Lucile Lawrence

For the mezzo-soprano who sometimes sang under this assumed name, see Louise Homer.

Lucile Lawrence (February 7, 1907 in New Orleans – July 8, 2004 in Englewood, New Jersey) was an American harpist. At the end of her life, she was a faculty member of Boston University and the Manhattan School of Music, as well as teaching privately.

Lucile Lawrence with Carlos Salzedo in 1928.

Career

Lawrence was born into a family with roots in New England (Lawrence, Massachusetts). Her father was a businessman in New Orleans, at one time owner of the first cold-storage warehouse in the city.

She was a fourth-generation harpist, beginning her studies at age six. At the age of eight, she appeared as soloist with the New Orleans Junior Philharmonic. A prodigious student, she was introduced to French harpist Carlos Salzedo in New Orleans while he was performing on tour with his Trio de Lutece. She began private study with him in New York and Seal Harbor aged 14, then returned to finish high school at age 15, then studied full-time in New York. Her advanced studies were conducted privately, with music history and theory lessons taken with the composer Edgard Varèse.

She made her professional debut age 18 with an eight-month concert tour of Australia and New Zealand, a lengthy 123-concert tour of joint recitals with the soprano Edna Thomas.

Upon returning to the U.S., she continued her private study with Salzedo, toured as first harpist in the Salzedo Harp Ensemble throughout the U.S., and with her own Lawrence Harp Quintette on smaller engagements. She then married Salzedo, but they divorced in 1936. She subsequently married Paul Dahlstrom, a colleague from Radio City Music Hall, and they had a family.

She appeared as harp soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the Conductorless Orchestra, the George Barrere Ensemble, the Coolidge Festival of Chamber Music, in duo-recital with Salzedo and in the New York Trio with Frances Blaisdell and Seymour Barab. She premiered and recorded Salzedo's Concerto for Harp and Seven Winds. She performed in the symphony orchestra of Radio City Music Hall, and in the 1950s on television in the Firestone Orchestra. She made many recordings under the baton of Leopold Stokowski.

While married to Salzedo, they made a summer trip to Europe to fulfill concert engagements and met composer Maurice Ravel. She performed his Introduction et Allegro and received his instructions on how to perform it. It was agreed that on their return the next summer, Ravel would compose a harp concerto. However, instead the next year, they purchased a house in Camden, Maine, and launched the Salzedo Summer Harp Colony, which continued into the late 1990s.

Lawrence was a dedicated teacher for most of her life. Lawrence and Salzedo developed the Salzedo Method, to assist with teaching, which is perhaps the most widely used harp method book of the 20th Century.

Lawrence was a faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Musical Academy, Mannes College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, (was hired to teach at the Juilliard School), Yale University, Boston University and Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Harvard University. She also taught privately, and gave master classes. (Her last master class was held there in 2003). She performed a famous recital to open the American Harp Society National Conference in San Diego, in which she performed nearly all the major solo works for harp by Carlos Salzedo, her teacher and former husband, which she also released on a two-LP album.

She served as the first president of the American Harp Society, and as a judge for the International Harp Contest in Israel. Over the years, she taught such harpists as Cynthia Otis (formerly New York City Ballet Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society, Joffrey Ballet Orchestra), Beatrice Schroeder Rose (formerly Houston Symphony, faculties of Rice University, U. of Houston), Maria Pinckney (formerly St. Louis Symphony), Grace Wong (Israel contest prize-winner, Rochester Symphony) and Sara Cutler (soloist, now NYC Ballet).

She published with G. Schirmer the seminal texts Method for the Harp, ABC of Harp Playing and Art of Modulating, with musical contributions by Carlos Salzedo, and Peer-Southern's Pathfinder to the Harp. She published many editions of her numerous solos, and Solos for the Harp Player, which ranged from baroque to twentieth-century composers. She recorded a comprehensive two-LP recording of many works by Carlos Salzedo. She worked with many composers, including John Lessard, Rudolf Forst, Quinto Maganini, Charles Fox, George Perle, and Ami Maayani.

At the age of 93, she was still traveling to Boston University from her home in River Edge, New Jersey to teach her students. She gave her last master class in Philadelphia in 2003, aged 96, for the American Harp Society chapter. She died in 2004.

