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The harp is a stringed musical instrument
consisting of a rigid, triangular frame within which are stretched
a set of parallel strings. The strings run between the top,
or neck, of the harp, and its resonator. Neck and resonator
are joined together, with the strings set at an oblique angle
to the resonator. (By contrast, in other harp-like instruments
such as the lyre and zither, the strings run parallel to the
resonator.) Ancient and primitive harps lacked the third rigid
member of contemporary frame harps, the pillar, which extends
from the neck down to the lower end of the resonator. The
strong structure provided by the pillar allows for an increased
string tension that produces notes of a higher pitch than
was possible with early harps. The instrument is played by
tilting it back so that it rests against the player's shoulder,
and plucking the strings from either side with the fingers
of both hands.
The modern orchestral harp stands approximately 170 cm high
(5.5 ft) and has the largest range in the orchestra: more
than 6 1/2 octaves (from the lowest C on the piano to the
highest G). Its structure consists of a tapering, hollow body
covered with a thin soundboard (the resonator), a doubly curved
neck that carries the tuning pins, and a straight, hollow
pillar. At the base of the harp are seven pedals, one for
each degree of the diatonic scale. These pedals, mechanically
connected through the pillar to two rows of rotating pronged
discs placed under all of the strings for each degree of the
scale either a semitone (pedal at half hitch activating discs
in the first row) or a whole tone (pedal fully depressed activating
discs in the second row); the instrument is thus totally chromatic
(a sequence of notes proceeding by semitones). The harp is
strung in gut or nylon in the upper and middle registers.
The bass strings are of overspun wire.
Pillarless arched harps (in which the neck is merely a curved
extension of the resonator) and angular harps (in which the
neck is a separate part attached at one end to the resonator)
were prevalent in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Although
known to the Greeks, the harp was eclipsed in classical times
by instruments of the LYRE family. The frame harp appears
to have developed as early as the 8th century. The short medieval
harp with outcurving pillar so widely represented in iconography
from the 8th century on was supplanted from about the mid-15th
century by the much narrower Gothic harp with a nearly straight
pillar, indicating increased string tension. Attempts to provide
chromatic tones were made from the 16th century on, by using
double or triple sets of strings. The late-17th-century hook
harp used hand-turned hooks placed below the tuning pins to
raise the strings' pitch by a semitone. Development of various
pedal mechanisms during the 18th century resulted ultimately
in the patent granted to Sebastien Erard for the double-action
pedal system.
The chromatic flexibility offered by the pedal harp, along
with a growing thirst for orchestral color, made the harp
increasingly appealing to 19th-century composers. The instrument
became a regular member of the orchestra of Berlioz, Wagner,
and Tchaikovsky.
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