a harp.  I optimistically promised a recital until Rich offered to record instead.  Many, many hours later I realized that a recital would have been much easier!

Here on this album is a selection of classical pieces and a couple of light jazzy numbers.  Courante  is a dance form popular in the 18th century.  Imagine elegant halls, grand costumes and powdered wigs!  Track numbers 2 and 10 are dances composed by Carlos Salzedo, master harpist, reknown teacher, and composer.  Barcarolle, a gondolier song,and Prelude were both composed by Marcel Grandjany, also a 20th century harp master.  Les Pins de Charlains, by French harpist Henriette Renie, equally reknown for her technique and contribution to the harp world, is played here first as a solo and then as a duet.  Through the wonders of recording technology I’m playing both parts.

Eric Satie’s Cymnopedie No. 1 is a classic, whether on the piano or harp.  Track number 8, the lyric and lush Nataliana and track number 11, jazz piece New Blues, are the work of composer/performer Deborah Henson-Conant, a dynamo in today’s harp world.  Cannelle, by modern French composer Bernard Andres, employs hand percussion on the body of the harp.

The magic of harp music has been known to soothe young ones and calm and inspire the rest of us.  If this offering lifts your spirits and helps to bring peace and harmony to your day I will be deeply gratified.

Special thanks to my husband, Rich Capparela, for making this recording possible, and to my teacher, harpist Marcia Dickstein.

Marcia Capparela
May 15, 2002