Sleeve Notes

Sun, Moon and Stars
- A Middle Eastern Sky (2004) by Harriet Adie (b. 7980)
Sun, Moon and Stars — A Middle Eastern Sky was written as a memory of Harriet’s childhood in Oman. Each movement reflects different things about her experiences out there: Sun is full of the searing heat of the desert in high summer, the vivid colours found every day in the Souk (market place) and the call of the Mosque to prayer. Moon evokes the stillness of the mountains at night where silence was so absolute it could become oppressive and where, in the early evening, crickets could be heard gently chirping. Stars illustrates the cloudless night sky where one could lie back and watch the great expanse of sparkling and glittering stars before the sun rose once more. The three movements flow continuously, with the powerful opening motif of Sun being revised in the final stages of the piece as a gentle echo in the dawn of the new day.

Le Carnaval des Animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921).
Transcribed by H. Adie (Volière), E Turner (L’Éléphant, Aquarium), and K. Atti (Le Cygne).
The French composer Saint-Saens wrote his suite, ‘The Carnival of the Animals', when on holiday in Austria in February 1886, as a party piece for a group of musical friends. He refused to allow any movements, except forThe Swan, to be published in his lifetime, worried that the frivolous music and theme would damage his reputation as a serious composer. In our version for four harps, Aviary (Volière) features bisbigliandi (rapid tremolos alternating between the hands) to represent the twittering of the birds, whilst each harp takes a turn at the swooping gestures made on the flute in the original score. Harps are not normally used to depict elephants, but the sonorous bass wire strings are a match for Saint-Saëns’ double-bass! The shimmering iridescence of Aquarium and the stillness of The Swan reflect the harps’ magical ability to evoke the many qualities of water.

Ma Mère L’Oye by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Transcribed by H. AdiePavane de Ia Belle au bois Dormant - Laiderannette, Impératrice des Pagodes Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête.
Ma Mère L’Oye was originally written by Ravel for piano duet between 1908 and 1910. The work was dedicated to the two children of his friends the Godebskis, with the intention that these children would also give the first performance. The suite draws upon the fairy-tales of Perrault, Mine dAulnoy, and Mine de Beaumont for its inspiration, and the five original pieces are:

Pavane de Ia Belle au bois dormant, Petit Poucet, Laideronnette, Impératrice des Pagodes, Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête and Le jardin féerique. In 1911 Ravel wrote an orchestral version of the suite, and this became the basis of the ballet which was first performed in January 1912. For this Ravel wrote some additional pieces (a Prélude and Danse du rouet et scène) as well as some connecting interludes. Ravel wrote that “the idea of evoking in these pieces the poetry of childhood naturally led me to simplify my style and to refine my means of expression”. This can clearly be heard in the Suite through the peaceful, uncomplicated nature of the Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (reflected in Harriet’s arrangement through the pure sound of the harp’s harmonics) and in the delicate melody representing ‘Belle’ in Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête. In Laideronnette, lmpératrice des Pagodes, Ravel evokes the Oriental setting of this story with the use of the pentatonic scale heard throughout the movement and (in his orchestral version) the inclusion of tuned percussion. This flavour is further enhanced in Harriet’s arrangement by using the bass strings of the harp as a ‘gong’!

Rambla! (2007) by Eleanor Turner (b. 1982)
Rambla! was composed following a trip that Eleanor made to Southern Spain and is inspired by the rhythms of flamenco, the timbre of the guitar and the following anecdote. Eleanor visited the market town of Albox which, in the midst of Europe’s only desert, is host to a Rambla; a dry river bed, normally used as a road. Like thousands of others, Eleanor parked her car on the parched ground, only later to hear that once or twice every year Andalucia receives a burst of rain fall that causes a flash flood, turning the Rambla into a fast flowing river for a few hours! The landscape undergoes a drastic and unforeseen change, flood waters completely filling the high concrete banks of the river and gushing through with wild and gleeful abandon, sweeping away cars and vans that aren’t rescued in time!

La Rejouissance and Two Hornpipes by G.F. Handel (1685-1759) arr E. Turner
It was the freshness and celebratory character of these three pieces that inspired Eleanor to arrange them for the group. She wanted ‘The Rejoicing’ to boast the richness of Handel’s orchestration and the interweaving polyphonic texture. In contrast, the two hornpipes from The Water Music must delight in Handel’s clear cut homophony, prevalent in so many of his compositions. In 1715 Handel wrotehis Water Music for one of King George l’s processions down the RiverThames. With so much impressionistic repertoire. the quartet finds real pleasure in bringing to life the clarity and the power of water in this spirited baroque music.

Saraswati (2002) by Edward Longstaff (b. 1965)
Invocation I - The Path of Knowledge - The Path of Devotion
Invocation II - The Consorts Dance.
British composer Edward Longstaff was commissioned by Penny Adie to write a piece for 4 Girls 4 Harps, which would receive its premiere at St. James’s Piccadilly in December 2002. Saraswati became an audience favourite, with its minimalistic style opening up a compelling new sound world for four harps. Saraswati was recorded with the outstanding international tabla player Sanju Sahai, who is of eminent percussion lineage and is a direct descendent of Pandit Ram Sahai, the founder of the Benares Gharana. In Saraswati, the authentic sound of Indian tabla accentuates the rhythmic drive of the ’Paths’ and heightens the contrasting effect of the lyrical ‘Invocations' Faithful to the structure of Indian classical music, Longstaff ends Saraswati in a frenzy — the exhilarating ‘Consort’s Dance’! Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, is the patron deity for music and dance and is depicted sitting on a lotus, which represents the supreme reality or truth. She has four arms which symbolise the four aspects of the inner personality of man.

Summertime from ‘Porgy and Bess’ by George Gershwin (1898— 1937)
Transcribed by H. Adie
Gershwin’s compositions show a life-long fascination with French music of the early Twentieth Century. However, many of the composers he applied to study with, such as Ravel and Nadia Boulanger refused to teach him, afraid that rigorous study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. Gershwin considered his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess to be one of his finest works, incorporating a wealth of blues, folk and jazz idioms into the classical art form of opera: The aria Summertime was composed as a spiritual in the style of African American folk music. Subsequently made famous as a jazz standard by singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Harriet has followed this tradition with an arrangement featuring Chris Marshall on drums and Matt Ridley on double bass.