What will always surprise a less experienced composer raised on perfectly sampled sound sets is how ineffectual and slightly off-key the top octave of strings actually sounds. The extreme outer strings’ purpose is less to be played than to supply a sense of timbral space.
Online tuner trombone series#
The composer has only themselves to blame.Īlso remember these two words: “sympathetic vibration.” The lush, generous sound of the harp results from all of the strings responding to a plucked tone or series of tones. This is clearly impossible for the harpist, who must then decide which of the two notes is more important, and which should be left out. That sounds obvious, but it’s not unheard-of for a composer to ask for a low Cb in one movement, then obliviously insist upon a low C# in the next. In this case, the bottom two strings must be tuned by the harpist in advance of performance. The only fussier instrument I’m aware of is the harpsichord (one of which I used to possess and perform upon). The thing to remember is the old joke, which actually contains a germ of truth: “harpists spend half their time tuning, and the other half playing out of tune.” Because of the vagaries of temperature, moisture, flexibility of strings, and construction, harps need extra care in approaching tuning – and tuning 47 strings is quite a chore. These extremes are somewhat flexible, as that top string is almost never called for, and the bottom two are needed mostly for resonance (and tend to strongly cloud the tone if played frequently throughout a phrase).
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Some manuals say that only the lowest Cb needs to be hand-tuned – others claim that both Cb and Db are stationary strings, but don’t mention that in quite a few harps there is no top Gb string. Orchestration manuals tend to be unclear about this. The one or two lowest strings are just too much for the action to handle, creating a problem by their extreme length and mass for the tuning mechanism. We deliver Australia wide including Adelaide Brisbane. The double-action of the modern harp has limitations, as each pedal will essentially create tension on 6-7 strings of varying lengths simultaneously. We also accept all major forms of payments online so you can get shopping for your next instrument.
Some harps do not possess a high Gb string, and both bottom strings of Cb and Db may need to be tuned by hand. 65 from “100 Orchestration Tips,” Part 4: Harp)
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