Wasn’t just the single action harp available at the time.

Hi Barbara

There’s a huge body of work from the late 18th/early 19th centuries for harp and violin. In fact, many of the pieces are “accompanied sonatas” in which the HARP has the solo part, and the violin plays the accompaniment.

There are some good sources for these pieces, most notably Mike Parker’s editions:

http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=4592142

(I’ve performed some of these in concert; they’re musically satisfying, fun to play, and audiences love them!)

and those from Ut Orpheus:

http://www.utorpheus.com/utorpheus/index.php?cPath=1_53_247

You can also rummage around in the online catalogues for places like the Sibley Music Library, the British Library, and the Bibliotheque National. They’re usually fairly obliging about selling photocopies of old music in their holdings.

For a better understanding of the harp of the period and the technique associated with it, you might want to get Mike’s book on the subject, “Child of Pure Harmony”:

http://www.parkerharps.com/Publications.html

It’s not too long, is easy to read, and brings together a lot of information from source materials.

Mozart didn’t like writing for the harp because he didn’t like having to keep the pedaling in mind, like so many other composers throughout history!

I beg of you not to refer to the single-action harp as “limited”. It’s a different instrument to the modern harp, and has different resources: greater clarity and a much wider range of possible tone colors being among the most important. Plus, do we refer to the oboe as “limited” because it can’t play chords, or the violin as “limited” because it can’t play a contra-bass C? All instruments have things they can and can’t do.

But enough ranting. Take a look at the original repertory, and have fun! There’s some delightful music there that deserves to be played and enjoyed.

Hi Barbara!

Mostly I get that from the music itself. There are some passages (especially in the last movement) that are either very awkward or unplayable as written, on the single-action harp. While the single-action harp is certainly capable of chromaticism if it’s well thought-out (see P.J. Meyer Op. 4 sonatas), Mozart clearly wasn’t keeping the requirements of the pedals in mind at times!

Oh, you sure can! In fact, that’s why I became the librarian for the orchestra I play in: so I could get the harp parts ahead of time in case they needed editing.

I heartily second Paul’s helpful post, and his endorsement of Mike Parker’s excellent material. You can also find a whole load of free downloads of harp music at http://www.archive.org

The link to the harp/violin page(s) is:

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=harp%20violin%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts

And you can always borrow from the harp/flute selections:

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=harp%20flute%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts

There’s a lot of other harp music on there too – if you’re coming in through the main entry page (www.archive.org) and want to get to the above, you reach it by typing “harp violin” or “harp flute” (or whatever other instrument you want) in the search box, and restrict the field to “Texts” in the drop-down menu beside it. There’s also a fair bit of music for larger ensembles as well, and a number of harp/pianoforte duets which, with a bit of judicious editing, can be morphed into harp/harp duets.

If you want to browse through all the harp music, type “harp music” in the search box, again restricting the field to Texts. You can also search by name. It’s mostly older repertoire, many of them standard warhorses, but it’s a fun trawl nonetheless.

There’s also a gold mine on Morley’s website in England:

http://www.morleyharps.co.uk/acatalog/Downloads.html

And the Petrucci Music Database

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Composers

and, as Paul mentioned, the Sibley Music Library (you’ll have to click around for the free downloads, but they’re there)

http://www.esm.rochester.edu/sibley/

and don’t forget good old Google Books, which has a surprising amount of stuff. Happy hunting!