Folk harpers vs. classical harpists

[Liam M]

And would thse worms be metal or nylon/gut?

[dawn-penland]

I play pedal harp.

[unknown-user]

Depends on what you’re fishing for, Liam. LOL

Okay, so if we call the lever harp players “harpers”, and the pedal harp players “harpists”, what should we call the ones who play both?

[jennifer-buehler]

I think the point is some people don’t ever want to play pedal harp and that some people get that you can play lever as a primary instrument or that you can play both lever and pedal and be happy but most (especially teachers)

[barbara-brundage]

Liam, these days I play the lever harp primarily, but I am by no means a harper–I don’t do celtic at all, except when requested. Does that still make me a “harper”?

Where would you put someone like Anne Marie O’Farrell, who plays the lever harp and does play Celtic music extremely well, but whose last album was an all Bach recording?

Or someone like John Manno, who plays French Baroque music on a lever harp. Is he a harper, too?

I still say that nowadays you can’t classify people by their semitone mechanism. Not anymore. A mechanism is a mechanism, not a musical fence to rope people off into categories, although there are a great many people with harps (to avoid the harpist/harper thing) who still don’t get that, regardless of which way they make their sharps and flats.

[barbara-brundage]

Oops, sorry, I meant Kim, not Liam.

[unknown-user]

Hmm…point taken.

[unknown-user]

Oh, a second thought popped into my head as well.

[michael-rockowitz]

Hi to all,

This whole classification thing is pretty interesting.

[Karen Johns]

Maybe it would be better to ask what type of harp we all play and then go from there…

Here’s another thought to ponder- is there any other classification of instrument that has this duality? The only one that comes to mind for me is a fiddler versus a violinist. Reading what I have here from this thread it makes me wonder if there is a violin forum out there and if this question posed would cause the same type of reactions.

[Jerusha Amado]

Audrey,

My primary interest in music is classical, and my secondary is jazz.

[tony-morosco]

“Or maybe it would be better (at least for me) to spend more time at my harp than on these silly forums arguing over apples vs. oranges and trying to figure out why certain people get uptight over simple questions…”

I wasn’t going to chime in anymore, but since I brought up the initial objection to the false duality being presented I can’t help but feel that was directed at me.

Yes, it was a simple question. Too simple in that it presented a fallacious dichotomy that many people don’t fit into. I wasn’t attempting to

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