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I can’t imagine what the tuning must have been like. Especially in the days before tuning machines! I also wonder about the mammoth harp extravaganzas that Salzedo used to put together, with 75 or 80 harps on stage.
Sam Milligan told me that when he was working at the Lyon & Healy harp salon in New York Salzedo came in one day and told him that he had just conducted a harp ensemble of 75 harps.”OH my gosh” Sam said,”the tuning must have been awful!” “Oh, it all sort of evens out” was Salzedo’s response. And maybe it does…
My humidifiers are both from Sears and I bought them 25 years ago or more. If you get the type of humidifier I mentioned(no visible vapor or steam) then you can put it right next to the harp and have it blowing on the instrument with no damage at all. The humidity will be highest nearest the humidifier, so you want to have the humidifier close to the harp. 2 humidifiers in a 20 by 20 room would not be too much. My living room is 13 feet wide by 33 feet long by 10 feet high(typical victorian double parlor). Remember, if you can lower the temperature in the room, say to 65 or less, that will help raise the relative humidity.
To answer your first question honestly:
1) No, harpists do not worry about the effects of humidity(really the lack of humidity). Not until major damage is done to the instrument. Really.
I have been screaming at harpists about this issue for most of my career. I’ve written articles on it and posts here. But the vast majority of harpists pay no attention until the damage is done. Congratulations to you for worrying about this now.
The relative humidity of the room where you keep your harp should be between 40% and 60%. You can do two things to help achieve this. 1) lower the temperature in the room and 2) humidify. The humidifier should be a large cold water evaporator that blows out humidified air that is invisible. No steam, no vapor. I have two in my living room and each holds about 7 gallons of water. In the dead of winter I refill them both every 3 days or so.
Harps do not dry out instantly. it takes 2 to 3 months for the wood to shrink so much that wood(and finish) crack, and glue joints open up. So even if you move your harp often out of the “harp room”, by returning it there between moves you can maintain the proper moisture content in the wood.
I would like to explain here why it is so critically important to humidify European made wooden musical instruments(pianos, harps, harpsichords, flutes, etc.), in particular antique wooden instruments. Western Europe has a temperate climate much like California, with very even humidity levels year round. For that reason, European musical instrument builders have for centuries dried their wood to about a 15% moisture content before using it to build an instrument, and that worked very well in Europe. When those instruments are imported to the United States, the wood expands and contracts much more than wood that has a lower moisture content, and the result is cracking and splitting. Often severe cracking and splitting.
American musical instrument manufactures learned early on that the wood they used had to be dried to 5% to 8% in order to avoid the worst of these problems. This helped enormously. But you are still dealing with wood, and long periods of extreme dryness will cause structural and cosmetic damage.
European manufactures now dry their wood to the same specifications(5% to 8%) as American manufactures, so buying newer European wooden musical instruments is no longer a problem in the American climate. It’s mainly antiques that you have to be more careful with.
Dwyn- I just read this email. Thank you for the information and I will pass it on to Vanderbilt Music, which now owns the copyright and is the publisher of my book, A GUIDE FOR HARPISTS.
Alison- That’s an incredible web site. There is so much information there about Andre Caplet. I wish every composer was that well documented. Thanks for telling us about it.
Hi Alice- I would use standard gauge strings: gut in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th octaves, and nylon in octaves 1 and 2. You could if you want use gut in the second octave as well. It kind of depends on the particular instrument and what you prefer sound-wise.
I have started experimenting with using lever gauge gut strings instead of standard gauge, on some pedal harps that I have and I really like their sound. The lever gauge strings are about .002(read 2 thousands of an inch) thinner than standard gauge, so it takes slightly less tension to get them up to pitch. But what I like about them is that they seem to give you a cleaner, more clearly defined pitch when you release the string. You could try that if you want.
This is the sad truth of publishing music for harp and I’m glad you had the guts to say it. I’ve published a few transcriptions over the years and I’ve known many harpists who have published many things and when they go to a conference and take exhibit space, their best hope is to break even, so they are not out-of-pocket at the end of the conference. The only publication that has made me any money at all is my repair book, A GUIDE FOR HARPISTS. And the check I receive once a year will at best buy me a very nice meal!
If they were real friends(and had any class) they would call you, ask you to play at their wedding, and insist, before you could say anything, that you treat this like a regular job and charge them your regular fee and that they were absolutely not looking for something for free. Then, if you wanted to give them a discount or do it for free, you could tell them that.
I have been repairing and regulating harps for over 30 years and have become very close friends with many of my clients. But not once ever has anyone suggested that I give them a discount or do something for free, and that’s the way it should be. Friends are friends, but business is business, and the two should not be mixed.
The differences in height for the same model could be with and without a crown, which is about 2 inches high. A 12 pound difference between two 15’s sounds like a misprint, or someone simply guessing.
15’s built before WWII had carving and a combination of gilding and bronze powder. After WWII they were simply ungilded turned columns. The 15’s that are pre-WWII may have been 45 or 46 strings, with just an overstring post for the top string(no discs). After WWII, they may have discs on the top string.
Before WWII, Lyon & Healy had 4 different size harp frames. The 12 was the smallest. Then came the 14. After that, there were several numbers that are no longer made: style 16, 19, and the 15, 17, and 22, all of which were the same semi-grand size, with either a straight or extended board. The concert grands were the largest and included the style 3, 8, 11, 23, 26, and Salzedo model. Any variation in the height of the instrument from one model to another was simply a matter of adding more wood to the top of the column(the Salzedo model) or the addition of a crown.
This is not exactly a response to your question. But most harpist seem to think that a style 15 is smaller than a 17, which is smaller than a 22, which is smaller than a 23. None of this is true. The 15, 17, and 22 are exactly the same size, the difference being that the 15 has a straight soundboard and the 17 and 22 extended. The difference between the 17 and 22 is in the carving only. They are all semi-grand sizes. The 23 of course is a concert grand(47 strings) while the semi-grands are 46.
Two pieces that come to mind are Offrande by Tournier, and March of the Men or Harlach by Thomas. Offrande is in a publication called DEUX PIECES BREVE ET FACILE and contains another piece that I never played. But the Offrande is gorgeous.
Two pieces that come to mind are Offrande by Tournier, and March of the Men or Harlach by Thomas. Offrande is in a publication called DEUX PIECES BREVE ET FACILE and contains another piece that I never played. But the Offrande is gorgeous.
The above is very good advice. If the harp has its original levers then they are probably useless. The point is, if this harp needs any work at all, then it’s probably not worth buying, because the work(changing all the levers, or heaven forbid, a new neck or board) is going to drive the price up to about the price of a new lever harp. So be very careful and by all means play it first and make sure you can live with it the way it is.
