The arrangement of musical instruments: how many strings does a harp have?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

One of the oldest stringed instruments, the harp, has a rich history. It is not at all surprising that now many classical music lovers do not even know how many strings a harp has. Indeed, over the centuries, the appearance and size of this instrument with a melodic muffled sound has changed.

How many strings did a harp have in ancient times?

It is believed that an ancient man, releasing an arrow from a bow, heard a thin sound made by a bowstring. This is how the idea of creating the first plucked instruments appeared: harps, harps, lyres. The modern harp is a heavy instrument (weighing up to 29 kg), huge in size, having from 45 to 47 strings. But she wasn't always like that. In ancient samples, there were from 7 to 30 strings. However, the dimensions were not so impressive.

Modern concert halls are equipped with spacious orchestra pits, so there is room even for such a massive instrument as a harp. The strings once played only one octave of seven notes.

Gradually the device changed and improved, as a result it becamepossible to produce a diatonic scale. But in order to extract chromatic intervals, it was necessary to re-tune the strings with hooks or change the tension. As a result, for easier sound extraction, the harp had pedals. With their help, it was possible to increase the sound by a semitone. Further improvement led to the fact that there were double pedals, thanks to which it became possible to raise sounds by a whole tone.

The device of modern designs

To the question of how many strings the harp has left after all the transformations, it will not be possible to give a monosyllabic answer. Today there are small harps with 30 strings and large triangular ones with 44 strung strings. You can additionally use 45, 46 and 47 tension strings. The mechanism has double pedals. Tension threads are rigid, veined, sometimes nylon is used. The longest of them - the lower one, has a length of 1503 mm. The shortest is the top one, only 69 mm long. They are all attached to the deck and actuated by a pinch.

With the help of special double pedals, the harp's scale changes by half a tone. When the pedal is pressed, the mechanism inside the vertical column is activated. The turntables, which are operated by a pedal mechanism, shorten the length of the string by 1/18th and raise the sound by half a step. With a decrease in length by 2/18, respectively, there is an increase by a whole tone.

Why love the harp?

For thousands of years this musical instrument has not lost its popularity. The appearance has changed, the shape, weight and evendesign, and the sound is still striking in its delicate timbre. You may not know how many strings a harp has, how much it weighs, or how it is played, but its sound is difficult to confuse with any other.

Its sound was especially loved by the secular aristocracy of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was played by roy alty, ladies of noble blood and members of the high society of tsarist Russia. The most famous composers did not ignore the majestic harp. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Alyabyev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Liszt, Wagner and other brilliant composers included the sound of strings in their works.