Editing Harp (section)

== Modern European and American harps ==

=== Concert harp ===
{{Main|Pedal harp}}
[[File:Lavinia Meijer playing the harp, 2011.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Lavinia Meijer]] playing the harp]]
The ''concert'' harp is a technologically advanced instrument, particularly distinguished by its use of pedals, foot-controlled levers which can alter the pitch of given strings, making it [[chromatic]] and thus able to play a wide body of classical repertoire. The pedal harp contains seven pedals that each affect the tuning of all strings of one [[pitch-class]]. The pedals, from left to right, are D, C, B on the left side and E, F, G, A on the right. Pedals were first introduced in 1697 by Jakob Hochbrucker of Bavaria.<ref name="Stanley1997">{{Cite book |last=Stanley |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qnrZAAAAMAAJ |title=Classical Music: An introduction to Classical music through the great composers & their masterworks |date=1 May 1997 |publisher=Reader's Digest Association |isbn=978-0-89577-947-2 |page=24}}</ref> In 1811 these were upgraded to the "double action" pedal system patented by Sébastien Erard.<ref>{{Cite web |last=de Vale |first=Sue Carole |title=Harp |url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/45738pg5 |url-access=subscription |access-date=27 December 2020 |website=Oxford Music Online |series=Oxford Music Online / Grove Music Online |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

[[File:Harpo Marx playing the harp.jpeg|left|upright|thumb|[[Harpo Marx]] would run around performing zany slapstick pantomime comedy with his brothers, then sit down to play beautiful music on the concert harp.]]
The addition of pedals broadened the harp's abilities, allowing its gradual entry into the classical orchestra, largely beginning in the 19th century. The harp played little or no role in early classical music (being used only a handful of times by major composers such as Mozart and Beethoven), and its use by [[Cesar Franck]] in his Symphony in D&nbsp;minor (1888) was described as "revolutionary" despite the harp having seen some prior use in orchestral music.<ref name=Mar1983>{{cite book |last=del Mar |first=Norman |author-link=Norman Del Mar |title=Anatomy of the Orchestra |year=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-05062-4 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vsVzqUN1GBcC&pg=PA435 435] ff }}</ref> In the 20th century, the pedal harp found use outside of classical music, entering musical comedy films in 1929 with [[Harpo Marx|Arthur "Harpo" Marx]], jazz with [[Casper Reardon]] in 1934,<ref>{{cite web |title=Casper Reardon |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/casper-reardon-mn0001839999 |access-date=19 December 2019 |series=Biography & History |website=AllMusic |lang=en-us}}</ref> [[the Beatles]] 1967 single "[[She's Leaving Home]]", and several works by [[Björk]] which featured harpist [[Zeena Parkins]]. In the early 1980s, Swiss harpist [[Andreas Vollenweider]] exposed the concert harp to large new audiences with his popular new age/jazz albums and concert performances.<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 April 2008 |title=A Portrait of Andreas Vollenweider |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/a-portrait-of-andreas-vollenweider-/6596504 |access-date=30 January 2020 |website=SWI swissinfo.ch |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1 October 1985 |title=New Sounds: Andreas Vollenweider |url=https://www.spin.com/2019/10/new-sounds-andreas-vollenweider/ |access-date=30 January 2020 |website=Spin (magazine) |ref=Spin Oct. 1985 Vollenweider}}</ref>

=== Folk, lever, and Celtic instruments ===
{{Main|Celtic harp}}
[[File:Celtic harps.JPG|thumb|upright|[[New Salem (Menard County), Illinois|New Salem Village]] [[Historical reenactment|re-enactor]] playing a [[Celtic harp]]]]
[[File:Celtic harp dsc05425.jpg|thumb|left|The medieval "[[Queen Mary Harp]]" (''Clàrsach na Banrìgh Màiri'') preserved in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. It is one of three surviving Insular Celtic medieval harps, which serve as protypes for "celtic harps".]]
In the modern era, there is a family of mid-size harps, generally with nylon strings, and optionally with partial or full levers but without pedals. They range from two to six octaves, and are plucked with the fingers, largely using the same techniques used for playing orchestral harps. Though these harps evoke ties to historical European harps, their specifics are modern, and they are frequently referred to broadly as "''Celtic harps''" due to their region of revival and popular association, or more generically as "''folk harps''" due to their use in non-classical music, or as "''lever harps''" to contrast their modifying mechanism with the larger pedal harp.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bouchaud |first=Dominig |title=Is "Celtic" a myth? The lever harp in Brittany |url=http://www.harpblog.info/en/2016/01/is-celtic-a-myth-the-lever-harp-in-brittany/ |journal=Harp Blog}}</ref>

[[File:Eisteddfod Caerwys - harpists (4153297586).jpg|thumb|upright|Welsh harpists at Caerwys [[Eisteddfod]] {{circa|1892}}]]
The modern Celtic harp began to appear in the early 19th&nbsp;century in Ireland, shortly after all the last generation of harpers had all died-out, breaking the continuity of musical training between the earlier native Gaelic harping tradition and the revival of Celtic harp playing as part of the later [[Celtic revival]].

