My preceding posts on reading Gregorian chant didn’t go into how to play it on the wire-strung harp.

Gregorian chant is a vocal music, not an instrumental one. So there’s a little bit of re-interpretation here. Wire harps, unlike nylon-strung Celtic harps, ring for quite a while after you pluck a string with your nails, unless you damp them immediately with your finger pads. This trait allows you to simulate some of the aspects of singing.

If you pluck a note on your wire harp and let it ring, consider it as a sung note. When you play the next one, it will blend in with the previously played note (unless damped), creating a vocal line that rises or falls, depending on the written melody.

Repeated notes in chant merit their own discussion.

Depending on the context, you can either choose to play these as one long sustained note and not pluck them rapidly three times…

Or.

You can play them with an alternating improvised counterpoint, as long as the notes you choose are appropriate to that mode (i.e. don’t play a Bb if the mode doesn’t call for one). Using the above example to illustrate this idea, the effect will have a rather Baroque feel, reminiscent of Vivaldi violin concertos: Ex. C, B, C, A, C, G then F, E, F, D, F, C, F.

When I play this latter style on my wire harp I tend to play the repeating note with one hand and the descending (or ascending) notes with the other. It’s especially easy on my little cross-strung wire harp Esabelle, because if I need the Bb it’s right there in the middle of the string course and at the top on the left side of the harp.

On the subject of wire harp damping:

I don’t tend to damp much either with the Baroque style of alternating notes… I just let them ring. Then I might lightly damp the last note and move on to the next set of neums. But I find that excessively heavy damping does not sound very good; it tends to cause an inappropriate abruptness which is not conducive to a meditative quality in church harp music. The only time I do some damping is if there are a fair amount of consecutive seconds which may clash, but even there it’s quite light and subtle. I’ve found a way of playing ornaments and graces quickly with some rapid fingerpad damping which does not draw overt attention to itself. The idea is to make the wire harp sound like it is singing and fading gracefully away in the church’s acoustic resonance space like an echoing cathedral pipe organ, not like it is abruptly starting and stopping. This latter style is more suitable for secular music.

Also I tend to touch the wires lightly on initial contact with my fingernails and not “dig” into them, so there is no harshness of tone, even at louder volumes. The idea is to play the room, much as the pipe organ does, and let that space resonate, even more so than my harp’s soundbox does. To accomplish this, I try to point my soundboard up at the church’s ceiling and back corner so that the sound waves coming off of my harp are reflected back into the sanctuary space. After some experimenting I can usually find the sweet spot and make the entire worship area easily resonate, along with the pipe organ.

My wire harps ideally, should sound sweet and angelic in church… singing as a heavenly chorus of angels. At no time should any of my harps sound strident, brash or hint at the worldly, pop culture of our times. The tonal ideal is to be transcendent, helping the congregation to pray and to seek unity with our Lord and Savior in His House.

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!

Since my double strung harp is out of commission for the time being, I’ve been relying on my lightweight (10 lbs.!) Esabelle harp to come to church with me every Sunday.

Playing her on a weekly basis has certainly helped improved my technique! Cross-strung (X) harps are usually not wire; they normally have nylon strings instead and therefore don’t call for the usual wire harp playing techniques: nails, damping, etc. But nylon and wire X harps both share similar playing methods: the fingers of one hand reaches up for chromatic notes while the fingers on the opposite hand goes downward for the same sharps and flats. This is due to the angle of the chromatic rank of strings as it passes across diatonic string rank. Looking at the strings from the player’s point of view above the neck, one sees an X.

Looking down from the top of Esabelle. Two rows of strings: one diatonic, the other chromatic.

On a nylon strung cross harp, learning this geometry is challenging enough. Add in the long-ringing resonance of wire strings that occasionally need damping, and the repertoire of basic playing technique for this instrument grows!

However, it’s not impossible. Play the cross wire harp as you normally would, but also using your nails as on a traditional wire harp. In the beginning, as you’re learning, you will naturally play at a much slower speed. You may find you have to consciously start thinking about damping strings with your finger pads, which is often times an automatic action after years of playing wire-strung harp.

As one finger(nail) goes up to pluck, the previously played note, especially if it’s an interval of a second above or below, can be damped by the thumb pad simultaneously going down to damp. Or vice versa, depending on which hand is playing. Intervals of seconds, like C sharp and B, can be a little jarring on a wire harp in a way that they maybe aren’t on other instruments. At least that’s been my experience, so I have a tendency to damp them in favor of more consonant intervals, like thirds and fifths, that support the natural harmony of the bell-like wire sound.

(But please note that they don’t really sound like actual cast bells; carillonneur husband George Matthew Jr. has made that clear to me. There’s no minor third in ringing wire harp wires as there is in real carillon bells! Harp wires tend to have a fundamental and a strong octave overtone though.)

