Harp

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Harp

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Introduction

Harps are instruments that have multiple strings perpendicular to the sound board, plucked by the player's hands. Each string corresponds to one pitch, which in the case of lever and pedal harps, may be modified by the lever or pedal mechanism to get more than one pitch. In the case of the pedal harp, the strings are tuned to a diatonic scale, and depressing a pedal (of which one is available for each note of the diatonic scale), depressing a pedal rotates a set of discs with pins set to stop the corresponding strings (in all octaves) so as to raise their pitch by a chromatic semitone (including allowance for the resulting slight increase in string tension). The double-acting pedal harp extends this concept to have two sets of string-stopping discs, actuated by successive further depressions of the corresponding pedal, which can be locked at either of its depressed positions; the strings are tuned to all flats, and the first depressed position of a pedal raises the pitch of the strings to achieve the corresponding natural notes, while the second depressed position of the pedal raises the pitch further to achieve the corresponding sharp notes. The modern double-acting harp also has two lowest C and D strings and one highest G string to which this mechanism does not apply, so these strings are tuned to whichever pitches are required for the music being played.

The problem for microtonalists

Unfortunately, the above design in its standard implementation is wedded to 12edo   the value of the chromatic semitone is fixed, and a standard pedal harp has no provision for adjusting the position of the string stops, nor for partial action of the string stops   attempting to move a pedal to an intermediate position does not produce an in-between note, but instead produces a buzz or a fearsome rattle (depending upon how hard the string was plucked) as the string hits the pins on the incompletely turned disc.

Demonstration

Danielle Kuntz

• How to play pedal buzzes on the harp (2023)

One solution: (some) lever harps

Lever harps have one lever for each string to tighten and/or stop the string to raise the pitch by a chromatic semitone (one disadvantage being that the levers do not have enough range to go all teh way from a flat to a sharp). On a subset of lever harps, it is possible to achieve in-between notes as well as portamento and vibrato by moving levers to intermediate positions; on a subset of these harps (including the Harp-E), the levers have enough friction to stay in an intermediate position after being moved there. Since the levers operate independently, changing all of the notes in a pitch class requires changing the positions of all of the corresponding levers, and this will require too much time to achieve in a rapidly modulating passage.

Demonstration

Kristan Toczko

• [Levers AND bends! (2024)

Another solution: Manual string stopping

Another possible solution is to wear a metal cylinder on one finger and use it to stop pairs of adjacent strings. This enables any amount of pitch bend (potentially while plucking these and nearby strings with other fingers on the same hand), and can be used on any harp, although it only applies to one pair of strings at a time for each metal tube (conceivably, one could wear a metal tube on one finger on each hand to do this with two pairs of strings).

Music

Caroline Lizotte

• KHEÍRŌN opus 53, Nocturne pour harpe - Caroline Lizotte (Juliette Duguay, harpiste) (2026) (uses the metal tube on finger technique)