The odd-numbered pieces of Tournier’s Six Noëls were included in last year’s calendar, so here is the first of the even-numbered ones.

The Second is one of the most overtly carillon-like in its style: busy light figurations contrast with deeper tolling bell sounds, ending with a real sense of big bells ringing from a tower and the sound decaying away.

These exquisite miniatures which were published in 1926 were dedicated to Madame Pierre Collet.

Tournier (1879 – 1951), who is one of my harp inspirations, was a student of Alphonse Hasselmans at the Paris Conservatoire gaining his Premier Prix there after only four years of harp study in 1899.

He won the very prestigious Second Prix de Rome for composition in 1909. Other people who had received this prestige included none less than his friend Debussy and earlier composers such as Berlioz and Bizet.

Also in 1909, Tournier won the Prix Rossini and recognition by the Institut de France for his orchestral playing. Tournier subsequently became professor of harp at the Paris Conservatoire himself and held that position until he retired in 1948. Although Tournier’s harp career was wide ranging, he loved above all, to write for the instrument.

I think his understanding of the instrument and its timbres glows through his writing and it is said that he focussed on tone production in his teaching. His compositional style includes many contemporary influences and features and his real accomplishment is in translating these into idioms which sound completely natural on the harp.