The harp - instrument of the year 2016 | with Sarah Willis

[@jennhill8708]

Concert pedal harps are incredible, but my heart is with the lever harp, a folk instrument.

[@HaraldReinhart]

so nicely done - thanks for introducing the instrument and Mme Langlamet, much appreciated!!

[@AllenDec]

What a great mini-documentary on the harp!!

[@ClodoaldoLeiteJunior]

Thank you, Sarah! You're such an amazing music ambassador!

[@kellycoleman715]

I love harp music. My sister had a friend years ago who played the harp. And don’t forget Harpo Marx! He was a very talented harpist.

[@meredithwalker3955]

I first saw and heard the harp from watching my mother’s old black and white movies. Harpo Marx was my hero, since then I always wanted to play the harp.

[@vincentadegbile8022]

Beautiful music... puts the mind to ease

[@Metal-Possum]

Nice reference to Rob Scallon. Last place I'd expect him to show up.

[@ladyconan]

Hahaha! Yeaaah! I thought the same!!!

[@zebra3stripes]

I know people who work at that museum. If you'd like to play some of those old harps, I could pull a few strings for you.

[@dwnews]

Nice pun. \tp

[@loudspeakers3469]

Great video, love this series!

[@DWClassicalMusic]

😊

[@normanspurgeon5324]

Did Sarah ever forgive her dad for making a crucial decision for her? Did she ever take up the harp? It would be very interesting to hear about the tuning of the instrument. Of course the tempered tuning is good to hear- how does it apply to the harp, with it's unique attributes? Are some keys favored?

[@christophertsiliacos8958]

The harp is a beautiful sounding instrument. I don't play the harp, but if I were to learn to play the harp I would play it like I play the piano - the melody with my right hand, and the chords with my left. Why? I only read and play music in the treble [G] clef. 😉 🎼

[@Frenchie1116]

ok

[@Emperatriz_Valentina]

It must be so annoying to tune that thing

[@pleasedyes]

AtsusunoアツスノChresolaくれそら lol it isn’t thaaattt bad

[@tenoreDB]

You know what is worse: if the harpist and the orchestral regie lost the tuning key. And the whole concert the harp is out of tune: its HORROR !

[@jimp4170]

They say harpists spend half their lives tuning and the other half playing out of tune.

[@heikorudi6105]

@@jimp4170 no thats the lutists!

[@kukacostejberizs]

Every day in the Morning... Even If every second day is okay.

[@spamaccount1513]

Are the red and black strings in octaves and fiths? Edit: she actually says they are c's qnd f's

[@morayoung3183]

Awesome sound of the harp, where originated? Nice to see ladies playing a big instrument and so awesome sounds ! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏💐🇧🇴❤️💛💚🌹😍🧡🤩💜🥳💓💗💞🥰💖💝💘🖤

[@arthurvalentine3524]

Tulani just blow my mind right now

[@ksilebo]

Can someone explain how she does the "slide" at 6:39. what exactly does she do so the sound jumps higher?

[@TonyM9]

Ksile Bo - she is pressing down on the pedal for that string while it’s ringing. The pedals engage a mechanism that effectively shortens the string making it go up in pitch. Normally you don’t want the string ringing when you press the pedal for it so you have to either time the pedal change to happen at a time the string isn’t ringing, or you have to do as she mentioned earlier in the clip and muffle the string to stop it ringing before engaging the pedal. But to do a pedal slide is easy. You pluck the string and then press the pedal while the string is still ringing.

[@myteaissugarfree2436]

Funny looking harp you had in the first 10 seconds

[@tajmahal8958]

what is the song at 6:24 please reply.

[@TonyM9]

Taj Mahal It was Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane. Definitely one of the more difficult pieces of classical harp repertoire due to its very chromatic nature requiring many difficult and fast pedal changes. It was actually written for a different kind of harp, the cross strung harp, which has all the chromatic notes on separate strings without the need for pedals. The piece was specifically commissioned by a manufacturer of these kinds of harps specifically to show of its ability to handle complex chromatic music. But the cross strung harp, although still played by some people, never really became popular. Definitely not as popular as the concert harp (double action pedal harp) and so Debussy made a version for pedal harp, which is what she was playing at that point in the clip.

