Historical Harps in the 21st Century
There is another school of thought that seeks to brings these harps into the modern age, by using them in distinctly contemporary contexts, where they are used with mainstream musical forms. This is often done as a sort of vaccination to keep historical and unusual instruments from dying out, thus keeping them more in the public eye. It is also recognized that we have “modern ears”, implying that what was considered beautiful then is no longer considered beautiful now. This is often true, not only tonally, but musically. Just as a bray harp in full force would grate on contemporary ears, there is evidence to show that pitch intervals were different, as well. Early tuning systems meant that the intervals that we consider discordant today are only that way due to the tuning system currently in use. Conversely, intervals that are pleasant to us now were discordant under the older tuning systems. Therefore, if truly historical listening experience is desired, it is not enough simply to pick up a historical harp, and play some early sheet mus
ic transcribed to be readable to the modern musician. Such a drastic situation seems to cry out for a modernization of context for these earlier instruments.
In light of these considerations, there is validity to both schools of thought. One should have as firm a foundation as is available in historical instruments, music, and playing techniques. However, we want these harps to be around forever, and not considered to have merit solely as historical data. Forcing jazz and rock on a baroque or medieval instrument may sound like just that—as appropriate as installing a freshwater well in your condo. But surely, not everything that can be done well on these instruments has already been done during their century of origin. This is my own attitude to what I do. I seek to use the inherent qualities of each instrument for the creation of music that is a natural extension of how it is designed, even if it does not strictly follow music theory of the day.
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Flemish Baroque Harp, cont.
Admittedly, this sound effect is not for everyone, although it was quite popular centuries ago. Fortunately, even with the brays turned “off”, some amplification is produced, since the pegs protruding out of the soundboard draw the sound upward and out of the harp. Yet another use for the brays lies in fretting. Since the harp is tuned diatonically, there are no semitones unless the string itself is tuned up or down. However, one can press the string firmly to the bray pin, thus effectively shortening the string and raising it a semitones. Unfortunately, this is not entirely consistent, as the pitch tends to rise considerably higher than a semitone when this technique is attempted in the upper registers.
The instrument has a very light, bright tone, almost like a harpsichord, giving it an appropriately baroque quality to its sound. <<Back
The Welsh Triple Harp, cont.
The Italian triple harp has a brighter and sharper, yet heavier tone, while the Welsh harp tends to be less metallic and sweeter. This harp has three rows of strings: the two outer rows are tuned to the diatonic scale and the semitones, corresponding to the black keys on a piano, are in the central row. Therefore, the harpist, like the keyboardist, has all the notes at her disposal—it’s just getting to them that’s the tricky part. The strings are so close together that if they are pulled just a little to much, they will bang against each other, resulting in an awful cacophony. There is also the problem of stringing. An instrument that is three string rows thick is physically more difficult to re-string. Furthermore, harps generally have their C’s and F’s colored red and black, respectively. This is important, because neighboring strings feel alike, unlike the keyboard, whose black keys not only feel different than the white keys, but this difference in feel exists even between the white keys themselves (ie., an e-f key pair feels different than an f-g pair). A concert harp and a triple harp may have roughly the same height and the same range, but their relative string lengths and gauges (string diameter) are considerably different. SinceI use concert harp strings on my historical harps, I am faced with the issue of length and gauge differences. For instance, the middle C on a pedal harp has a different length and thickness than her other harps (whose string qualities differ from each other, as well). Preservation of gauge consistency means that I must substitute strings that correspond to a different pitch on the pedal harp (if I'm picky about tone and tension, which I am). This results far fewer colored strings than on a pedal harp, in which each C and each F are colored for identification. <<Back
About the Harpist
Elyktra is a classically trained harpist with orchestral and freelance experience. Her freelance work consists mostly of jazz and pop standards played on a concert harp, and some period performances on the Flemish baroque harp and Welsh triple harp. Her backround in electrical engineering has led her to place these historical instruments in a new context, resulting in 5 tracks that comprise the cd "The Harps Speak". The result is a form of otherworldly music that allows the harp to be seen in a new light as part of the world of musical surrealism.
Site Administrator: Elyktra
All music written and performed by Elyktra, copyright 2004.
The Pedal Harp, cont.
The 
single action pedal harp (a mechanized hook harp) was developed by Celestin Hocbrucker in 1720, and is the earliest version of today’s pedal harp. Seven footpedals (one for each string in the octave) controlled a network of metal rods and wires that were attached to hooks, and each hook controlled its own string. The depression of a pedal would raise its corresponding string one semitone, thus enabling a key change as the harpist was playing. There was a slight problem with this method, because the activation of the hooks threw the strings out of alignment with each other. Therefore, the hook, or knitting needle mechanism, as it is sometimes called, was replaced by Sebastien Erard with a system that used a disc and pins to control each string, thus maintaining relative string alignment. However, the harpist was still limited to raising the strings one semitone. Flats were not yet an option. Therefore, the harp required further development if it was to keep up with the times. This issue was addressed by Sebastien Erard in 1810, with the addition of a second disc, resulting in the introduction of the double action pedal harp. Each string could now create three pitches through the use of this new mechanism: The “natural” note, the “flatted” note, and the “sharped” note. This feature enables the pedal harp to create some interesting effects, such as glissandos in different keys and the transformation of the octave into a five tone scale via the use of enharmonic tones.<<Back
Harp Trio Audio Sample:
(pedal, Flemish, and Welsh harps)
written, recorded, and played by Elyktra
