• From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Topic: HARPSICHORD and HARP

THERE MUST BE SOME CHORDIANS I hope who are familiar with a harp? I think it's a fantastic instrument, it gives you the impression of floating on clouds. I have seen, maybe 2 or 3 harps, on house call visiting patients. Unfortunately it was almost only decoration. They received it from a deceased member of the family and couldn't play.
Harpsichords: do they still exist?
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GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: THEY SHOULD MAKE EFFECT PEDALS WITH A HARP SOUND

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website

  • From: Starkville, Mississippi USA
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 2,069

Re: HARPSICHORD and HARP

Hi gitaardocphil - Harpsichords still exist.  The only ones I have seen for many years were built from kits by people who have great skill and patience.  The sound is lovely and delicate, but not much volume . . . good for chamber music or to accompany a soloist.

A harpsichord's strings are plucked when a key is struck - no matter how you strike the key, the plucking action is the same so it is impossible to play softer or louder.  The invention of the piano pretty much was the end of harpsichords - pianos have a greater range of tonality (mute, sustain) and dynamics (loud, soft).  The original name for the piano was 'piano forte' meaning 'soft loud'.

Harps are still quite popular within the Celtic music tradition.  There are many styles and tunings.  Kits can also be purchased.  Big orchestral harps are cumbersome and difficult to tune.  Most harpists I have heard use smaller 'lap-sized' instruments.  Like harpsichords, harps are very soft - plus they are hard to amplify well, so the appeal is limited to largely to persons who want to perform solo or in a very small ensemble.

"That darn Pythagorean Comma thing keeps messing me up!"
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_comma[/url]

James McCormick's Website

  • Registered: 2007-04-03
  • Posts: 3,489

Re: HARPSICHORD and HARP

Hi Docphil,
My niece who lives in the Holland plays a large concert harp. She is in her
early twenties. She has been playing since she was very young.
She also has a much smaller one.  The larger one is so cumbersome,  she maintains its  like trying to get your aged grandparents in and out of a car?

I love the sound of the her playing the harp. Also our own Chordie James,
playing Autoharp. Delightful.
Here is our beautiful Maire Brennan, singing and playing a great favourite of mine. Enjoy and float away Rockdoc.

Slán

Old Doll.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=DrBy-mLSALs

Why Blend in with the Crowd ? When you were made to stand out !
  • From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Re: HARPSICHORD and HARP

Hi old doll, Ihave the impression that some of those instruments are used again.
About a harpsichord, I always think about the Rolling Stones: Lady Jane and A New Face in Town, from Voodoo Lounge, but that one can be a synthesiser, wathever, I adore the sound.
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GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: HARPSI"CHORDIE"

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website

  • Registered: 2007-07-24
  • Posts: 3

Re: HARPSICHORD and HARP

hey gitaardocphil,
i play irish harp i've been playin 9 yrs now i think. tis a fantastic instrument but u can't jus play it half-heartedly u have to go all d way with it!!! it was nearly gone out completely but there was a revival in the 60s an now more mainstream recording artists r discovering it again. harpsichord? really different-way more like a piano.
kimmi