My Argent Fox double-strung harp was originally planned to have wood carvings added to it but that final touch was overlooked as other concerns took precedence preparing for the harp’s delivery in fall 2022.

This spring I decided it was time to revisit that forgotten detail and complete the visual aesthetic of the harp.

My source here for ready-made wood carvings was the very popular online shop Etsy. I measured the sound holes and found several very nice daisies that would look just right, plus some Baroque scrolls for the base of the soundboard:

Daisies for the top two sound holes.

Baroque scrolls and larger daisies for the bottom sound holes.

The wood ornaments needed a flexible adhesive putty to make them stay on the soundboard. Soundboards rise and fall with tuning, humidity and temperature. Elmer’s carpenter’s wood glue dries too stiff, so they would fall off on the first tuning. Products like Quake Hold and Loctite Fun-Tac, if they’re spread thin enough, allow the wood carvings to be securely mounted to soundboard and move up and down with environmental and tuning tension changes.

I have four senior cats (or maybe, four senior cats have me!) In any case, 17 year old Jasmine Kitty has her own Internet fame with her little cardboard kit harp that I made for her 10th birthday. This harp has engraved fox paws going up the front pillar.

Time for the cat carving!

Here’s a kitty reaching up for a purple daisy centered on a green meadow.

I layered different colors of metallic paint markers. Here I used a wood glue, because there’s not flexing going on at the pillar cap.

Pillar cap ornament.

Jasmine would approve.

Argent Fox double wire harp in my recording studio.

We’ve selected the carols and Christmas hymns we’ll be singing for Lessons & Carols at our church on December 31st. Most of these will be played on the pipe organ and I’ll be accompanying on my double-strung wire harp.

The collection this year will be: (from the Episcopal Hymnal 1982)

• Once in Royal David’s City – 102
• Creator of the Stars of Night – 60
• Hark! the glad sound! the Savior comes – 72
• Rejoice! Rejoice, believers – 68
• Lo, how a rose e’er blooming – 81
• O, little town of Bethlehem – 79
• Away in a manger – 101
• What child is this – 115
• While shepherds watched their flocks by night – 95
• Angels we have heard on high – 96
• We three kings – 128
• O come, all ye faithful – 83
• Go tell it on the mountain – 99

Double-strung wire harp

Playing them from the hymnal can be a little distracting, if you’re not used to ignoring the four-part harmony and just concentrating on the soprano line to learn the melody. Also keep in mind that the hymnal arrangements are designed for congregational singing but might not go so well for instruments (like wire harps).

A few of these are available in Sylvia Woods’ Christmas harp book. I just play the simpler arrangements, since wire harps have richer overtones than nylon-strung harps and ring on much longer. I also play fewer chords than suggested and stick to thirds and single note melodies and counterpoint accompaniment, when possible.

Since I have a full set of Truitt sharping levers on both sides, I can deal with accidental notes without having to flip a lever in midstream. Set the lever to the raised sharp position on one side, leave it off on the other and then just remember to play that # that comes up in the middle of your piece on one side and go right back to the natural note on the the other.

The double-strung wire harp also has a very echoing quality, so that if the strings are slightly detuned from one another, about one or two cents, they shimmer. If you play the same melody on each side of the harp, but just slightly delayed so that one hand leads the melody ahead of the other, the shimmering is especially beautiful. But be careful not to overdo it!

Lastly, playing a single clear outline of the melody on one rank (or side) of the harp, followed by a clear counterpoint on the other side (can be an improvised descant), is a very effective way of presenting Christmas hymns and carols!

Forest Kitty

After two months of carefully changing out my bronze wires for copper phosphor bronze ones and bringing my double-strung harp up to tension (currently at A=390, Baroque pitch), my newest wire harp is ready to make his grand appearance at our Christmas Eve services!

In the harp world, we tend to give our harps a name. Esabelle was already named by her builder Gary Stone when I got her, but she was made in 2015 in memory of my beloved tuxedo kitty Isabelle, who died in May 2014 of complications from feline diabetes (after two years of twice-daily insulin injections).

On March 25, 2017, I lost another beloved tuxedo kitty, Forest, also to diabetes. He belonged to my parents and became my kitty after they were unable to care for him. He came to live with us and I managed his insulin until he also developed the same complications as Isabelle.

Both of my harps have these kitties’ paw print impressions inside, at the bottom. I decided to rename my third wire harp, the Argent Fox Lady Marilyn, to “Forest Harp”, in honor of Forest Kitty.

Forest Harp

Paw prints on harp pillar

Here is a video I made some years ago, when the grief was still fresh, of Forest. The harp I’m playing in the background is my Triplett Luna. (I haven’t renamed my Luna harp yet. She’s still Luna.)

https://youtu.be/ke3TGzIDwFc