Harp: Difference between revisions

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. The only microtonal tuning systems that can make efficient use of pedal harps to get in-between notes are multiples of 12edo, with multiple harps tuned to different rings of 12edo, as done by [[Ivan Wyschnegradsky]] with pianos. Although no recording is known of actual harp use in this way, [[Norokusi]] has written a composition in [[24edo]], rendered by soft synthesizers, that uses this technique (see below); in principle, it could be transcribed and then played on a full set of acoustic instruments, including two harps with the orchestra. Thus, microtonality on most harps (unless using multiple harps) is limited to whatever can be achieved by retuning the available 7 strings per octave.

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 [https://www.harp-e.com/en-us 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.

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).

 

; [https://calyane.com/en/bio/ Caroline Lizotte]

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHxUnzVWHdQ ''KHEÍRŌN opus 53, Nocturne pour harpe – Caroline Lizotte (Juliette Duguay, harpiste)''] (2026) (uses the metal tube on finger technique)