Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Since the bass strings are typically at higher tension ( especially on a double but even a single) and changing one can affect the others, IMHO for stretch tuning or any other it is preferable to start in the middle and work down. Then work up. But whatever “works” heh heh.
Not to get sidetracked again (have you observed I’m easily swayed?): phonetically the Irish would pronounce it “KLAR-sock”, we Scots and perhaps Britons more likely “Clair-sukh”. So how to spell the darn thing? Clarsach, clairseach…..whatever, folks know what is meant. Gaelic has no written tradition. Interestingly, if one is a dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist, replica clarwhatevers have two Gs below middle C side by side (“the sisters”).
It’s a whole other world. Speaking of Ms. Finch, have you heard her recording with Seckou Keita on pedal and kora? Wow!
Oops, sidetracked again!
By all means let’s not derail the subject of stretch tuning, it’s pretty interesting all by itself! As a method of keeping sounds – dare I say pleasant? – stretch tuning is of especial interest to me, having just graduated from nylon/gut to the ancient wire strung clarsach. With the very long ring in that instrument and considerable sympathetic vibrations throughout it’s range, it can sound really ugly unless the octaves are stretched. Just relying on my (equal tempered) tuner – yuck.
Charles, I’m not sure what logic was in that little blurb of mine. Simply observing out that mathematics perfectly describes sound waves which are continuous functions. When we introduce discrete divisions the math gets more complicated so we’ve come up with equal temperment, just temperment, etc. etc. Perhaps I should have made a distinction between pitch and frequency. In any case our statements are “in synch.”
Sonically yours,
BiagioWith some harps and for some people the Truitt levers are not as easy to spot as others unless they are marked in some way and those little colored rubber bands will not fit the handles. Mine are marked (red and blue) with heat shrink tape, other people will dab on enamel. A more elegant solution: glue on faceted beads, like Rees does.
Laurie Riley teaches a technique for the double (since with those harps you can’t see the RH side) and is very fast: locate the string then quickly slide your finger up to the lever. Works just fine for a single too.
Ahem (the math guy clears his throat)….math and music are perfectly in tune with each other, but the occidental 12 tone scale is not in tune with itself and that is the problem.
Without going into a long very dry dissertation, picture it this way. When we strike a string (or for that matter blow on a wind instrument) our ears hear and interpret not just the fundamental but the overtones as well. The fundamental is a multiplicative function from octave to octave (middle A 440Hz, next A 880), but the overtones are not. That middle A’s second harmonic (the octave) is 880 but – whoops! – that is awfully close to the lower D’s (293.66 Hz) third harmonic which is 879 Hz. So we hear a “beat”.
Stretching is a way of having each octave pretty much in tune with itself (equal temperament) and eliminating those beats between octaves. With equal temperament in all octaves those beats would still be audible (and annoying).
By the way, a clarinet sounds different from a harp because of their different patterns of overtones, not the fundamentals.
Let’s look at this from a different angle (which happens to be mine). I majored as an undergraduate in Russian, then proceeded to an MBA in quantitative finance. Thirty years later I fell in love with the harp at age 60ish, so the question one might wish to ask oneself is this: “Do I love the harp enough to devote my life to it?”
Well, I do now but it’s a bit late to look at a performing career!
This is not to say that you will actually end up devoting your life to it if you choose it as your major. But if you think you do at this time….that is an pretty important consideration. Consider too that you may not necessarily choose the pedal harp as your instrument. Examples abound, among them Harper Tasche (a virtuoso on the cross strung) and Alfredo Ortiz (who was first a dentist).
Biagio
Boscha describes the method on page 20 of Universal Harp Method. Marta Cook, bless her heart, “translated” Boscha’s rather quaint period words into something more approachable on her blog – see Best Tuning Method Ever:
http://shutupandplay.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=0pzata31tv1cq
If you can’t get to the link you may have to join her listserve. It’s worth doing.
In answer to Alyson I wish I had the discipline to tune by ear more often!
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.
Oh joy (sarcasm), this is really starting to awake old memories. Sometimes it is best to take the thing apart get at those tight spaces but if the neck is glued to the box that’s a pain too. Here are a few thoughts that may or may not be useful.
Drill bits for zither pegs: Machinist sizes are universal so for walnut I’d a #12.
String holes: it would probably be a good idea to lift those up a tad and squeeze a tiny drop of “Krazy Glue” aka cyanoacrilate, under the eyelet rim for those bass strings, then push them back in. Ream out any excess when it’s dry. Incidentally, acetone is the solvent; if necessary use an insulin syringe.
Good luck!
If the question is “Why Truitts instead of Lovelands?”…..Truitts are much easier to mount and regulate with less distortion, so if it’s my own harp those are what I’ll use. I do have one small, inexpensive double strung with Lovelands since they cost only about a third as much. But on a nice harp for myself – Truitts.
If someone wants Lovelands I’ll do it but charge the same amount – it takes me twice as long to mount those accurately. Peter Brough’s levers are also great and easy to mount, but best done on a high tension gut instrument.
Lever harps do not have a standard spacing although many luthiers like to use “concert harp spacing” i.e. conform to the pedal world. That too is a bit hard to pin down exactly. The reasons have to do with the individual diameters and in the case of lever harps with the tension; which differ among individual designs, especially in the bass. For a quick example picture a lightly strung lever harp with thick bass strings -nylon wrap over nylon core. If they were spaced at the same amount center to center as in a higher register it would be very easy for them to hit the adjacent string.
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.
Brass eyelets come in different diameters as you know, and the shafts (that go through the ribs and board) are longer for those with larger diameters than shorter ones. On this harp I made the inner rib and board quite thin. Whoops, with the eyelet sizes I chose the end of the shaft protruded through the inner rib about 1/32″ in the treble which, cut the strings. Had to take them out and file them down.
It is for situations like this that we coined the term “unpleasant.”
Grumble grumble indeed and I DO sympathize! This kind of thing is terribly frustrating. If it’s any consolation (and as I write this I realize it isn’t), the first two or three times around in harp making all kinds of things accelerated those grey hairs on my head.
I guess the two most memorable were not leaving enough wood on the neck in places for the levers and having to replace half the eyelets because the shafts were too long and cut the strings. The air turned pretty blue for a while:-)
Hang in there!
Mae I am sorry to hear of that inconvenience! Yet I am also confused: I thought that you had pegs with enlarged holes for strings greater than 0.045 in diameter (?). I guess you could squeeze in a 0.050 diameter string to the standard zither peg hole, but it would be a real pain.
Not being in the UK I don’t know where you could buy those enlarged hole pegs; here in the US I get them from MusicMakers. One can also drill the hole larger oneself but that is also a big pain.
Good luck!
