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Mae, I want to say again how much I am enjoying following this blog! I found the conversation between Tacye and Biagio very informative and riveting.
Although I usually do things by “feel” and “from the heart,” I wanted to say to the physicists that I designed and built my own four-octave harpsichord when I was in high school, finishing it my first-year in college, getting college credit for it. I did study and know the string physics at that time of my life, and took two college physics courses. My special project in second-year physics was “The Physics Involved When Designing a Harpsichord.”
Also, when I was in Graduate School, I was still working on a nine-rank pipe organ (two manuals and pedal) that I designed and built, taking over nineteen years total from start to finish. Check out the math and physics involved with organ pipes and the all-tracker action if you want a fascinating subject! My sister, who is a high-school math instructor, helped me with the logarithms and higher mathematics during this long project! So did my sweet, long-suffering wife, ha, ha!
So, I have really enjoyed the highly technical end of this forum. Now lets all go have a cup of tea with Mae, at least in spirit. 🙂
Thank you all so much!
Hi, Marco!
Great to get your reply, and I checked out your group “Windseeds” and also Andreas Vollenweider. You guys are great! I can see why a damping system would be very useful on your harp when playing this wonderful style of music. So, like I said, go for it!
Hi, Mae!
So glad the file idea is working, and thanks to Tacye for giving us the correct name “Needle File.” My dad had wonderful tools and could fix anything, but I did not always know the correct names of them!
I wish we lived close enough to you so that my wife and I could pop over there, put the kettle on, and have a cup of tea with you. We would bring all our harp supplies and try different sizes/types of strings on that harp until something sounded great, ha, ha!
Nadia, I believe that Angi Bemiss, Simply the Harp, in Atlanta, GA, would have some nice material. Check her website, and you could even ask her directly for the note range of her arrangements. Best of luck to you and your students!
Well, I finally looked in the Method books which I learned from, and here goes: David Watkins, in his Complete Method For the Harp, used “damped”. Henriette Renie, in her Complete Method for Harp, used “damped” or at least her translator, Geraldine Ruegg did! Carlos Salzedo, in his Modern Study of the Harp, used “muffled” or his translator did (Schirmer edition). I am glad that most of us know the meaning of both words, so it is not confusing.
Marco, on the subject of the damping system for the harp, I for one, would not use it for my style of playing, even for jazz harp. I have hand-damped for so long, the addition of a lever or pedal for the purpose of damping would prove to be confusing. However, I see no objection to your trying to market your idea, since it might prove effective to other harpists. Go for it!
Hi, Mae and all!
I was remembering that my dad used to use a nice set of jeweler’s files to remove burrs such as you have in the holes of those zither pins. One file was round, slender and tapered and would work quite nicely, I imagine.
Oh, and that Bubinga Dusty FH 36 is a DREAM HARP! I have played them at the Atlanta Harp Center and drooled!
This tuning mystery is very interesting! All three of my harps react very differently to changing temperatures and humidity. Usually it is just easier to tune the bass wires to where the rest of the harp has settled, since there are fewer bass strings. I do this before I play each harp, and it only takes a few minutes. At least once a week, though, I use a Korg tuner to set the middle octave of each harp back to standard pitch, then tune the remaining strings of the harp by ear to this pitch. (I am a professional piano tuner, also, so “stretching the octaves” is something I automatically do with a good ear.) Believe me, harps are simple to tune compared to pianos!
For anyone who has not read my “Alternate Tuning for Lever Harps” forum, I have one lever harp tuned in the Key of C flat so that with two lever harps I can play in all keys. This is proving to be very handy, as I can make the decision which harp to take to a gig based on what keys I need to play in with other musicians.
Eric, when changing the pitch a semi-tone on my harps, I did exactly what you said about tuning all the strings of one name throughout the compass of the harp. That was a gentler way to get the harps used to the pitch change!
