HASSELMANS REMEMBERED BY HIS STUDENTS
Translated and edited by Carl Swanson
(This Article originally appeared in the Journal of the American Harp
Society,
Summer 1984, Vol. 9, No. 3, and is a translation of an article that first
appeared in the autumn 1979 issue of the French-language bulletin of the
Association Internationale des Harpistes et Amis de la Harpe.)
Introduction by Carl Swanson
Alphonse Jean Hasselmans was born on 5 March 1845 in Liège, Belgium,
and attended the Strasbourg Conservatory, of which his father was the director;
he also studied in Germany with Gottlieb Krüger(a pupil of Elias Parish
Alvars). Hasselmans became professor of harp at the Paris Conservatory on
1 May 1884 succeeding Ange-Conrad Prumier. He held the post until his death
on 19 May 1912. He wrote numerous compositions for the harp, charming miniatures
that graced the salons of la belle époque, but whose alloure has
faded somewhat with time. He wrote no compositions with orchestra, no chamber
works, and no sonatas.
He was perhaps the greatest teacher of the modern pedal harp, and the roll
of his pupils includes the names of many of the most important harpists
of this century: Henriette Renie, Marcel Grandjany, Pierre Jamet, Lily Laskine,
Marcel Tournier, Carlos Salzedo, Micheline Kahn , and Ada Sassoli. The list
is astonishing! What kind of teacher was he? What were his methods? How
did he achieve such extraodinary results?
As a student of Pierre Jamet in 1970, I had heard
numerous stories concerning Hasselmans’ teaching methods. What struck
me as I first read this article was the similarity of the accounts of the
four harpists interviewed.
Here then are the reflections of S. de Chamberet, Lily
Laskine, Micheline Kahn, and Pierre Jamet. One should read with amazement
and awe what it was like to study with the greatest harp teacher of that
day.
Mme. S. de Chamberet, née Cardon (1st prize, 1911)
Mr. Hasselmans was a large and handsome man, of
very cold demeanor, speaking little. He had rather big hands, but played
the harp admirably well. The tone he created was velvet. All of his students
were afraid of him because he was very demanding about practice. Here is
a personal little anecdote which shows to what extent he was severe and
intransigent.
There were three classes a week at the Conservatory
and we were required to attend all three. In principle, he would work with
each of us every other class, but often he would call us with a little signal
of his finger, even though we had just played at the last class. Every two
days we had to learn an étude by heart plus a page from a piece.
So, on one particular day, even though I had played at the previous class,
he gave me the little signal. I went to the harp and put my music on the
stand as usual. Having had a solfège exam the previous day, I hadn’t
had time to learn my etudes by heart, but I knew them very well. After a
moment or two, Hasselmans said to me,”Why are you looking at the music?”
Very sure of myself, I responded that having had a solfège exam the
previous day, I hadn’t had time to learn my études by heart.
At that, he grabbed my music, threw it on the floor in the middle of the
class, and said, ”That’s no business of mine. You have to do
the work that I demand of you.” I was 13 years old, and was atrociously
humiliated, all the more because at this time all the mothers of the students
sat in on the classes, the result being a ferocious rivalry. It took me
a long time to recover from this affront. However, thanks no doubt to this
firmness, he obtained exceptional results and formed some excellent harpists.
I think that all his students miss him, and are enormously thankful to him,
myself first among them.
Lily Laskine(1st prize, 1906)
I had the great privilege to begin harp with Alphonse Hasselmans. I don’t
know for what reason my mother was set on this matter. She insisted that
it be he who put my fingers on the harp. I was 8 years old and I remember
that it was in the course of a musical soirée at my grandmother’s
that a very good harpist played. That pleased me, and my mother judged that
this instrument would suit me.
Hasselmans at first refused to work with me. “Madame,
I never take beginners. It’s a rule.” “Well then! If you
don’t take my little girl, she won’t play the harp.” Well…I’ll
give it a try. We’ll see…”
Thus I began, and it went rather well, rather quickly,
because I had my first prize after four-and-a-half years of study. It’s
often said that children don’t get stage freight. This isn’t
always true. I was not at all timid, and I was(and still am!) very sociable.
