Harfenforum und Wiki

The lever harps with only one lever per string, are becoming obsolete. I own a Dilling model harp that has seven levers, situated on top of the harmonic curve of this 33-string harp. This model was designed by the famous concert harpist Mildred Dilling, USA (student of Renie in Paris) in the 1980's. This enables the player to flip one lever, with either hand, and all the strings of the same name are activated. It is a patented design, held by builder Arsalaan Fay in Florida, USA. Much easier to play, and much lighter to transport than other single-action pedal harps such as the Tyrolean model.
Also this April, Starfish Designs (Scotland harpmaker) will introduce their new lever harp at the Edinburgh Festival. Catriona Mackay will play it there. The mid-section of this harp has chromatic stringing!! This enlarges the repertoire of what lever harp players could formerly play. Aspiring harp players might wish to rent a harp now rather than buy one, and save their money to purchase one of these advanced design harps, where they can be much less limited. Best wishes! Mudge2

Dear Mudge,

it seems to be very interesting, what you write about this technical solution of one lever instead of 5,6 levers. Although there are several pieces that are even easier to play on lever-harps, or there is even an advantage in having two different tunings on one harp. There exist very interesting new compositions for Celtic/Irish harps that take advantage of this particular chracteristics of the lever harp.

Here in Munich there is a very interesting museum, the "Stadtmuseum", showing many "light" pedal harps, tiny and beautiful, from the 19th century. This is very inspiring for me as a harp-maker. I like the celtic and gothic style very much because of the weight. I hate carrying heavy harps around! What I saw at this famous museum was an ancient Irish lap harp, maybe 110 cm, with a double-action mechanic (e. g. c flat, c, c sharp) with 7 levers integrated in the (bowed) pillar. I think it is possible to construct light, elegant harps of any shape by using this technique, which is basically a variation of the Tyrolean single-action mechanic.

Is it possible for you to send me a (detailed) photograph of your harp to my adress? bekkayeharfen@aol.com.
How old is your harp? As far as I am informed, Arsalaan Fay has not made this kind of harps in recent time. But maybe my information is not up to date.

Thank you very much in advance for your kind reply,

yours Anne-Marie

Hi Mudge2,
Thanks for the news - it's very nice to hear that there are people - harpmakers as well as musicians - who push the envelope of harp design and (virtual) chromatic playability. I'm looking forward to seeing the harp that you described, but I do understand that it might be too early to disclose photos or sound samples before the official release.

Having read your message again, I probably wouldn't go as far as ringing the death knell for the traditional semitone lever system. Many pieces that I play actually take advantage of the fact that you can set separate levers to separate notes (see this thread for an example). But to see a new flavour being added to the harp variety is indeed very interesting!

Best regards, Ralf