Zabaleta’s harp

[NAVAS-PEREZ María Rosa]

Could anyone told me where I could find information about the famous Zabaleta’s harp with his 8th pedal?

I have heard many times about it, but have never found any serious writen talking about its function, mecanism,… and I’m so interested on this theme.

Thanks.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I have observed him performing on it. It had a bar across the wire strings covered in felt, like a piano, just under the neck, and when he pressed the pedal, it would abruptly dampen the strings. He could not use it often, as you can’t be pedaling pitches and operate it at the same time. It is much more abrupt and total than muffling by hand, and I found it startling. I didn’t like the effect it had on the sound. The 8th pedal was in the middle of the right and left pedals, I believe. I suppose he could operate it with either foot. If the bar were round instead of flat, it might have had a more natural sound, if you could apply it delicately, like a pianist. I don’t know of any other harp being built with one. It was built for him by Obermayer, I believe. The harp did not have a great tone quality, overall, so I wouldn’t think of it as a great object of desire. Perhaps his family still owns it. I believe they live in Puerto Rico.

[barbara-brundage]

Also, if you look around shops that sell old LPs, you will find it’s very clear on the covers of several of his albums–very easy to see how it worked, in those nice big photos.

[Tacye]

See here:
http://www.horngacher-harps.de/english/seiten/developments.htm

I imagine Horngacher would answer further questions too.

[Pablo Viadana]

The actual owener of Nicanor Zabaleta´s harp is a Mexican harpist

[carl-swanson]

I seem to remember hearing someplace that after he got that harp with the 8th pedal from Obermeyer, it took him 2 or 3 years to learn to use it. I suspect it had 2 functions. One would be to muffle the wire strings to stop sympathetic vibrations or bass notes that had just been played. But I’m willing to bet that he frequently left it on when he was not using any notes that low, either for passages in a piece or even for a whole piece. Zabeleta had a fetish with clarity, especially when recording. I think that worked for some pieces and not for others.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I saw him in concert, perhaps twice, and I am sure he did not leave it engaged. It encompassed so many strings, the harp would have been dead sounding.

[Anonymous]

I knew Zabaleta and his harp very well.

[david humphreys]

from what I remember from hearing him in the early 70’s, it was a 46 string obermeyer with the 8th pedal—-quite small as was he!

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

He had more than one, I think the one he toured with, in the USA, at least, was his first Obermayer harp, which had the muffling pedal, a felt-covered flat piece covering all of the wire strings, if not more, that would abruptly stop them when he used the pedal. It was so abrupt and total, it did not sound musical at all. It was not a very good-sounding harp, like his later Horngacher. He had a leather cover that was put on it immediately when he finished playing so no one could look at it or dare try it or touch it. He was very dignified. A man started snoring during his first piece, and he stopped playing and yelled at him for several minutes, expecting him to get up and leave, and he did not. After a bit, he went back to playing his program.

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