But Hasselmans inspired in me an absolute terror. He was very large, very
robust, excessively cold and possessed a love of teasing that bordered on
meanness. I required my mother to place herself, neither behind nor to the
side, but rather in front of me so that I could see her during my lessons!
At the Conservatory, at nearly every class, a sick feeling compelled me
to go out into the hallway-that is to say how much I was affected.
But he was an extraordinary teacher, and I recognize that for the harp,
by his teaching and his compositions of which I’ll speak later, he
accomplished an essential task. He had an astonishing sonority that he bequeathed
to his students, a sonority at the same time full and mellow. He liked to
play in lessons and class very much. He would grab the harp with a single
finger, turn it towards himself and play-more for his own pleasure, I think,
than for the student. Years later, I still see his hands in my mind’s
eye: large hands, with a truly unique touch.
He wrote a quantity of pieces whose style is out of fashion today but which
should absolutely not be scorned for teaching. Each one of these pieces,
of medium difficulty, very melodic, teaches the student, without discouraging
him, the very essence of the instrument and natural fingering. On this point,
permit me a small digression, the subject of which I hold dear to my heart.
I am convinced, to take an example, that the art of singing is acquired
not in the sublime melodies of Schumann, Schubert, Fauré, or Duparc,
who represent a pinnacle, but in the methods, the vocalizes, and the lyric
works that our present taste rejects with disdain. Musical cultivation is
one thing, technique is another.
Hasselmans was very demanding concerning technical work. We worked on 28
or 30 pages of the Fantasies of Parish Alvars(on Oberon, on Moses of Rossini,etc.)
the three Concertos, and naturally on the exercises of Larivière(work
controlled in class),plus two etudes a week, one ‘in progress,”
the other by heart!
Unfortunately, because of his personality, his lack of human warmth, many
of his first prize students did not continue to work with him. Most went
to Renie, who had a great reputation as a teacher. Her collection of Bach
preludes, dedicated to her students, all first prize-winners, testifies
to that.
As for me, it was very simple. My mother said to me, “You have your
first prize, you should know how to take care of yourself.” And that’s
what I did.
Micheline Kahn(1st prize, 1904)
One can really say with assurance that it was Hasselmans after all who remade
the harp. When he took over the class, I think Prumier preceded him, there
were two or three students. It was he who built up the class and created
the French school of harp playing.
Hasselmans cut an imposing figure, and at this
time Grandjany, who was still a child, was never able to answer “Oui,
Maître.” [This may have been the reason why Grandjany, in his
later years, absolutely would not allow himself to be so addressed, even
by French-educated persons who were accustomed to this courtesy].
One heard only a muffled grunt, and Hasselmans
was exasperated by this unintelligible sound and timidity. Hasselmans was
always very severe, and in spite of the fact that he was a friend of my
parents(my mother had been a student of his), he never used the familiar
“tu” with me. He didn’t want to make an exception vis-à-vis
the other students in the class.
In his classes there was strict discipline. There
were three classes a week and we never knew when we would be asked to play
our two etudes and one piece, all by heart. We had to constantly be ready.
Because he had it in his head that we never practiced on Sunday, we were
almost always caught on Monday. That was the worst day!
We worked on all the concertos and pieces of Parish Alvars, Oberthur, etc.
From the point of view of technique it was excellent. But I never liked
this style of music very much, although I had to work on everything imaginable
in this genre.
On one point he was obstinate, and that was the
hand position. He wanted above all the thumb straight(not bent) and both
hands placed in a manner so as to play the string with the fleshy part of
the finger and not the side. With the fleshy part of the finger and a good
articulation into the hollow of the hand, you have a beautiful sound; playing
on the side creates a vigorous sound, but not a mellow sound. He held strongly
to this principle, and in this way he found a beautiful sonority for the
harp.
