Musical Acoustics Paper on the Harp Essay Sample

The Harp is the oldest identified stringed instrument. made up of a body that surrounds a number of strings. The sum of strings relies upon on the measurement and sort of harp. the live performance harp usually has 47 strings which ranges 6 and a half octaves. The phrase harp comes from the Anglo-Saxon phrase significance “to pluck” . Smaller devices much like the harp embrace the lyre. which has strings of the identical size however of adjusting thickness and tenseness ; the psaltery. which has a body unfastened merely on one facet ; and the dulcimer. which has similarities to the psaltery however which is performed by putting the strings with a cock as a substitute than tweaking them. The harp is assumed to carry beginnings in a huntsmans bow. in the sound it created when plucked. Due to this there isn’t a true day of the month of innovation of the harp. There are cave photos that depict a harp like instrument in France dated to 15.

000 BC. The primary sorts of harp have been the bow harp. which has a particular person curving piece of wooden connected to a vibrating vas. and the angle harp which is often referred to as the unfastened harp. which is made of two items of wooden. one being hole to vibrate the sound. connected collectively at an angle with the strings strung between them.

The harp was developed individually in several elements of the universe and through totally different clip durations however all apparently carry forthing comparable varieties harps. In historic Egypt there are lots of harps depicted in Pharaohs tombs round 5000 outdated ages in the past the bulk of those being bow harps as much as 2 meters with 19 strings.

Vertical harps referred to as lyre harps have been created in historic Greece and coincided with the artistic exercise of the mathematical musical graduated desk the place Pythagoras found numerical ratios matching to intervals of the musical graduated desk. Throughout the Roman instances the utilization of the harp and musical devices on the whole declined and did non re-emerge for a lot of outdated ages.

The trigon harp appears to carry been developed in Europe and included a perpendicular pillar to close the body. the results of this imply that it allowed the harp shaper to extend threading tenseness with out falsifying the instrument which apart from made the harp simpler to tune as altering the tenseness of 1 twine not affected the tenseness of all the different strings. The body of the trigon harp is normally fabricated from wooden with the sounding board being a distinct kind to the chief natural construction. Widespread forests used are dapper. beech. and maple with maple being the most typical. The strings are stretched between the sounding board. which is the considerably slanted and uncurving arm of the full triangular body. and the curved. continuously intricately carved. high. The strings are continuously fabricated from nylon or wire. The chief trendy sorts of harp are the pedal harp and the lever harp.

Pedal harps are usually used as live performance harps and usually have a determine of pedals at the base that are used for altering notes and for exchanging keys. These usually have between 41 and 47 strings. Lever harps that are usually referred to as Celtic harps or frequent individuals harps. are ground harps and don’t have any pedals. These have between 20 to 40 strings. The pedal harp has been improved to incorporate a twin motion in order that the word they’re connected to sharpens a half step on the first melancholy and a farther half step on the 2nd melancholy. The pedals have been initially designed with maulerss that connected on the terminal of the strings and pulled down fastening the twine.

The maulerss have been so up to date to crochets. which have been right-angled as a substitute than the u-shape of the maulerss. so to bequilles. that are units of two little levers during which every twine wrapped by ; when certainly one of the pedals have been depressed. one lever would flip clockwise and the different counter-clockwise. supplying a firmer clasp. This was a greater system but it surely tended to interrupt and susceptible to a buzzing sound being produced. This was so overcome by the debut of the disc system which is made up of two brass prongs ( or forks ) prolonged from a phonograph document that a twine handed by earlier attaching to the tuning nog. When the matching pedal was depressed. the phonograph document turned and the strings sharpened a half step. held steadfastly towards the prong. The pillar comprises the rods that function the mechanism of the pedals.

Lever harps. nonetheless. do non maintain pedals or rods. and the pillar’s merely objective in these devices is to maintain up the cervix towards the massive sum of pressure of the strings. Lever harps utilization a shortening lever on the cervix following to every particular person twine which is to be activated ( i. e. . turned ) manually to shorten the twine and lift the tone a half measure. A twine tuned to pure could also be performed in crisp. however non stage. A twine tuned to flat could also be performed in pure. however non crisp.

