When a pedal was depressed into the first notch, the upper disc turned partially and firmly held the string so that it sharpened a semitone while the bottom disc turned partially but did not touch the string. To sharpen another semitone, the pedal was depressed again into a lower notch and the bottom disc turned further to grip the string even more.
Aside from mechanical improvements, this system is still used today. Jacques-Georges Cousineau France, invented the bequille and other mechanisms for the harp, was also a harp virtuoso.
Sebastien Erard Germany, , developed the single action and double action harp, revolutionized the harp by the invention of the fourchette mechanism discs with prongs that is still used today.
Clelia Gatti-Aldrovandi Italy, , esteemed harp soloist and respected teacher. Marcel Grandjany France, , successful harp virtuoso, esteemed teacher, helped found the American Harp Society.
Alphonse Jean Hasselmans Belgium, , refined the techniques known as the French method of harp playing, instructed many respected harpists while harp professor at the Paris Conservatoire. Lily Laskine France, , harp prodigy with a long career including posts at the Paris Opera, Orchestre National de France, Theatre Francais and as professor of harp at the Paris Conservatoire; also a successful recording artist.
Elias Parish-Alvars England, , considered one of the best harpists of all time; composer of concertos, fantasias and solos for harp, many still popular today. Alberto Salvi Italy, , renowned harpist, performed many solo concerts in a time when more harpists were accompanists; performed in many operas; recorded with RCA Victor and was popular on radio. Marcel-Lucien Tournier France, , harp virtuoso and composer; succeeded Hasselmans as professor of harp at the Paris Conservatoire.
As the early harps had no mechanical devices for providing the player with different keys, harpists found it necessary to retune those strings they required for each piece. Eventually, in the latter half of the seventeenth century a row of metal hooks was placed along the left side of the harp. When the player manually turned a hook against an individual string, the string's pitch was raised a half step.
Modern non-pedal harps are built with greatly advanced sharping levers installed for each string which produce a very good tonal quality when engaged. Levers are generally moved with the left hand and skilled players can achieve changes very quickly. The earliest known depiction of a frame harp in the British Isles is on an eighth century stone cross. Music was an important part of life in ancient Ireland and the harp was an aristocratic instrument, played in the courts of kings and before the chiefs of clans.
Harpers were required to be able to evoke three different emotions in their audience by their music: Laughter, tears and sleep. With the Anglicisation of the Irish nobility, the traditional harpers became minstrels and street musicians reciting poetry and singing folk songs to the accompaniment of their harps.
Sometime before a mechanism was developed in order to meet the growing demands from harpists for an instrument that was capable of a broader range of pitch.
Seven pedals built into the base of the harp could raise the pitch by half a step. For instance, if the harp were tuned to C-flat, then depressing the pedal would raise the C strings to C-natural. The single action harp was born. The pedals were connected to metal rods, which passed through the forepillar to the top where the chromatic action was housed inside the curved neck.
This means that harpists are constantly changing their pedal positions whilst playing the instrument and in the rests. For example if they were moving from D major with the F and C pedals sharpened to B major the harpist would have to sharpen 3 more sets of strings: G D and A. The pedals are designed with key changes in mind so that each additional sharp or flat comes on the opposite side of the harp.
Harp strings are made of metal gut and sometimes nylon, and are coloured to give the player a visual aid to find the right string, with all the Cs red and all the Fs black. The lowest strings are made from steel and the rest of the strings are made from gut, although some players use nylon strings for the very highest notes, as gut strings tend to break more often.
The Low Register: At the bottom of the harp single notes or chords work well, but running notes just become a blur because this area is so resonant.
The Central Register: The central register resonates beautifully and arpeggios and short running notes as well as chords fit perfectly in this register. Keep up to date about online concerts, behind the scenes content and much more.
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We need your help to keep these resources free. Donate now. We use cookies to ensure we give you the best experience of our website. She follows this with an account of the travels of harp society students Matthew Wall — who emigrated to the USA via Canada — and Patrick Byrne, the only early Irish harper ever to be photographed, in The odd performer on early Irish harp was still alive around but it is a pedal harpist of that era, Owen Lloyd, who reinvented himself to become the first period instrument performer on this harp.
Patrick Byrne, I will concentrate here on questions of organology the physical characteristics of the harps of the period in question , nomenclature and performance practice. A singular Irish harp tradition?
Of the different strands of harp activity she discusses, she writes of all but one as part of a continuity. By the second decade of the nineteenth century, as the author herself tells us in chapter five, there were no fewer than six different types of harp in Ireland, without counting visits by Welsh triple-harp players.
In addition to the European single- and double-action pedal harps of the salon, there was now a new triple-action pedal harp, invented in by the tireless John Egan. Pedals change the pitch of all strings of the same name simultaneously, e. This leads to some ambiguity and possible confusion when she discusses the period post The early Irish harp was wire-strung, played on the left shoulder, with the left-hand on the treble strings and the right-hand on the bass strings.
It had two unison G strings below middle C, and a short octave at the bottom. The new Portable harp, by contrast, gave a nod to the early Irish harp in the form of a more curvy shape than a pedal harp, but was strung in gut, played on the right shoulder, had equidistantly spaced strings, and was a technologically advanced instrument with a newly invented mechanism to replace the pedals of its bigger sister. This latter feature enabled the player to remain in the European world of major and minor keys, transposition and accidentals, distinct from the modality of Irish music.
I would suggest rather that the organic changes in early Irish harp design of the preceding centuries — the slowly increasing size of the instrument; the addition of more bass strings; the lengthening of those strings and the corresponding lengthening of the front pillar — did not lead, at the end of the eighteenth century, to an instrument that was radically different from the medieval period in anything but size, or to one that would have been unfamiliar or unplayable by an early Irish harper of any century.
At the end of a perhaps millennium-long tradition, the timbre of the later surviving instruments was still broadly similar to the late medieval harps, as, for the most part, was the medieval technology used in their construction. Since it is the ancestor of the modern Irish harp, it deserves particular attention.
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