If money was no object I would buy….

[Gillian Bradford]

Actually I was also really amused by Zen’s “baroque” comment since most highly ornate harps are actually Victorian in design. Even the inspiration for those designs don’t come from the baroque period. They are more regency (grecian motifs and acanthus scrolls) or Victorian gothic revival (Erard gothics, Wurlitzer DD style, L&H style 26).

But hey! That’s just the historian coming out in me.

For my taste I do prefer a simply designed harp. I really like a lot of the modern harps with a simple column, zero carving and straight polished finishes. I’m not a big fan of gilding but don’t mind it in moderation. I do like a turned and fluted column though if it doesn’t have a lot of intricate carving on it.

[harp guy]

I guess my tongue in cheek humor wasn’t clear. It wasn’t meant as an attempt to be decietful. Most non-harpists don’t know the difference between lever and pedal. As long as it looks and sounds like a pedal harp, most people are happy. I mean… why haul a concert/semi grand pedal harp to a gig if all of your repertoire is playable on a lever harp? I would rather save my back any day. That way the client gets the look and sound of a “real” harp, and I don’t break something.

But that being said… I would actually have to have a pedal harp.

[barbara-brundage]

Gotcha, although:

>As long as it looks and sounds like a pedal harp, most people are happy

I have to say where I live this is not the case–clients who come to my house, where there is a style 11 sitting in the living room, usually say, “You’re not going to bring THAT, are you?” Currently my brides prefer the look of a lever harp by about 50 to 1, an interesting change from ten or fifteen years ago.

As a matter of fact, I recently recommended someone who’s very much a gown-and-gold-harp kind of gal for a job I couldn’t do, and the client looked at her website and called me back to ask for another recommendation, because “we could see she’s just too fancy for our little party.”

[carl-swanson]

That’s really interesting Barbara. I would have thought it would be the opposite. I was always under the impression that most brides want something that looks like a hood ornament on a pimp-mobile. What a pleasant surprise.

[barbara-brundage]

Well, I think it has to do with the whole aesthetic that’s been hot for the past ten years or so: a house that looks like a kitchen or an ikea-furnished dorm room, a kitchen that looks like the back end of a restaurant, little color and no ornamentation in clothing: the kids who are reaching bride age now grew up in a world where to be trendy is to be stark. Completely the opposite of the whole 80s thing of color, pattern, embroidery, lace, etc.

[Geri McQuillen]

Thank you, Carl.

[Geri McQuillen]

I have one, Barbara, that just might fool ’em.

[barbara-brundage]

I’m not sure you understood me, Geri. I’m saying that the most basic looking lever harp is suitable these days, because brides don’t care what a harp looks like, except that most of mine would opt for simple over ornate now, if given a choice.

I *never* gig on a pedal harp, haven’t for years. The 11 gets an outing once a year, on Christmas Eve, to give it a thrill. 🙂

[barbara-brundage]

I have to admit, though, to bring this back on topic, that if money were no object I would love, love, love to have a lever harp that looks something like the Eliza Ridgely harp, for all that my brides wouldn’t be impressed.

[Geri McQuillen]

Sorry, Barbara, if I misunderstood.

[carl-swanson]

How nice to hear that Geri. Thank you. I think it’s a great looking harp too!

[Mel Sandberg]

1. How does one play the Mendelssohn wedding march on a lever harp?

2. I have a LH 17 with gold, and a LH 100 without gold.

[jennifer-buehler]

The best lever arrangement is Dewey Owens.

[barbara-brundage]

Well, I play my own arrangement. I think that octave jump for the sharp in Dewey’s arrangement is just weird sounding. Most pedal harp versions and most of the organists I hear also skip the chromatic section, incidentally.

[harp guy]

My my… how the pot has been stirred. : /

Well, in my area, the trend is still in favor of the pedal harp look. Celtic/traditional shaped lever harps tend to look “fat and ugly” to the people around here. The only exception is when I take out my musicmaker’s studio harp. It has the neck of a pedal harp, but the pillar of a celtic harp. So it’s “okay” for more folk-type venues.

Anyway, I really like the Dewey Owen’s arrangement. You just preset two accidentals, and then through the bridge you have 1 lever change (a c#). Very manageable. The only things I have changed

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