Christmas Music with Harpist Dorothy Remsen

Dorothy Remsen was the principal harpist of several US orchestras, including Minneapolis, Buffalo and the National Symphony, before settling in for a long career on Hollywood sound stages. She can be heard on everything from the E.T. soundtrack to classical, pop and jazz recordings.

On this, which may be her only solo recording, she performs nine compositions written for the harp and appropriate to the Christmas season.

Two of the works were written for her: "The Psalmist" by noted film composer David Raksin and "Revery" by Disney Studios' Clifford Vaughan.

Most of the rest were prepared by famed harpists for their own use, including two works apiece by Marcel Tournier and Marcel Granjany, and single compositions from Carlos Salzedo and Louise Charpentier. The record opens with a work by French composer Marcel Samuel-Rousseau.

Dorothy Remsen

Remsen (1921-2010) was a native of New London, CT and a graduate of the Eastman School. In addition to her symphonic and film work, she has a long listing of pop and jazz credits (see this page), including records by Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy, Henri René, Percy Faith, Mel Tormé, the Beach Boys, Paul Horn, the Carpenters, Earth, Wind & Fire, Sister Sledge, Natalie Cole and Frank Sinatra. Her film score include works by John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Bronislaw Kaper, Henry Mancini, Hans Zimmer and many others; also Robert Craft recordings of Boulez, Stockhausen and Stravinsky.

This record was apparently a production of Remsen and her husband, but is well recorded and of course beautifully played. My apologies for the brief pressing fault in the Clifford Vaughan piece. Discogs dates the LP to 1967; I might have guessed the 1970s.