Description of the CD, "The Harps Speak":

Electronically manipulated sound waves from acoustic harps are blended with their "natural" tones, allowing an "old" instrument to be heard from a different perspective. In these tracks, three harps are alone in a room, and we are eavesdropping. A concert harp, a Welsh triple harp, and a northern European baroque harp are thinking to themselves, and occasionally speaking to each other. These are "harp thoughts", so they are musical in nature, and thus most of their discourse cannot be translated coherently for humans. However, the general nature of their musings concerns their frustration with their limited ability to communicate with the human world. Their music sounds different to them than to us, and they know it. The exception is the third track, called "Speech", wherein the harps still talk with each other, but the music is filtered through a human ear. Select the links below to hear excerpts of some of the tracks.

Audio Excerpt: written, recorded, and performed by Elyktra

Welsh Triple Harp

The Welsh triple harp has been the national instrument of Wales for over two hundred years. The triple strung harp was first seen in Italy in the 16th century, and in the late 17th century it found its way to Wales. There are significant differences between the Italian and Welsh harps. The Welsh harp is slightly higher headed than is the Italian, in that the crown of the harp is a great deal higher than the knee block. The Welsh harp tends to be larger in size, its height often exceeding six feet. Other differences in proportion and string gauge result in a distinctly different tone: More >>

Welsh Triple Harp Audio Sample:

written and performed by Elyktra

Historical Harps in the 21st Century

There is much controversy about how historical harps should be used today. Many purists emphasize the necessity of “getting it right” historically, and expend much effort in presenting these harps and their music in as historically faithfull a manner as possible. To that end, much time and energy is spent on learning the playing and fingering techniques, so as to reproduce the music in as near a manner as is possible to that in which it was originally intended. There is certainly much value to doing what amounts to endless research of periods where no recorded sound is available, no videos, and limited transcripts. More >>

This historical harp is a copy of a 17th century harp held in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts early instrument section. There is some uncertainty regarding its time of origin, as efforts to trace its ownership were not entirely successful.

However, it is thought to date from between A.D 1650-1750, in northern Europe, possibly Flanders. Its strings are unusually close together, of similar spacing to a wire strung harp, but its light construction requires that it be strung with gut.
Another distinguishing feature of this harp is its brays. These wooden pegs serve two main functions. Firstly, they keep the base of the string anchored to the soundboard. Secondly, they serve as remarkably effective amplification: When positioned such that the string vibrates against the brays, a very loud, twang is produced as the string is played. More >>

Audio Excerpt:

written, recorded, and played by Elyktra

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