In 1806 Louis Spohr married Dorette Scheidler, an excellent harpist. The two of them often performed together, with Louis on violin. Their marriage led to his developing a thorough understanding of the concert harp. Mozart’s concerto for flute and harp is delightful, but he treats the harp like a naked piano. Many other composers have used the harp mostly to add its shimmering color to the orchestra. Spohr makes free use of scales, chords, and arpeggios, while avoiding clichéd usages of the instrument. Spohr’s works for harp, alone or with a few other parts, are among the most important for the instrument. They include five sonatas for violin and harp, listed in the order of composition which Clive Brown’s biography gives:
- Sonata in C minor, WoO 23
- Sonata in B-flat major, Opus 16
- Sonata in E-flat (D) major, Opus 113
- Sonata in A-flat (G) major, Opus 115
- Sonata concertante in E-flat (D) major, Opus 114
They were all relatively early works, but he kept the last three just for performance with Dorette for years before publishing them, resulting in their high opus numbers.
Dorette’s principal instrument in concerts was an Érard pedal harp. It was the older single-action variety, which was more limited in changing keys and playing chromatic notes than Érard’s 1810 double-action harp. Dorette got her hands on one of those only in 1820, at the end of her harp playing career. Spohr wrote some of his sonatas with the harp tuned down half a step and its part notated half a step up. For instance, the sonatas in D have the violin part written in D, which is a good key for the instrument, and the harp part written in E-flat and sounding in D. This not only gave the harp a more playable key but reduced the chances of string breakage.
Today’s harpists, using the double-action pedal harp, have less of a problem with sharp keys and string breakage, but retuning all the strings is still extremely tedious, so the harp parts are often played at concert pitch. Sometimes you’ll hear the last three sonatas in D, G, and D respectively, sometimes in E-flat, A-flat, and E-flat.
Adding to the confusion, many recordings replace the violin with a flute or cello. I haven’t been able to tell if Spohr wrote those arrangements, but the title of an online score for the Opus 115 sonata reads, in French, “Sonate Concertante pour Harpe ou Pianoforte et Violon ou Violoncello.” I haven’t run into any recordings that use a piano. Doing that would miss the whole point.
The harp doesn’t have the emotional range of some other instruments; there’s a reason artists seldom show devils playing harps. Besides, Spohr may not have wanted a lot of tension and fury in pieces he performed with his wife. However, this doesn’t mean the sonatas are superficial. The last three are the most interesting ones. They all start similarly, with a strong assertion of the tonic, but continue in different directions.
I find the Opus 115 Sonata the most absorbing of the set. At the start, the violin climbs the major scale by determined but halting steps. There’s a feeling of searching throughout the movement. The second movement, Larghetto, continues this feeling. Especially note the insistent rhythm in the harp in the middle section. The coda goes into a pained minor and fades away. The rondo finale, which is a good ten minutes long, tries to be more cheerful but likewise fades to pianissimo at the end. Here’s a recording of Opus 115 on YouTube.
The Opus 114 sonata has an unusual structure. It has just two movements, with the second being a potpourri on themes from The Magic Flute. He had written that movement earlier as a separate piece. The tunes are treated freely, with wonderful use of the instruments’ tone color. It’s unsettling, though, that Spohr gives the secondary villain Monostatos the last word.
This article is available under a Creative Commons BY-NC license. That says you can use it however you want — for instance, in program notes — provided you give me credit by name and aren’t making money off it. (If you are making money, that’s fine, but I expect a cut. Talk to me.)