Riley, Dennis, Six Preludes
These six short pieces for advanced pedal harp are by contemporary composer Dennis Riley (1943-1999). Riley is known for being a serial composer (in the style of Weber). The notation of contemporary harp effects, pedal diagrams, and other symbols in this composition reveal Riley to have been a very much in touch with the harp's capabilities and harp notation.
15 pages The New York Times' Bernard Holland had this to say of Barbara Allen's performance of these preludes:
"Dennis Riley's Six Preludes, which began the evening, satisfied the solo harpist's wildest reveries. In these brief pieces Mr. Riley prostrates his sensibilities before a specific instrument. Cheerfully reactionary, this music returns nearly a century to Impressionism; but so precise are the effects and yet so voluptuous, that one's resistance caves quickly in."
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