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Hi Daniele, are they London or Paris made harps?
If they are London harps the Royal College of Music Library has the sales ledger. No 702 (London) was made in 1802 so yours would be single action harps and probably made the same year.
Some Paris registers are here http://www.sebastienerard.org/en/?m=registres but I don’t see your harps – I would expect them to be considerably later and double action.
Handel’s Sarabande – it is in Music for the Harp.
We all agree the upper note is harmonic and the lower plucked – the variation is whether we would turn the right hand to use the same technique as the left hand, which I would for playing both notes harmonic, but not for this.
In contrast to Sam, I play the right hand harmonics with normal right hand position and 3 or 4 playing the natural note. Sometimes in such passages I need to change the left hand from my usual damping the harmonic with the side of the hand to damping with the base of the thumb.
Macdonald seem not to be building those anymore, though you could ask. A listing of makers is here http://www.wirestrungclarsach.org/makers.asp I know Ardival have a small model.
Several of the Thomas duets are for two harps or harp and piano. http://www.morleyharps.co.uk/harp-resources/free-harp-sheet-music/
If constant pressure won’t release it sometimes exactly the same force but applied as a sharp tap will break screws free.
Yes they do work. I describe it as changing the balance between treble and bass.
See: http://www.harpspectrum.org/historical/the_eighth_pedal.shtml
It looks very interesting to me – but the sort of interesting that would not be a good choice if you want this as your first harp to play. And it definitely should be restored only by a knowledgeable professional. (Mike Parfett is one of several good people in the UK – rather closer than the US names you were given.)
Irritatingly, the third photo won’t enlarge for me, but I think it may have the mechanism where the tuning pins themselves turn to give semitones. This was not a success as it broke too many strings, and I am not sure how accurate it was. But looking at it there are single action pedals but there do not seem to be tuning pins above the mechanism. Any chance of a better picture?
Open and filled rectangles makes me wonder if this adds up as an indication of duration: minims and crotchets.
Firstly, if you are going to compare string prices for a mark up you really need to compare the same material, not nylon with gut strings. Just on the nylon, it is extruded in only a few thicknesses, relatively, and proper harp strings are ‘rectified’ polished down to a different thickness for each note and I believe are also rounder than fishing line. This will make it sound better – or less bad anyway, I really prefer gut! There will be a mark up for not buying 20m a time and labelling it, but not as great as you say.
Fishing line is a perfectly fine idea if you are not going to play the harp seriously and want it more for cosmetics, but harpists aren’t just madly throwing money away on our more expensive proper strings.
I have had my harp move in an orchestral truck fine – but it depends on the truck and the people loading. Have they moved a harp before? I imagine this won’t be the first harp inside Disneyland.
Bernhard- your diagram is nearly what I am thinking – I assumed there would be a little bend where the string comes out of the soundboard, but not enough and it is jumping off and buzzing.
Mae, what you did with the paperclip was trying to clean the hole. I am suggesting the opposite – jam something in there to push against the string (from the top, not the bottom) and stop it jumping loose. But if it is the lever strings that do this and the pedal light don’t then restringing would be worth trying.
I also found one which sold in auction for £5. http://www.westauction.com/auction/432/item/19218 and note than no-one has yet paid the $1500.
There are more old Lyon and Healy crates out there which are pretty similar.
I would want a very careful assessment of the case for sturdiness before trusting a harp to it and what restoration it would take compared to the cost of a modern case. I wonder if it is asking to become shelves or a cupboard as it is rather big to be merely old and useless, though someone with a larger house may have different ideas.
Wurlitzer built harps from 1909-1935 according to http://www.wurlitzerharps.com/
