Passacaglia from Suite No. 7 (Handel / Kondonassis) - The Michigan Harpist

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Cat (Ember) photo-bombing at 1:31! ...well, some of him.

An oldie but goodie!

This was one of the first pieces I learned for the pedal harp (vs lever harp) as an ambitious youngster. Now, one of my most advanced students is learning it, and I felt I should bring it back to at least match the expertise I envision for him.

The structure of this piece is a main melody that goes through transformations, showcasing various motifs and and harp techniques. Rather like Pachelbel's "Canon in D," it has the same harmony and base rhythm, but as you can hear, there many different iterations of that!

Here's the more specific structure. (LH is left hand, RH is right hand):

Theme
Var 1. LH open-palm octaves
Var 2. LH "PDLT" (Près de la table)
Var 3. RH ornamentation
Var 4. LH open-palm thumbs ("Etouffée")
Var 5. RH triplets + chords
Var 6. LH triplets + chords
Var 7. RH mini-trill
Var 8. RH scales
Var 9. LH scales
Var 10. RH wrist oscillation/dynamic variation
Var 11-2: RH oscillation -- MY ARCH ENEMY VARIATIONS! Instant failure, if the wrist and forearms tense up!
Var 13: LH arpeggios
Var 14: RH arpeggios
Var 15: Grand finale! The theme + LH arpeggios

Phew!

This arrangement is by Yolonda Kondonassis and is found in her collection "The Yolanda Kondonassis Collection."

Sorry for blowing out the mic so many times! I actually TRIED to play quietly, but some of these parts are just too resonant!

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Taken from https://www.heidmusic.com/passacaglia...

"George Frideric Handel was an influential composer of the Baroque era. Despite originally being from Germany, Handel is best known as an English composer, as he spent the majority of his career living in Britain. Handel's love of English music and culture went so far that he even anglicized his name to blend in, changing his German "Georg" to the English "George" and "Händel" to "Handel". The Passacaglia in G minor was originally a from a keyboard suite for haprsichord that Handel had written in the first half of the 18th century. As was the case with many keyboard suites of the time, each of the movements of this suite were inspiried by different kinds of dances and could be used as music for people to dance to. The Passacaglia is a 17th century dance originating in Spain--and this particular passacaglia by Handel is perhaps the best known movement from his G Minor Suite. With its fame has come a number of different arrangements ranging from string duets to full orchestral versions. "