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If you are looking for low priced harps in the UK some to think about are Derwent (though I find their website horrible) and Wee Nifty (haven’t heard much about them of late, but was very impressed when they launched – hope they are doing as well as they deserve!), or the second hand Niebisch and Tree on Affairs of the Harp listing. Up in price there is for instance the Camlad by Silver Spear at £2100 for 34 strings or worth looking at Pilgrim’s second hand list too.
Your pinky should follow the 4th finger. I find it can be helpful to experience loosely looping a hairband or elastic band over 4th and 5th finger as an automated reminder. Lose enough they aren’t glued right together, but you will notice if 4th closes and leaves 5th sticking right out- not cutting circulation!
Technically, concentrate on squeezing the strings before releasing them. Musically, concentrate on the balance between the fingers. If you play a 3 note triad can you hear if it is major or minor? – if not, your middle note is not sounding compared to the outer ones.
Do you still have the broken string? Use it to have a good practice at tying the knot before you do the new one.
PS – some of the resistance you feel towards the end of moving a pedal is the bends all the forks are putting on the strings – you need to push through this and working on the springs won’t help. It is theoretically possible the regulation is so out there is too much bend on the strings, but if it sounds right and the harp was recently regulated the chances are it is OK.
To use pedals if you push them right down they should then swing across easily – if you try to cut diagonally across you can really shred the wrappings even on a well set up harp. Likewise across and then up. I thought I had a harp that ate pedal felts for a while, then realised I was guilty of this. When you struggle to notch are you going sideways from having fully floored the pedal? Sitting on the floor playing with the pedals with your hands can help work out how much of what you experience is the pedal and how much the angle to your foot.
Pedal springs can be softened – talk to Pilgrim. The mildest thing to do is to leave the pedal in sharp for a bit, but they can do more. But do give the springs a fair trial with their current setting. I would also ask Pilgrim about the expected life for their leathers – mine are harder leather and have been on the harp for around 18 years.Hi Balfour, From the point of view of the sound (which doesn’t care about electrical conductivity) it seems to me to be the general question of does the finish/varnish affect the sound. Much discussed on the thin wood of violins, but harp columns are so hefty compared to a little varnish or gilding that any differences between french polish, lacquer, gilding, paint, beeswax or polyurethane seem to me likely to be swamped by natural variation in the wood or hand fitting of the parts.
Years ago I took a factory tour and we peeked into the gilding room (no air currents welcomed) where they were working on something very fancy. So I asked the obvious question, and was told no, it would not necessarily sound any better. They are gilded before they are assembled.
I would like to see the second version, but with the last bar of the first. I would need to look twice at the same note in the two staves.
These had been sitting unused for a while. The first was an Ian Firth I think 1970s, the second Henry Briggs from 1931.
I can see ewhat I think is the string spacing you describe at 4F in pictures so that is not a feature just of your harp (see the bass close up here https://www.morleyharps.co.uk/prelude-40-natural-decorated-soundboard-lh62383-c2x34477294) Also the symmetry at the top of the column – harps really aren’t all that symmetrical because the strings go on one side of the column. So indeed I would not be surprised if the crowns to fit one way round only. I haven’t been able to find a base image online for comparison of that.
How very odd – it looks like the hooks were intended to change the pitch of two notes (maybe Cs and Fs) by increasing tension above the pins. Definitely unconventional. But the Morley history makes me suspect it was more than an ornament.
I have never done it, but I believe both sibelius and finale allow you to start by scanning a clean copy of an existing piece of music and running auto-recognition on it – then you ‘just’ need to edit out the mistakes from the auto-recognition, put back everything it left out like dynamics and make the edits you wanted to. It might be worth trying.
