Introducing the Double Action Harp

[@michaelbishop.]

Requires a certain type of personality to even attempt a double action harp. Alison’s therapist must be pleased.🙂

[@angieharpist]

What kind of personality is required? 🤔

[@AlexanderRider-f1q]

Alison- what a true, class act ❤

[@rjlchristie]

Makes me think that Debussy was just making a play on a similar, but earlier, well-known observation made about lute players, that in one 17th century manual the author wrote that a sixty year old lutenist has spent thirty of them tuning.

[@mikemcgibney]

A wonderful video - interesting, inspriring and funny! Thank you!

[@PlanetImo]

Lovely. Thanks. We have the tripple harps here in Wales :) I'd never heard of double harps like this.

[@petergregory7199]

Lyrical fingers and ravishing Ravel. Much appreciated, thank you.

[@bigsarge2085]

Fascinating!

[@GlenShannon]

Beautiful instruments and wonderful playing! Does this mean all current modern pedal harps are double-action harps? (Wasn't that Debussey joke made centuries earlier about lutenists?)

[@oae]

Hi @GlenSHannon, yes that's right, all modern harps are double action.

[@jonathanwingmusic]

3:13 I'm curious about how chord glissandos work, as she describes here a "glissando of C7" (which would be C-E-G-Bb). She explains adjusting enharmonically (Fb for E, A# to match Bb). That seems to account for every pedal except the D? Since as I understand the pedals can't do double-sharps or double-flats, how does a harpist avoid non-chord tones such as that? Or does she just play the D (making it a C9 basically)? The gliss goes too quickly for me to hear if there's a D in there but I'm assuming that's most likely the only way? Seems like any major triad would need to have the 2 in the chord no matter what (since it can't be flat or sharp without creating a minor/dissonance). And then, by that same logic, a minor triad would have an issue with whatever note is on the 4th degree; for a Cmin the D can now be D# to enharmonically match Eb, but now the F can neither be Fb nor F# without an obvious clash (so F natural would presumably work best as an added perfect 4th). Am I understanding that correctly?

[@jimbuxton2187]

You can't avoid GAD.... you just play them in the chord...6/9 is what we have.

[@kimbonice]

Such a beautiful wonder

[@lp-xl9ld]

So if the piece you're playing is in, let's say e flat major, you set the b, e, and a pedals to "flat" and leave the rest as "natural", then if an accidental comes up, you just shift that pedal into the correct position for that note(s)...or is that NOT how it works? Always wondered...

[@noahdavis-iq5vc]

Yes

[@oae]

On behalf of Alison: Yes, that is correct

[@thanosleontaris8248]

Didn't Monteverdi call for a ''arpa doppia" in his opera "L' Orfeo"? So has there been a use of the double harp since the late 16th century?

[@highjusticedelja7387]

An ‘arpa doppia’, in layman’s terms, is a harp with two parallel rows of strings, each tuned to the same corresponding note. It is also known as a double strung harp.

[@olorin4317]

It’s only proper that Debussy’s insults are as devastatingly delightful as his music is.

[@HenrikBergpianorganist]

When was the single action harp invented then?

[@angieharpist]

1673-1720 ish

[@HenrikBergpianorganist]

@@angieharpist It's a sort of wide time span...? I guess they tried different systems, did they?

[@angieharpist]

@@HenrikBergpianorganist accurate records just aren’t available and it’s debatable who invented it first

[@HenrikBergpianorganist]

@@angieharpist Ok :)

[@jcortese3300]

I don't know, given how my harp goes out of tune when the a/c kicks on, I think Debussy may have had a point ...

[@HenrikBergpianorganist]

There was no a/c back then though ;)

[@angieharpist]

Playing Clair de Lune on a recently regulated, fine tuned, preferably newly strung harp is the best! Then and only then. Otherwise, I tend to agree with Debussy 😂

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

I can see a potential problem if you need to play in a different temperament than the one for which the harp was made (presumably 12 equal divisions of the octave for most harps), you won't be able to adjust the sharp/flat proportions, and so some of the notes that are supposed to be fully enharmonic will not be (and, when applicable, notes that are supposed to be no longer fully enharmonic will be no longer fully enharmonic by the wrong amount), and you won't be able to adjust to fix it. This is because the pedals have to be in discrete positions to get a note. If you hold a pedal in between, you get a horror movie soundtrack or heavy metal sound demonstrated in kzbin.infoCJQFKc7Jnw0 (second to last special effect) and kzbin.infojjAOcndfwzM (the more heavy metal version). To get continuous action that you would need for such adjustment, you would need a slider mechanism like on the Fluid Piano kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmimomaml8iAoas&pp=ygULZmx1aWQgcGlhbm8%3D but with all of the sliders for one pitch class operated by one pedal (which would be very tricky since they would need to move by distances proportional to the string length -- the fluid piano in the linked video is a prototype that DOESN'T have this, and so the player has to move the sliders individually, which is impractical for normal use, although it could be used to set a fixed temperament since the fluid piano has a full 12 notes per octave).

[@angieharpist]

The Harp-E levers allow for pitch bending which is another new invention for this instrument!

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

@@angieharpist That's a new one on me. This is similar to the fluid piano that I linked above, although a LOT more convenient to reach the levers compared to the slides on the fluid piano. Now if only they had a version that has the levers operated by a foot pedal for each note (in all octaves) . . . .