Resonanties
Six Pieces for Two Harps/Harp Ensemble

Two harps become one...

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Resonanties, originally called Six Pieces for Two Harps or Harp Ensemble,  was composed during the summer of 2024 with the objective to expand my own understanding of both the pedal and lever harp. In the process, I secretly hoped the work would contribute to the repertoire for two harps and/or harp ensemble, both creatively and educationally.

With many useful suggestions of my colleagues at the Vancouver Academy of Music, harpists Joy Yeh and Rosanna Chiu, I made the score of Resonanties suitable to be performable on both the pedal and lever harp. The work is written so that no pedal/lever changes need to be made during any particular movement, but only in-between them. Joy and Rosanna premiered the work with other colleagues as an ensemble, all on pedal harps.

The work, or at least some of its movements, has also proven itself to be suitable for student harpists. In the Fall of 2024, a student ensemble with both pedal and lever harps performed the first movement, and is currently (January 2025) working on the fifth.

I am happy with the typical harp atmosphere in the first and fifth movement, the chromaticism and unexpected chordal shifts of movement 3, but particularly with the less likely harp sound of the staccato (deadly in movement 6!) and xylophonics in movements 2, 4, and 6.


The work has six movements:

I. Moderato, with informed naïveté
II. Lively Staccato
III. Twirling
IV. More lively staccato
V. Adagio
VI. Deadly staccato