The Company I Keep

Lash, Imaginary Prelude (5′) 2015
Paul Hindemith, Sonata for Harp (12′) 1939
Lash, Sonata for Harp (23′) 2015
Carlos Salzedo, Variations for Harp in Ancient Style, op 30 (10′) 1911
Lash, Stalk (5′) 2008
Gabriel Faure, Une chatelaine en sa tour (5′) 1918

In this program, Lash presents some of the harp repertoire she feels most connected to along with her own music. There are significant points of relationship between Lash’s compositions for the harp and that of Hindemith and Faure. Both these standard pieces represent music that is tightly knit and that develops material in a way that Lash feels is close to her own process.

In the Hindemith, there is a real sense of motivic and thematic development which relates the piece deeply to the Sonata tradition, and yet Hindemith is setting up his own unique tonal and formal syntax. This sense of relationship to the repertoire of the past is also in Lash’s music, along with a similarly organic treatment of material in the way it develops.

In the Faure, there is a sense of color and rhythmic play, combined with lyricism which Lash also feels deeply relates to her own music.

Salzedo’s variations are all about virtuosity. They are exuberant, and often humerous, and most of all an extraordinary physical challenge to the performer. Virtuosity is something Lash enjoys thinking about in her own music, pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible on the instrument.