[@ivanperez6961]

TonyM9 thank you! different account and sorry for the late reply. I finally can enjoy this beautiful piece!

[@trainliker100]

I'm afraid the harp didn't get much respect in the movie "Bugsy Malone". This is an odd gangsters during prohibition movie where all the actors are kids. They have a stereotype scene of a theater owner having auditions for vaudeville acts. Whenever he had seen enough, he yelled, "NEXT!" and the next act would come on stage. So somebody dances a little. "NEXT!" Somebody sings a few bars and that's enough. "NEXT!" Somebody wheels a harp onto the stage and before even one note is played, "NEXT!"

[@cmw12]

Why don't harpsichords sound like harps? I wonder if there's a string/plectrum material that would produce the harp sound.

[@foljs5858]

Because they aren't plucked by human fingers, but are plucked by a harder material. The strings also aren't made by the same material. And the strings are closed into the cabinet.

[@harpfully]

_Nothing_ produces the harp sound, excepts harps&harpists. :-) You'd have to invent a fleshy/strong/sensitive substitute for fingers.

[@organist1982]

Also because harpsichord strings are all wire strings, whereas most of the strings on a harp are gut (or nylon), and because harpsichord strings are plucked much closer to the end of the string, while harp strings are normally plucked near the center of the length of the string. There actually was a keyboard instrument invented at one point that tried to emulate the harp called a ClaviHarpe, and there was another instrument called a clavicytherium that is sort of between the claviharpe and a harpsichord; if you do a search on those, you can find some videos of ones being played; rather interesting!

[@cmw12]

@@organist1982 Now THAT was a helpful response!

[@organist1982]

@@cmw12 :-) Were you able to find videos of those instruments? If not, I could give links. Unfortunately, the ClaviHarpe videos (really just CD tracks) were uploaded at a rather low volume, but I'm intrigued by how much that instrument actually DOES sound like a harp! And the clavicytherium is quite fascinating!

[@pabloantonio5003]

2:32 the piano is larger and way heavier xD

[@tobiaslidstromstre2392]

Pablo Antonio but i don’t think it’s very common i orchestra

[@trainliker100]

I have now seen many, many things Sarah Willis has been involved in and I started getting suspicious. She seems to be everywhere doing everything all the time. I made spreadsheets of her activities and applied advanced mathematics. There must be at least three of her.

[@flippyflopper2360]

Do most harpists play without fingernails unlike the Spanish guitarists would?

[@phoebeleung4316]

Flippy Flopper yes we always have to cut our nails!

[@flippyflopper2360]

ah so it is all about finger-picking with the finger and not the nail. I like the pluck sound without the nail. The fingernail sound is too much, plus it's harder to fake that bass fuzz sound with a nail.

[@Lewis_the_raider]

There's the paraguayan harp, which is played with fingernails like you see here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6fOgYZqhs2lmc0

[@kcr7860]

Sarah, lass' Dich umarmen. Thany you, thank you very much for this "geijel instrument video". Remembering the guy who always said to the younger of my sisters: "Daisy mitdi Pillefüße". Today he is a protestantic pastor (Lol). Stichwort Harfe. Ich würde gerne folgendes 'Harfen-Instrument' ergänzen wollen: Sugar Plum Fairy by Tchaikovsky - GlassDuo LIVE (glass harp) [ kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5XShZd9lLuBjJY ].

[@octaviusthird6726]

I will never get a pedal harp because I live on third floor and no elevators.

[@foljs5858]

If you can afford the harp, you can afford to trivially rent a mechanical crane lift -- tons of people use such to move things like pianos and such to appartments

[@harpfully]

There are also dollies/carts with special wheels for stairs.

[@turdusmerula1831]

Aaaaah, I do not like Marie-Pierre's attack. It is sooo harsh :-( Unfortunately harpists are generally told they should play louder especially in an orchestral context so even a lot of the world's leading harpists start making these rather harsh sounds. You can clearly hear at around 5:20 how the softer sound is much prettier than the example she is playing earlier

[@basimstefo4839]

The Harp is from old Iraq ( Babylon) 1800 before Jesus

[@Emperatriz_Valentina]

Basim Stefo it was very different back then

[@julianaldana745]

Where did you get that information?