Fun fact: our own Margery Wedderburn used to play the harp. She played when young and performed with small groups and at churches. Now her harp sits in the Living Room as an objet d’art. It’s beautiful. Harps are incredibly beautiful. And they’ve been around for centuries.
Every year when Margery and her team attend the High Point Furniture Market, there seems to be an antique harp or two for sale in the Antique & Design Center. These are most definitely sold only as art. If you were to try to tune many of these antiques you might pull out the entire board as the pressure from the tuned strings would be too much for the old piece.
But here are some fun facts about the harp in general, and Margery gets these questions all the time at her house when she entertains:
- How many strings are there on a harp? It depends on the type, but peddle harps, also called concert harps, have 47 strings.
- How do you even tune it? You use a tuning fork and there are notches towards the top of the harp that you loosen or tighten depending on what is needed.
- How often do you have to tune it? It really needs to be tuned all the time, because just the slightest change in weather or room temperature can get it out of tune. It can go out of tune sometimes while being played. Similar to a guitar.
- Why are there black and red strings along with the white strings? The harp is incredibly similar to the piano, in that the notes are in the same order. The red strings signify the “C” strings, while the black or blue strings are the “F” notes. This makes it helpful to know where to place the hands when playing something.
- What are the foot peddles for? Ahh, the foot peddles. These are important! They make the notes flat or sharp. So if you press down on the C peddle, then all of the C’s on the entire harp go to C sharp. And if you place the C peddle into the upper area it loosens all the C strings and they all go to C flat. At the same time.
- Is the harp hard to lift or move? Surprisingly it is not. Harps are not that heavy, because they are hollow in the board area (this is where the sound resonates). Harps are just such a strange shape, and this is what makes them tough to carry around. But harpists do it all the time!
The harp seems so versatile. Besides playing each note, what sounds can you create? You can create harmonic sounds, percussive sounds, pedal sounds and nail plucking sounds similar to a Mexican guitar. And there’s more…
We’ll tell you more about the harp in an upcoming post.
Till then, Stay Inspired,
The Margery Wedderburn Interiors Team