Korgscrew
Group: Super Admins
Posts: 3511
Joined: Dec. 1999 |
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Posted: Nov. 27 2001, 18:16 |
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The other difference is the complexity - the concert harp uses pedals in order to change the key that it plays in (they are tuned to a scale), while a celtic harp (or folk harp, or lever harp, or indeed Clarsach as Mat said - its Gaelic name) has a system of levers to do the same job (each lever affects the pitch of one string - some harps will have one per string, others may have just a few levers or even none at all, meaning it has to be retuned with a wrench in order to play in a different key. Some use hooks to do a similar job to the levers). The pedal mechanisms are quite complex, which is what makes concert harps so big and heavy...
Of course, Mike cheats and plays harp sounds from a guitar now (he claims that it's not possible to get a good harp sound in a live concert, though the electroacoustic harps I've seen would seem to prove him wrong)...maybe some day he'll be persuaded to bring some of the more adventurous instruments out of the cupboard once again.
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