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This harp is a crochet action from ca. 1800 – 1825. It is not by Erard; there were a number of smaller makers producing crochet action harps well into the 19th century.
I’m afraid the harp is not in good condition. The soundboard has been replaced at some point, and the harp has been painted over. Quite a bit of the decorations have been broken off. The metal reinforcements on the neck are a strong indication that the neck is broken. It appears that when the reinforcements were put on the frets (against which the crochets pull the strings) were removed.
Please do let me know if you have any questions about this!
Here’s a link to Ut Orpheus’s listing:
http://www.utorpheus.com/index.php?cPath=841_188
Hope this helps!Paul
There are quite a few Clark harps in this area (upstate New York) as Clark was headquartered in Syracuse. In my experience, anyone who wants a Clark wants it to be as original and intact as possible, as a historical instrument. If they want a harp with modern levers, they buy a modern harp. I would leave the Clark as it is. To try to modernize an old instrument leaves you with something that’s neither fish nor fowl….
If the harp hasn’t been played in several years, the first thing is to move all the pedals through their full range of motion, from flat to sharp and back to make sure the action isn’t sluggish or seized up. If the action is still working freely and smoothly, then I would strongly recommend hiring a technician to look at it as the next step in evaluating the harp.
Have you tried the “Concedo” strings from Bow Brand? The D, E, G, A, and B are varnished bright white for better visibility. Also try using unfiltered LED light. The bluish color of this light can help make details stand out.
I haven’t played it, but from looking at the score, it looks like it might be worth trying enharmonic doubling on the repeated notes, and using thumb and fourth finger slides on the doubled notes to get around the awkward groupings….?
There are the Lorenz sonatas for harp and violin; quite lovely. They’re available in modern editions here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=parker+lorenz&type=
I like the Hinner duos; not difficult, charmingly written, and provide a nice change of style during a program!
In an earlier post, I said that I had recently restrung a customer’s harp with Savarez gut strings. I learned today that, under professional use, all the Savarez strings are unraveling and fraying badly. They lasted less than a month. Unfortunately, Savarez does not have a policy of replacing defective strings.
In better news, it appears that the latest batch of Bow Brand strings is back to their usual quality.
I recently had a chance to restring a customer’s 23 with Savarez. The sound is dark, with less drop-off in volume immediately after the attack. The tone is more sustained, with a slower decay. The finish on the strings is less slippery, and the F strings are blue, which could be helpful if you’re seated next to a second violinist in black. However, one F string was shedding its blue coating onto my fingers as I was putting it on the harp, and another string was OK for half its length, but rough and dry for the other half. The supplier did offer to replace the defective strings ASAP. All in all, I liked the good strings very much, but I have some concerns about quality control.
Hope this helps!Actually, this is not a new idea. Dizi made at least one harp, in the early 19th century, with seven little windows on the side of the action, in easy view of the player. Each window showed the setting of the corresponding pedal. If you do an image search on “Dizi harp” it should appear. The harp is dark blue with gilt scrolls, and the windows are just visible at the lowest curve of the neck. In practice, I don’t expect any visual display would provide the desperately needed information any faster than a foot-check of the pedals, unless the electronic display could somehow be mounted on the music stand. Otherwise the harpist would have to look away from the music or conductor for too long, which could lead to other problems!