How it’s Made

The harp is fabricated from 5 chief elements these elements are the natural construction. the cervix. the pillar. the sound board and the strings. The strings are related between the cervix and the natural construction. The cervix. the place the high of the twine is related. comprises the tuning nog which alter the word of the twine by altering the tenseness. The holes during which comprise the tuning nog are drilled at particular intervals so every twine is the identical distance aside and that the size the twine can be the proper lenghth. when related to the sound board. The underside of the strings are related to the sounding board. they’re fed by little holes and are so tied in a knot inside the sounding board to keep up them safe. The sounding board is the upward confronting floor of the natural construction. The natural construction is hole and bolstered with inner ribs. when a twine is plucked the natural construction resonates and sound is projected in the direction of the individuals by holes in the natural construction. that are mainly used as a entree to the strings however have the added utilization for projecting sound to the performing artist. and extra strongly outwards in the direction of the viewers by the sounding board which is versatile and stored taut.

The pillar of the harp is mainly to again up the cervix by linking it to the natural construction to let for larger tenseness strings and extra strings. it’s apart from utilized in pedal harps to include the rods that management the mechanism used to change the tenseness of strings by the public presentation. White maple is the greatest wooden for these three sides as a result of it’s robust loads to defy the emphasis of the strings. The sounding board is often fabricated from spruce. Spruce is used as a result of it’s gentle. robust. fictile. and evenly-grained. enabling it to react uniformly to the quivers of the strings to carry forth a wealthy. clear sound. The middle of the sounding board. referred to as the centerstrip. is connected to the base of the strings and is often fabricated from beech. Beech is used as a result of it’s powerful loads to bear the tenseness of the strings.

A contemporary live performance harp stands about 70-75 in ( 1. Eight-1. 9 m ) excessive. is about 40 in ( 1 m ) broad. weighs about 70-90 pound ( 32-41 kilogram ) . and has 47 strings. runing in measurement from a number of inches to a number of pess in size. Some harps have been twin strung which added a 2nd row of strings which have been performed by go throughing a finger between two strings a harper may make the corresponding chromatic word in the different row. This led to the innovation of the triple-strung harp which was designed to be performed with two custodies. The triple-strung harp had three rows of strings. the two outer rows have been tuned to the identical diatonic graduated desk whereas the inside row was tuned to the outer rows’ chromatic half steps. This had the good thing about vocals with rapidly repeated notes being easier performed and enjoying the identical word on both facet amplified that word by rising the resonance in the natural construction.

There isn’t a set mic’ing method for a classical harp as mic’ing the strings will lose the natural construction and warmth of the harp. and completely mic’ing the sound board will lose the onslaught from the strings so a mixture of two-channel braces. shut mic’ing and ambient mic’ing is used to perform an correct illustration of a harp. Experiment with a number of set-ups is the customary technique at coming into a harp and taking the preferable coupling. an illustration of that is proven ( Microphones and Recording. 2008 ) using four two-channel braces in assorted locations round the harp. On this illustration the four braces used are ; a cardioid capacitor brace in ORTF formation on one facet of the harp. about three pess off.

A cardioid capacitor brace in happenstance formation. on the identical facet a number of pess from the harp. A brace of thread mikes positioned on the decrease half of the harp close to to the sound field on both facet of the harp. A brace of omni directional capacitor mikes above the harp on both facet. The preferable brace on this case was the cardiod brace in ORTF formation described as being vibrant with plentifulness of merchandise. In some instances some braces will be assorted collectively to carry forth a all-around replica of the harp however on this occasion the braces have been positioned in lots of areas presenting stage points to the combine.

Alison Vardy ( hypertext switch protocol: //www. alisonvardy. com ) has categorised totally different methods used to carry forth a replica for sure genres these strategies are ; Classical. True Classical. Pop and meditative. The classical technique makes use of three mikes a brace on both facet panned left and proper positioned close to the individuals respective manus and a single-channel massive omni-directional mike infront and above the harp to seize the room environment. The true classical technique makes use of a LR brace infront of the harp close to to the natural construction with a third farther again in the heart to present the combine extra infinite.

The dad technique is described as supplying a powerful chiming to the combine with one mike above the individuals manus capturing the motion from the strings. panned partly to at least one facet and one at the base of the harp to seize the bass of the harp. panned partly to the reverse facet with a glandular fever mike out entrance to seize the room sound. The 4th technique described as brooding makes use of a two-channel brace aimed in the direction of the pillar of the harp at waist tallness with a third mike above the manus centred to seize the motion of the strings positioned in the Centre of the combine.

hypertext switch protocol: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Harp

hypertext switch protocol: //www. alisonvardy. com/harp-info/medieval-harp-history. htm

hypertext switch protocol: //www. enotes. com/harp-66393-reference/harp

hypertext switch protocol: //us. harp. com/history-of-the-harp. htm

Microphones and Recording 2008 hypertext switch protocol: //www. recording-microphones. co. uk/recording-harp. shtml