New wire harp!

[balfour-knight]

This whole thread is very fascinating! Thanks for starting it, Allison. Jerry Brown, Music Makers, had one of his lap harps strung in wire, and I played it at the Southeastern Harp Weekend in Asheville a couple of years ago. It had a beautiful, magical tone, and could be played with just the fingers, no nails. But alas, like Janis, no more harps right now!

My best wishes to all of you,
Balfour

[Biagio]

Aw, come on Balfour, what’s another harp more or less? Seriously…I think that’s Jerry’s Limerick model you mention, strung with steel. Works just fine and with steel you can get away with levers too. Some people have wanted it in brass or bronze and that will be OK too if you use tapered pegs where the bridge pins would normally go and drop the range a couple of steps.

So heck, go ahead my friend, ask Jerry about one when you see him next:-)

Biagio

[Allison Stevick]

The Limerick harp was on my list of possibilities before Biagio pointed me to the ad about the Folcharp. It seems like a really good one! (It’s small, too, Balfour! Wouldn’t take up too much space in the house! haha) 🙂

[Biagio]

The recent evolution of “folk” harps – at least in the US – interests me as a student of human thought. Most of the first designs in the 1970s were actually wire strungs (or South American style); then nylon/gut surpassed those in demand…and now we seem to be coming full circle. For example, one friend who is an accomplished pedalist has fallen in love with the clarsach; another recently converted her Triplett Zephyr.

The harp it seems is still the “queen of the strings”!

Biagio

[balfour-knight]

Okay, my friends, you are going to get me in trouble with my sweet wife, ha, ha! She says, “he really doesn’t need any more harps!” Seriously, the wire-strung Limerick of Jerry’s is very tempting, and I look forward to playing another one at SEHW if they bring a wire-strung this Fall.

Thanks everyone!
Balfour

[Allison Stevick]

That is interesting, Biagio. I’m glad there’s a variety of styles for us to choose from– and that there is now teaching material available for all of them! 🙂
Speaking of the Queen of the strings, my harp is settling closer to being in tune! It sounds really nice already. I can’t wait for it to get fully settled–I’m just dying to hear it completely in tune!

Balfour- my sweet husband feels the same way as your sweet wife (how many harps do we need?!), BUT he has a similar thing with guitars, so we end up with a few of both. haha

[Biagio]

When you’re ready I’d love to hear it Allison! When does she get a real name?

It’s too bad that Music Makers discontinued their little 3 octave Shepherd but they still sell the plans. It’s a sweet little harp and very easy to build – bronze strung from A2-A5 it would be just great.

Every once in awhile I ask Jerry to resurrect it as a double but just not interested I guess. But maybe Balfour, you could talk him into a bronze version?

See, here I am with six harps in the house and still fantasizing. Maybe I should get married, huh?

Sheesh!

[Biagio]

Picking up on the recent history….here’s an opinion (grin). Those “early” designs reflect IMHO the experiences of the makers. Mark Bolles – harpsichord; Roland Robinson – South American; Caswell and Witcher – Celtic. The L&H Troubadours and Folk Harps of course were designed around pedal harp parameters and assume pedal harp technique.

Very different playing techniques and it took a while for the pedal world to recognize that these other styles were both different and “legitimate” instruments in their own right. Sometimes I think that recognition is still a bit wanting among players, but makers such as Salvi/L&H, Camac, etc. “get it.”

[balfour-knight]

Thanks for the chuckles, Allison & Biagio! My sweet wife has a weakness for all forms of needle-work, so we have plenty of that around our tiny 1000-square-foot house, too. With a large grand piano, nine-rank pipe organ, five-octave clavichord, hammered-dulcimer, mountain dulcimer in addition to my three harps, we have little room for anything else, really! And all these instruments do have personal names, Biagio!

This thread is TOO GOOD, ha, ha!

Best thoughts to all of you,
Balfour

[Allison Stevick]

Biagio- Once I get it actually in tune and get a tune worked up, I’ll make a little video.
About naming, I’m not sure when/if that will happen. I named my first harp immediately when I got it, but found I didn’t usually think of it having that name all that often. When I got my carbon fiber, I thought, “I’ll wait to ‘get to know’ this one better before I give it a name.” That was 3.5 years ago, and as far as I’ve gotten is I think of it as female. I do talk to her sometimes, but haven’t felt too compelled to come up with a name.
I think the clarsach and I are friends now (haha) so that’s a start. 🙂 I am going to inlay 2 stones on the pillar for decoration sometime next week, and the final look might influence how I feel about a name.

Balfour- that’s quite the menagerie! Do you have to have a roster to keep them straight? 🙂

Anybody else name their instruments?

[randal]

Biagio

Indeed. Old music/traditions are so richly varied, historically and aesthetically fascinating, and have given rise to such evocative forms! I can’t focus study for very long in one idiom as for my captivation by so many: flamenco, al-andulus, Balkan, Arabic, Gaelic, jazz… (Humanity) is a deep well..

[Allison Stevick]

Randal- I, too, am totally in love with folk music tradition and tracing influences and roots, communities, cultures– so much beauty out there (and here) to see and hear! 🙂

[randal]

Everywhere there is so much Beauty – and to be a musician is a most wonderful opportunity to study it. I’m often reveling and grateful for the ability and capacity to love and experience beauty – and the particular facility that the mode of music and being a musician enables!

[Biagio]

HA! Balfour it sounds as though your “next harp” if any should be a Kohner harmonica!

Wow even a pipe organ. And I thought my apartment was stuffed with instruments:-)

[balfour-knight]

Ha, ha, Biagio! In this area of NC, older people often refer to a harmonica as a harp, or mouth-harp! I have always marveled at this, because if one says “he plays the harp,” there is no telling what the instrument really is! (It can also be the Auto-Harp!)

My sweet wife has told people that I should have played the Piccolo, so that I could have had as many of them as I want, all placed in one drawer, ha, ha!

Thanks for the chuckles!
Balfour

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