Marcel Grandjany

Marcel Georges Lucien Grandjany (pronounced gran-zhah-NEE) was a young prodigy on the harp. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire and studied with Henriette Renié, and took first prize on the instrument at the age of thirteen. He made his debuts at the age of seventeen, playing in a concert with the Lamoureux Orchestra and giving a recital at the Salle Erard. In the same year he won first prize in harmony at the Conservatory. He studied composition with Paul Vidal. He also studied organ, and obtained a position as organist at the basilica of Sacré Coeur in Montmartre. Following World War I, he decided to devote himself entirely to the harp and to composition; most of his music is written for the instrument. He toured widely in Europe and North America, but kept an academic home base, becoming professor of the harp at the American Conservatory in Fontainbleau in 1921. He made his London debut in 1922 and his New York debut in 1924. In 1935 he resigned his teaching position and emigrated to the United States, settling in New York. He joined the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in 1938, and stayed in that position until shortly before his death. From 1943 to 1963 he gave yearly master classes at the Montreal Conservatory. He was naturalized as an American citizen in 1945. He playing technique is described a faultless. He produced a unique, rich tone, a quality that is attributed to the unusual flat shape of his fingertips. Many of his harp compositions are cornerstones of the instrument¹s repertoire and include a Poeme Symphonique for harp, horn, and orchestra. His non-harp compositions include French songs and keyboard works. Along with his slightly older contemporary Carlos Salzedo, Grandjany is one of the two most important harpist-composers of the twentieth century. While Salzedo revolutionized the technique of the instrument and often wrote in the most modern style, Grandjany retained the traditional approach to his instrument and is in an eclectic mixture of French Romantic and Impressionistic styles.
© Joseph Stevenson /TiVo