[[John Egan (harp maker)|John Egan]], a pedal harp maker in Dublin, developed a new type of harp which had gut strings and semitone mechanisms like a reduced version of a single-action pedal harp; it was small and curved like the historical ''cláirseach'' or Irish harp, but its strings were of gut and the soundbox was much lighter.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rimmer |first=Joan |date=1977 |title=The Irish Harp |publisher=Mercier Press for the Cultural Relations Committee  |page=67 |url= }}</ref> In the 1890s a similar new harp was also developed in Scotland as part of the [[Celtic revival|popular revival of Gaelic culture]].<ref>Collinson, Francis (1983)[1966]. ''The Bagpipe, Fiddle and Harp''. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966; reprinted by Lang Syne Publishers Ltd., {{ISBN|0946264481}}, {{ISBN|978-0946264483}}</ref> In the mid-20th&nbsp;century [[Jord Cochevelou]] developed a variant of the modern Celtic harp which he referred to as the "Breton Celtic harp"; his son [[Alan Stivell]] was to become the most influential Breton harper, and a strong influence in the broader world of the Celtic harp.

=== Multi-course harps ===
A [[multi-course harp]] is a harp with more than one row of strings, as opposed to the more common "single course" harp. On a double-harp, the two rows generally run parallel to each other, one on either side of the neck, and are usually both [[diatonic scale|diatonic]] (sometimes with levers) with identical notes.

The [[triple harp]] originated in Italy in the 16th&nbsp;century, and arrived in Wales in the late 17th&nbsp;century where it established itself in the local tradition as the Welsh harp (''telyn deires'', "three-row harp").<ref name=Koch>{{cite book |last=Koch |first=John T. |year=2006 |title=Celtic Culture: A historical encyclopedia |volume=1 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-440-0 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&pg=PA893 893]&nbsp;''ff'' }}</ref> The triple harp's string set consists of two identical outer rows of standard [[diatonic scale|diatonicly]] tuned strings (same as a double-harp) with a third set of strings between them tuned to the missing [[chromatic scale|chromatic]] notes. The strings are spaced sufficiently for the harpist to reach past the outer row and pluck an inner string when a chromatic note is needed.

=== Chromatic-strung harps ===
Some harps, rather than using pedal or lever devices, achieve chromaticity by simply adding additional strings to cover the notes outside their diatonic home scale. The Welsh triple harp is one such instrument, and two other instruments employing this technique are the [[cross-strung harp]] and the [[inline chromatic harp]].

[[File:Cross harp.JPG|thumb|upright|left|Cross-strung chromatic harp]]
The cross-strung harp has one row of diatonic strings, and a separate row of chromatic notes, angled in an "X" shape so that the row which can be played by the right hand at the top may be played by the left hand at the bottom, and vice versa. This variant was first attested as the ''arpa de dos órdenes'' ("two-row harp") in Spain and Portugal, in the 17th century.<ref name="MikishkaMusic1989">{{Cite book |last=Mikishka |first=Patricia O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h3g9AQAAIAAJ |title=Single, double, and triple harps, 1581–1782: Harps having two or three rows of parallel strings. Part II |date=1989 |publisher=Stanford University |page=48 |department=Department of Music}}</ref>

The inline chromatic harp is generally a single-course harp with all 12 notes of the chromatic scale appearing in a single row. Single course inline chromatic harps have been produced at least since 1902, when [[:de:Weigel-Harfe|Karl Weigel]] of [[Hanover]] patented a model of inline chromatic harp.<ref name="Society1903">{{Cite book |title=Zeitschrift |collaboration=International Musical Society |date=1903 |publisher=Breitkopf und Härtel |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9Vw5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA196 196]}}</ref>

=== Electric harps ===
Amplified (electro-acoustic) hollow body and solid body [[electric harp|electric lever harps]] are produced by many harp makers, including [[Lyon & Healy]], [[Salvi Harps|Salvi]], and [[Camac Harps|Camac]]. They generally use individual [[piezo-electric]] sensors for each string, often in combination with small internal microphones to produce a mixed electrical signal. Hollow body instruments can also be played acoustically, while solid body instruments must be amplified.

[[File:Gravikord.JPG|thumb|upright|right|A [[gravikord]]]]
The late-20th century [[Gravikord]] is a modern purpose-built electric double harp made of stainless steel based on the traditional West African [[kora (instrument)|kora]].