The year of my graduation (I was not yet 15 years old,
I was lucky to have the magnificent Impromptu of Fauré as the competition
piece. I remember that Fauré had not yet completed it, and that he
brought us his manuscript so that we could copy the end! It was at this
moment that I met him. After that, I performed this piece frequently, and
he dedicated the adorable Châtelaine en sa tour… to me after
I left the class. Ravel one day asked Hasselmans to recommend someone to
play a piece that he had just composed. Hasselmans responded, “I have
a youngster who just got her 1st prize. I’m sure she can do justice
to your piece.” That’s how I played the premiere of Ravel’s
Introduction and Allegro.
I heard Hasselmans in his last concerts. It was
admirable! He was really the greatest of harpists, and I hold an unforgettable
memory. I heard him also in the Choral and Variations of Widor and also
the premiere of the Pierné Concertstück. After that, he restricted
himself to teaching. Hasselmans was a master. He created a great method.
I hold his teaching in great admiration, and have profound admiration for
the man.
Pierre Jamet(1st prize, 1912)
I was 13 years old, and had just been admitted to the Conservatory in the
chromatic harp class, when my mother was put in contact with Hasselmans
through the help of musician friends. He said that he had heard me at the
first examination, and advised my mother that I should abandon the chromatic
harp. He offered to give me lessons.
This advice was followed. I left the chromatic harp class and Hasselmans
took charge of me and gave me lessons absolutely free from 1907 to 1912.
I thus received all of my education on the harp from him. He imposed a severe
discipline on me, but I had an enormous admiration for him. I remember my
lessons with him in his magnificent apartment on the Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne
where I heard him play, with his splendid sonority, his many compositions
which were very fashionable at this time.
During the winter, he gave lessons at the residence
of his daughter, the great pianist Marguerite Hasselmans, on the Avenue
Wagram, and during the summer, at his apartment on the Avenue-du-Bois. Because
he wanted me to enter his class at the Conservatory, he forbade me to go
away during summer recess. Thus I went every week to lessons at his home.
I was awed by this man of magnificent stature and by his advice that I’ll
never forget.
I was admitted to his class in October 1909. The class
started at 9 A.M. It would have been unthinkable to arrive without having
warmed up before the class, and it was out of the question to bring etudes
that could not be played by heart; without that the music would have been
immediately closed on the stand! I remember having played all of the concertos
of Bochsa and Parish Alvars with him. On one occasion, certain passages
were less than perfect. I was immediately sent back to my place followed
by the words that froze me, “Let’s go to the next student. Work,
my friend!” And that was all! But I have to thank him for his severity,
because I owe him everything.
This was an incredible method of work and discipline where technique took
a predominant place. Much later, I realized the necessity of studying those
old concertos which are the basis of our technique, and which then permit
us to overcome all difficulties as a result.
Though Hasselmans’ demeanor as teacher was upright and intransigent,
he was also, in the last years of his life, realized and smiling. He had
accepted an offer from my father(a painter) to have his portrait painted
for the Exhibition of French Artists, and it was in his office at Avenue
Wagram, after having taught my lesson, that he posed. There he spoke freely,
abandoning his rough façade and joking with much humor. I felt great
affection for him, and had the impression that, through these lighter moments,
he was showing his confidence in my future career. This gave me enormous
courage.
I will never forget the class of May 1912 when,
after the jury examination, my classmates and I waited for him. Instead,
Gabriel Faure, President of the Conservatory, came in and announced that
Hasselmans had died suddenly.
Hasselmans established our French method of harp
playing. He was the first who corrected the hand position, thus abandoning
the old methods of Naderman and Bochsa of the 18th and 19th centuries. Hasselmans’
method permitted all the harpists of our generation to obtain sonorous strength
on the harp. His disciples were many, some of whom became great harpists
and virtuosi. They owe it all to Hasselmans. He left a large repertory of
pieces of charming character which were successful in the salons at the
end of the last century. |