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Have you had a look in the base while moving the pedal to see if anything is touching?
The click I once had in the base was solved by a technician adjusting the bit of cloth packed into the bottom of the column.
Are you in the UK? If so, are you eligible to get it without VAT?
Strings do that. With all the moving and weather you describe I would not be surprised if it had lost more than one. Your glissando will not be to blame.
I suggest you keep a list of which strings break, when, where on the string and anything notable about the climate so you know how your harp strings are behaving themselves over time.
Be extra careful moving the harp with no tension or very little. It is the tension of the strings that holds the neck onto the body at the shoulder (and pegs to stop side to side motion).
Have you thought about trying these sort of things? I would probably opt for plastic over metal as you don’t have steel strings.
What sort of wire and wire harp? Can you ask the maker if anyone is known to have tried this? I have put brass on a nylon harp increasing the tension considerably, so the other way should be kinder to the harp. But it won’t be the harp you know and love, it will sound and feel quite different – maybe you will like it, maybe not. It will probably not be as nice as something designed for the strings it has. With nylon or gut it will probably want a much higher sounding pitch.
What is small about the tuning pins? The hole?
Yes it is possible to play the top note as a harmonic and stick a finger or fingers out underneath to play natural notes, but I have never come across this outside solo works composed by harpists. It is an advanced technique, and those are high strings for harmonics.
Personally, my starting point in bar 174 etc would be taking one more note into the left hand (probably both, if a slow arpeggiation is wanted). That won’t work in bar 179 and the stretch would be too big for my right hand. I would probably not make all the notes in the end and drop at least the RH natural pitch E which is at the same pitch as the LH harmonic E. Realistically, I would probably drop more notes, or revoice the chords depending on audibility.
The other option I can theoretically see for the last two chords would be to use the second harmonic on the F(b) string, instead of the 1st on the C, but I think I have only once used a 2nd harmonic in performance and would not be confident about getting it to sound, and there is a risk of audibly playing the Fb which is not in the chord.
Do you have any more indication of the character of the work, and specifically arpeggiation? How much else is going on in the orchestration so is pp a solo harp pp or matching the rest of the orchestra on their pp?
A physical warm up is really useful if you can’t warm up at the harp as you would like to, for instance when playing towards the end of a concert.
For long sessions at the harp, my shoulders are the most likely to complain. I have become fond of indian club swinging and find it really helps to use them as a warm up if I am faced with a long rehearsal, especially in a cold environment, and afterwards too depending on how my shoulders feel.
It takes a lot to make a harp not worth repairing or rebuilding. A corroded mechanism can do it, or all the wood gone with woodworm. This is an example of a harp that needs rebuilding around its mechanism:
https://www.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk/Catalogues/mi140618/lot0766.htmlHow were you thinking of removing the bottom octave from an action? They need the main action block at the top of the column/base of the mechanism.
Have you seen this similar thread with a few suggestions/resources?
The Ashdown takes lever gut: http://www.pilgrimharps.co.uk/store/c24/Ashdown_Strings__%2834%29_.html
Saul, I think you must not be aware that Mark Palkovic has published harp music bibliographies. I think three volumes now, though I only have the solo and ensemble one.
Chamber and concerti:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BB0KAQAAMAAJ&hl=pt-BR&source=gbs_similarbooks
Solo and ensemble:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ohwKAQAAMAAJ&hl=pt-BR&source=gbs_similarbooks
Supplement:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gBwKAQAAMAAJ&hl=pt-BR&source=gbs_similarbooks
