Transcribing Piano Music

[Biagio]

A few random thoughts on this topic, staying mainly with lever harps……

We might ask ourselves: in terms of labor and materials, what are the most expensive components for a high end instrument? It turns out that the answer is, first the levers and second the strings. Compare for example the Rees Shaylee Meadow 30s single $2900) and double ($4200) a difference of $1300 for twice the number of strings and levers. About $250 of that are the strings, so we’re talking about $35 per lever which of course includes the time it takes to precisely install each lever. Believe it or not, a double is actually easier to build than a single, so we can say that Rees is charging on average $43 for each combined lever and string. Or roughly $1,600 for just the carcass. The wood itself including sound board is roughly half of that. So if you could do it yourself and not charge yourself for labor you’d be looking at around $500 for strings, $850 for wood, perhaps $150 for hardware and miscelaneous (glue, finish, etc), and for 60 Truitts around $1200: almost as much as all the rest of the harp!

That’s intentionally a dramatic example but consider someone who is just beginning to learn to play. They have several years ahead of them just to master technique so why would they buy a fully levered harp? I don’t know of many beginners who ever need to sharp their Bs to Cs or Es to Fs and most early instruction assumes tuning in C major. So you often see middle price harps sold with only Cs Fs and Gs, or Bs As and Es for those who wish to tune to Eb.

How about the soundboard? I think most honest unbiased harp makers would agree that after 5-10+ years a solid wood board (cedar, spruce, red wood, mahogany) will have better tone than it did at first. I think most would also agree that a laminate (known in the trade as aircraft grade Finnish ply) board on a professionally designed instrument will not improve much over time but right out of the door sound as good or better than the solid wood one. So again a beginner would be paying a large premium for that solid wood board – perhaps $200 or more than the laminate one. So we see makers like Dusty Strings addressing that market. in their case with the Crescendo and Allegra.

Moving over to the kit side of things, MusicMkaers has built a reputation for excellent kits. The Voyageur is their flagship model at $1245 before levers Two of my friends use that as their rental instrument for students. Which price compares rather well to my imaginary cost for the Rees materials cost.

Not everyone will want to build a lever harp from scratch or even from a kit. But I think this does explain a lot about why harps cost what they do: the pedal harp’s double action mechanism is far and away more difficult to design and manufacture than levers and it is simply not economical to make them for smaller harps.

[Tacye]

I can’t resist pointing out that the cheapest new pedal harp I know of is advertised at under 2500 Euros (excluding tax)…

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Pedal harps have always been a major purchase, but so is any fine instrument, and harps are a bargain relative to other instruments. To be able to buy two new pedal harps in one’s lifetime is normal, if two are even possible. That’s assuming a full-time career or successful spouse. A harp is less than most new cars. I don’t think there’s too much to complain about, considering the quality and that it is mostly handmade. It is good to know they have gone up less than pianos have. The commitment that the harp requires also speaks to the dignity and respect we have previously had for the instrument. Now, people seem determined to make it ugly, painful to listen to, and degraded in every possible way. What a shame. I am sick of professional photos showing a harp being mistreated, on the floor, upside down, etc. It used to be that it was shocking to even see a harpist wearing rings or nail polish.
The problem is how to make the harp accessible for people of low income. But not people of low commitment. It’s galling, of course, to see people with money buy harps with no regard for this. There are those who should share.
Anyway, back to the transcription issues.
Another one is tempo. If you have to play a piano piece at half-tempo to make it playable on the harp, forget about it.
And then there is key. You have to consider changing the key. The tonal center of the harp is higher than the piano. Many pieces need to be raised a third or fourth or more. Guitar pieces, definitely.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I will add on the previous “note” that, as lever harps began as an inexpensive way to begin learning the harp, I have been aghast to see the prices rise so far that even lever harps can be unattainable. For a student who will move on to pedal harp, a lever harp no longer seems worth purchasing unless they will use it later on.

[Biagio]

I heartily with what you wrote Saul with one exception. I have to disagree that “[lever] harps began as an inexpensive way to begin learning the harp”; the implication being that the student would eventually graduate to an orchestral instrument. That has been true only comparatively recently in the harp’s long and noble history.

I also have to say that all well made harps of any design -pedal or not – are cheap at the price. When one considers that a skilled luthier has spent years learning his trade, weeks or months perfecting just one design, not to mention investment in tooling, special fabrications and so on…well, $25,000+ for an elegant pedal instrument or $5,000+ for a lever instrument seems pretty reasonable. Different harps for different players but the luthier’s investment in his craft has been substantial.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

It’s not reasonable to beginners, but then again, if you adjusted the price of a troubadour to inflation from when I first got one, 1974, it might be higher than that.
For a serious lever harp player, there should certainly be a desire for one that is well made and beautifully decorated. For a student who plans to move to pedal harp, something like the troubadour is just fine.

[Biagio]

Agreed Saul, and it is a pity that those transition instruments have gone up so much. On side of the coin, I often encounter beginning lever players who buy a piece of junk “because it looked so nice” and never go anywhere with it because they get so frustrated. Oh well….as you wrote earlier, it’s a commitment. Troubs are still nice harps even for the person content to remain with the lever world and one still sees decent used ones around.

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