I sure hope the strings are settling in, Mae. Your idea about more nylon/nylon wrapped strings sounds good. They sound great on my Ravenna 34, and I have played Ravenna 26’s that also have a very full, singing tone. What Dusty has achieved on these small harps is amazing!
Thanks for responding, Mae. I did want to add that I had tried BOTH of my lever harps in C flat, to see which one to leave in that key, and my Ravenna (Dusty Strings) did not sound as good to me in the lower tuning. She is much shorter than my Large Gothic (Musicmakers) and the bass strings obviously needed to be at the C tuning tension to sound bright and feel firm to me.
On the other hand, the C flat tuning actually improved the sound of the Gothic! She still has very firm tension and a totally full, gorgeous tone in C flat. She is my best sounding harp, anyway, which has been proven time after time when I “take her out,” according to all the comments I hear after a gig. I string her with metal on the lowest five bass strings, beginning with Low C, then go to lever gut for the next eight strings, finishing with nylon for the rest of the 36 strings. Jerry Brown has been wonderful to deal with over the years that I have owned this beautiful harp!
Fascinating, fascinating! Thanks for the updates. I certainly do not know all of your expert mathematical calculations, just what SOUNDS GOOD on a harp. I do know that taller harps with long strings sound better to me than short ones, just as longer grand pianos sound better than short ones. I had never thought too much about the math thing! (I have also found that some people cannot tell the difference in tone between one harp or piano and another!)
I agree that strings sound better after they have been on the harp for a while, and that the wood of the harp needs to get used to the vibrations. So, this harp may improve in the next few weeks on its own, let us hope.
Thanks, Mae, for keeping us informed. I am going to reply on my other forum, too.
Hi, again, Andelin! I have not tried that Arabesque on lever harp, just pedal harp (and of course, piano!). I imagine that the lever changes are indeed a challenge, and it might be possible and acceptable to slow down a little as you play it very expressively.
I was not aware that Lyon & Healy used Loveland levers! I thought that they always used Performance levers. However, I consider that the Lovelands are the easiest to change quickly, with their shorter throw than most of the other levers. It was good that you loosened the tighter ones, as I do that myself. Hope this helps! Best of luck on “perfecting” the Arabesque!
Andelin, thanks for sharing this! I just watched a video of one of my Christmas concerts this year, and it did indeed make me feel better about my performance. All of my “imagined” mistakes seemed not so bad as I actually saw and listened to myself. My sweet wife had assured me that it was very good, and she said “now do you believe me?” I have enjoyed reading this blog. My best to you, Balfour
I am eagerly watching this space, Mae! Hope your teacher brought the anchors and that you now have all the strings on your harp! I was just thinking today that String Trimmers (aka “weed eaters” here in the USA) have thick nylon in them for weed whacking, so some short pieces of that nylon, or heavy fishing line, might make good anchors in the future if you did not have enough. And, like you said, anchors can be used over and over, so you won’t have that problem when you go to restring this harp in a few years.
Biagio, your thoughts and writings are worth a great deal, I think! Mae, thanks for the stringing update. I agree with Biagio about taking the strings on up to pitch right away. I have replaced strings and completely restrung many harps myself over the years, and have also completely rebuilt and restrung several pianos. With the piano, you are dealing with considerable more tension than with a harp, so there is a “formula” when pulling the new strings up to pitch, so that the metal plate, wooden bridges, soundboard, etc. won’t be damaged. It sounds like you are “playing it safe” by gradually putting tension on the little harp, which was good. I like to tune up all the C’s to pitch, then all the G’s, followed by the E’s, etc. Just space them out.
When you eventually need to replace these strings on the harp, you may take one off at a time and replace with a new one. I think that is the safest way to restring, and you constantly have to tune up the new strings behind you as you progress across the entire harp. That way, the “crown” of the soundboard stays intact, and the total tension on the harp is virtually not affected.
Thanks for letting all of us know how your project is progressing. I look forward to seeing the photos! Best of luck on getting the beautiful sound you expect from this special little harp!