Discography

• Transcriptions and Original Compositions for 2 Harps, Mercury MG 1044
  • La Joyeuse — Rameau – Salzedo
  • Gavotte — Martini – Salzedo
  • Play of the Winds — Dandrieu – Salzedo
  • Spinning Wheel — Mendelssohn – Salzedo
  • On Wings of Song — Mendelssohn – Salzedo
  • Spanish Dance No. 5 — Granados – Salzedo
  • Clair de Lune — Debussy – Salzedo
  • Steel — Salzedo, from the suite Pentacle
• Ten Songs from the Hebrew by Stefan Wolpe, Columbia Masterworks OCLC 57040691; Leon Lishner with David Tudor, Samuel Baron, Lucile Lawrence, Claus Adam, Elden Bailey, Anahid Ajemian, Maro Ajemian, Alan Hovhaness
• King David by Artur Honegger and works by Debussy, Vogt Quality Recordings OCLC 27038918; René Morax, Blanche Honegger Moyse, Louis Moyse, Lucile Lawrence, Brattleboro Music Center Festival Orchestra (probably a recording of the Sonate for flute, harp and viola by Debussy)
• Benjamin Britten: Ceremony of Carols; unknown choir with Lucile Lawrence, solo harpist, under Franz Allers
• Soloist in the following RCA recordings (many re-released on the CALA label and others): Leopold Stokowski conducting
  • Aurora's Wedding LM 1774
  • Tristan und Isolde LM 1174
  • Debussy: Nocturnes, Prelude de l'Apres-midi d'un Faune, Clair de Lune LM 1154
  • Sibelius: Symphony no. 1 LM 1125
  • Heart of the Ballet: LM 1083
  • Stravinsky/Ibert: Firebird, Escales LM 9020

(this is a partial listing)

• Soloist in the Concerto for Harp and Seven Winds by Carlos Salzedo (Columbia)
• Soundtrack of two films:
  • Opus 20 Modern Masterworks: Edgard Varese (1992) interview directed by Helmut Rost
  • Around and About Joan Miró (1955) directed by Thomas Bouchard (she performs a work by Cabezon)

Video

Solo harpist in the Voice of Firestone Orchestra, television program, conducted by Howard Barlow, with an appearance as soloist now viewable on YouTube, and as orchestra member for several seasons.
Interviewed in a BBC documentary on Edgard Varese (ca. 1990s)
The Method for the Harp, an interview and demonstration, with Dewey Owens and Elizabeth Morse Feldman, illustrating the Preludes for Beginners by Carlos Salzedo, and the tone colors devised by Salzedo, also in the Modern Study of the Harp.

Publications

• Method for the Harp (with Salzedo), G. Schirmer, pub.
• The Art of Modulating (with Salzedo), G. Schirmer
• The ABC of Harp Playing (with Salzedo), G. Schirmer
• Pathfinder Studies for the Harp, Southern (includes original music studies, with the exception of Conflict, which is by Carlos Salzedo)
• Solos for the Harp Player, G. Schirmer
• Four Vignettes by Bernard Wagenaar
• Concerto for Harp by G. F. Handel, Lyra
• Sonata for Harp by C. P. E. Bach, Colin
• Variations on a Swiss Air by Beethoven, Lyra
• Variations by L. Spohr, Lyra
• Six Sonatinas by J. L. Dussek, Lyra
• Three-volume collection of music for beginners by French, German, English composers, Lyra
• Maqamat by Ami Maayani, Lyra
• Passacaglia dans le Style Oriental by Ami Maayani, Lyra
• Toccata by Ami Maayani, Israel Music Publishers
• Ancient Dance by Charles Fox, Peer
• Four French Ritournelles by Marcel Etchecopar, M. Baron

Music dedicated to Lucile Lawrence

• Suite of Eight Dances by Carlos Salzedo, published by G. Schirmer
• Passacaglia dans le style Oriental by Ami Maayani, published by Lyra
• Concerto for Harp and Seven Winds by Carlos Salzedo, published by Lyra
• Suite for Cello and Harp by Lou Harrison, published by Peer International Corporation