11/6/2021 Harp Design and Construction

ASA/CAA '05 Meeting, Vancouver, BC

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Harp Design and Construction

Chris Waltham [email protected]
[email protected]

Department of Physics & Astronomy

University of British Columbia

Vancouver BC, Canada V6T 1Z1

Popular version of paper 5aMU8

Presented Friday morning, May 20th, 2005

ASA/CAA '05 Meeting, Vancouver, BC

Construction

The harp is triangular in shape. The easiest part of the triangle to

make is the post (fig. 1), as it plays little part in the sound
production and
can therefore be over-engineered; the
compressional force is in any
case
mostly axial. The neck has to withstand the total tension of all the
strings, and also a large torque, as all the strings are mounted on one
side. The
curvature does not help, and as much of the characteristic
grace and
elegance of a harp derives from the neck shape, it cannot be overbuilt.
Very strong many-layered plywood
seems to be the best material, covered
with veneer for beauty's sake. The soundboard has to be both thin
(note how floppy it is), and also to withstand all the string tension
(6000N
in this case - more than half a ton). Sitka spruce is the
material of choice, for its acoustical properties and anisotropic
strength. The grain runs horizontally, and thin veneer with
vertical
grain  is applied to prevent
cracking (although it degrades the sound slightly). The soundbox is a
light, hollow shell, with holes at the back
for improved sound radiation and
access to the strings. The whole
structure bends alarmingly under the string tension (and occasionally
explodes), so the veneer has to be very well bonded.

Figure 1: Construction Sequence

Post capital
and base on lathe Mortising
the post capital Neck Soundboard Soundbox
(birch/maple String
support
(birch)

(baltic birch ply, birch/maple veneer) (sitka spruce)

veneer on "rubber" ply) (oak and nylon

The Finished Product

In the following panel I have placed my own celtic and lever harps
in the context of  harp evolution (fig. 2). The harp has been
basically
triangular-shaped for about 1000 years. The
gothic harps had small,
thick soundboxes and soundboards carved out of two solid pieces of
wood, and needed "brays" to buzz against the strings and increase the
sound output.
Larger, more efficient soundboards came with the celtic
harps. In the renaissance, soundboards were made ever thinner,
especially in Spain. Chromatic tuning was achieved by
having two or
three rows of strings, making the harps very difficult to play, and
multiplying the total force on the soundboard. Sharpening levers to
raise the pitch of the strings by a
semitone went some way to solving
this problem. The ultimate "modern" concert harp was developed by Erard
in Paris and London around 1800; these had pedals attached to a
complex
mechanism which could raise the pitch of the strings by one or two
semitones. 

Figure 2: Evolution of Harps

Small Larger soundbox 2,3 string rows: Levers for semitone Double-action
soundbox,
chromatic sharpening, pedals
thick

thin soundboard

soundboard

Gothic Harp Homemade

Celtic
harp Arpa a tre
file Homemade
lever Erard Harp
(C15),Hofburg (18 strings) (1625), harp
(36 strings), c.1800 (modern
Museum,

Museo Civico, copy of George

concert harp),
Vienna Bologna
Morley model Hofburg

(London, 1820) Museum, Vienna

Strings

The string material is determined by harmonicity (the overtones

should sound pleasant) and "feel" (fig. 3). Harmonicity requires that
the string
be strong, heavy enough, but not stiff.
"Feel" is how hard the player
has to pull to move the string centre a given amount before release; it
should be large enough that the strings do not touch, and not vary too
much
from string to string. Nylon or gut would probably suffice for all
strings if the lower strings followed the curve set by the upper
strings and became very much longer than they
actually are. Gut is
mechanically similar to nylon but has a warmer tone for the
mid-register. Practical reasons make the harp neck a double curve (an
ogive, so it isn't too tall) and
so much heavier strings are needed for
the low register. Nylon/gut strings would have to be very thick here,
very inharmonic, and the feel would be so small that the strings would
interfere with each other. Steel wrapped with helical copper wire is
used, although there is an awkward change in feel at the break.  
      

Figure 3: String data measured on a

Salvi Aurora Concert Harp

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11/6/2021 Harp Design and Construction

Basic harp shape and position of

string types Maximum stress (and tension)
occurs in the steel strings

The highest steel and nylon

strings feel the tightest to the
The steel keeps the
inharmonicity low for the lowest strings

player

The Characteristic Sound of a Harp

The ingredients which distinguish the

sound of a harp from any other plucked instrument, say the guitar, are
as follows:

The string is plucked in the middle, which reduces even

harmonics. In some music, the harp is sometimes plucked close to the
soundboard in order to imitate a guitar.
There is very strong coupling, via to soundboard, between any two
strings with overlapping overtones. In the case of a
large harp, many strings vibrate when only one is plucked; see figs. 4
and 5.
The long strings vibrate in collapsing and expanding ellipses,
which gives many strings a long pulsed tail to the sound (fig. 6).

The large number of strings allows for glissandi, a feature most people
immediately associate with the harp.

Figure 4: Sonograms produced by the A2

string on my lever harp and a guitar: which one is which?

The horizontal axis is frequency (pitch) with the

left-most spike being the fundamental at 110 Hz; the other spikes are
overtones.

The vertical axis (scrolling dowards) is time. The bright horizontal

line is the inital pluck, which excites other string via soundboard
resonances ("blobs" in the line). Faint vertical smudge around 60 Hz is
caused by external noise. Click on images to hear sound.

Not so easy is it? Even when you hear it - without visual clues - it is
not completely obvious. Look at the spaces between the overtones; the
harp has many faint spikes caused by other strings starting to
resonate. There is
very string one at 262 Hz from the C4
string (an octave and a minor third away - a factor of  about
7/3).

Figure
5: Demonstration of
String- Figure
6: Typical Motion of Centre of String
Soundboard Coupling - snapshots every 1/2 second after plucking

Click on image to see movie shot

with 65Hz The large polygon at time zero
is
responsible for

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11/6/2021 Harp Design and Construction
strobe. When string C2
(leftmost red string), the initial attack, followed by the collapsing and
note how C3 and C4
(also red) respond. expanding ellipses which produce the sustained,
pulsing sound.
Acknowledgments

String motion data taken by Gary Chan, as part of his

undergraduate thesis work; thanks to Andrzej Kotlicki for the position
sensors.
Thanks to the UBC Music Department for the loan of the Salvi
Aurora.

The sonogram software was obtained from www.baudline.com.

Harp plans from Robinson Harps, California.

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