Biography
Recognized from an early age as a harp prodigy, Marcel Georges Lucien Grandjany (pronounced gran-zhah-NEE) secured admission to the Paris Conservatoire, where he trained under Henriette Renié and captured first prize on the instrument at thirteen. At seventeen he launched his performing career with an appearance alongside the Lamoureux Orchestra and a solo program at the Salle Erard; that same year he also earned first prize in harmony at the Conservatoire.
Composition studies followed with Paul Vidal, while organ training led to an appointment as organist at the basilica of Sacré Coeur in Montmartre. After World War I he chose to concentrate exclusively on the harp and on writing music, the greater part of which is scored for the instrument. Extensive tours took him across Europe and North America, yet he maintained an academic anchor by joining the faculty of the American Conservatory in Fontainbleau as professor of harp in 1921. London heard him for the first time in 1922; New York followed in 1924.
Resigning his post in 1935, he moved to the United States and established residence in New York. He entered the Juilliard School of Music faculty in 1938 and remained there until shortly before his death. Between 1943 and 1963 he conducted annual master classes at the Montreal Conservatory, and he became an American citizen in 1945.
Observers characterized his playing as faultless, noting a distinctive richness of tone ascribed to the unusually flat contour of his fingertips. Numerous works for harp have become foundational to the instrument’s literature, among them the Poème Symphonique for harp, horn, and orchestra; his output beyond the harp encompasses French songs and keyboard pieces.
Together with his slightly older contemporary Carlos Salzedo, Grandjany ranks among the two foremost harpist-composers of the twentieth century. Whereas Salzedo transformed instrumental technique and frequently adopted the most contemporary idioms, Grandjany preserved a traditional orientation toward the harp, blending French Romantic and Impressionistic elements in an eclectic style.
Composition studies followed with Paul Vidal, while organ training led to an appointment as organist at the basilica of Sacré Coeur in Montmartre. After World War I he chose to concentrate exclusively on the harp and on writing music, the greater part of which is scored for the instrument. Extensive tours took him across Europe and North America, yet he maintained an academic anchor by joining the faculty of the American Conservatory in Fontainbleau as professor of harp in 1921. London heard him for the first time in 1922; New York followed in 1924.
Resigning his post in 1935, he moved to the United States and established residence in New York. He entered the Juilliard School of Music faculty in 1938 and remained there until shortly before his death. Between 1943 and 1963 he conducted annual master classes at the Montreal Conservatory, and he became an American citizen in 1945.
Observers characterized his playing as faultless, noting a distinctive richness of tone ascribed to the unusually flat contour of his fingertips. Numerous works for harp have become foundational to the instrument’s literature, among them the Poème Symphonique for harp, horn, and orchestra; his output beyond the harp encompasses French songs and keyboard pieces.
Together with his slightly older contemporary Carlos Salzedo, Grandjany ranks among the two foremost harpist-composers of the twentieth century. Whereas Salzedo transformed instrumental technique and frequently adopted the most contemporary idioms, Grandjany preserved a traditional orientation toward the harp, blending French Romantic and Impressionistic elements in an eclectic style.
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