Getting used to playing a wire X harp takes some time. I started by focusing on two keys: F Major, which uses the Bb string and G Major, which uses the F# string. Learning to hit those angled chromatic strings instead of the natural B and F is a good workout for your brain and your ears will certainly tell you when you’ve plucked the wrong one!

My learning strategy started with playing those two scales and breaking it down even further: just play A Bb C and notice how different it looks and feels from playing A B C.

Or try playing F# F back and forth and note the string spacing before going back to playing E F# G. Then try playing the entire scale.

After getting comfortable with the placement of the chromatic notes, then you can try playing a very simple melody.

I usually don’t play chords on Esabelle very much. Her individual strings are very harmonically rich in overtones and trying to play chords just sounds overwhelming and I lose the sense of what’s going on in the underlying melody. I’ve found though, that she makes for a very good contrapuntal instrument. I’ve started exploring Bach’s organ music transcribed for lever harp and found she is an excellent harp for that! Baroque harpsichord music is another possibility.

Esabelle’s range is quite modest, being a lap harp: G to G 22 strings, so it took me a while to find some nice Bach arrangements that would work well on her. Eventually I plan to play these on my double wire Argent Fox harp, which has a larger range. But she is also excellent for playing a variety of international and little-known Advent/Christmas carols for the upcoming season!

Stoney End Esabelle’s little sound hole heart ~ A much-loved harp!

Almost every Sunday, unless husband George has to be away (substituting at another church, playing the carillon for Convocation or Commencement at either of his two colleges), he’s playing the historic pipe organ at our church. Preludes, postludes and hymns.

With, of course, wire harp accompaniment!

Intricately painted organ pipes were once common in 19th century Vermont. Yes, these do speak, they are not just for looks!

If you happen to have a spouse, friend or otherwise happily willing organist in your church, you can play wire harp accompaniment on Sunday mornings to hymns.

Here’s how.

Let the organist lead. The congregation will enjoy (hopefully!) singing their favorite hymns. Check the key of the hymn in your hymnal at some point during the service and set your blades or levers in advance if you have them.

When the organist plays the first line of the hymn through, don’t accompany right away. You’ll join with the congregation. Note what register the organ is at: if there’s a lot of 8′ and 16′ Diapason, you’ll probably want to be at top most octaves of your harp (A5 to A4 strings). If the opposite, a lot of 2′ or 4′ flutes, let’s say, then switch. Go down to the lower end of your instrument: roughly E4 to E3. Please note these are approximations and are what I’ve found work on my harps; your mileage may vary. Experiment to see what is best for your acoustic environment, the voice of your harp and of course, how well your harp pairs up with the organ in your church. Like harps, pipe organs have their own unique voices too!

So having got that out of the way, what are you going to be playing? Answer is, it depends. Sometimes you’ll need to improvise a descant. Let your strings ring and sing. Othertimes, a sweeping gliss… the stereotypical harp sound people that people always think of when you say the word (congregations love these but don’t overdo them!).

Or sometimes folks just don’t know the tune very well and you need to help them (and your organist out). Rhythm harp is the answer! I actually sit right in back of husband George where I can watch his feet on the pedalboard – I do play organ some and fill in on the days when he’s away – and I’ll play a counter rhythm, fast and light on my harp. Triplets, Irish style, one-two-three, one-two-three on top of an otherwise duple meter can help bring a draggy hymn to life. It will also help get them back on track and singing again. Once they’re on board, some syncopated, jazzy rhythms, off beats here and there will keep them going. Generally people aren’t aware that you’re helping them, they’re just a bit more confident with the pulse of an unfamiliar hymn that they’re still learning.

There is a lot more to this subject, but this should help you get started. I will post more on this topic. Be sure to subscribe and check back often!

Cover of my collection of Polish Advent hymns

In recent months I’ve become aware of a fantastic collection of kolady (Christmas carols) and hymns and service music for Mass on the website of the Polish American Liturgical Center at Orchard, Lake Michigan. Under Śpiewnik (hymnal) you will find a fabulous collection of Polish language hymns in PDF format to download!

As I am Polish-American on my father’s side (4th generation, from Buffalo, NY, Michalska) and currently working on becoming more fluent in my ancestral language – dad taught me some – I decided it was time to start adding some Polski hymny to my weekly Sunday offerings at St. Thomas & Grace!

The hymns have been well-received and I play my harp arrangements of them as preludes, postludes and for Communion. They are perfect for wire-strung harp, almost as if they were written for the instrument! I use the melodies as a framework and build harp fantasias on top of them, adjusting the length as needed.

I downloaded and collated the hymns into collections on my computer and assembled them into booklets, which I sent to the UPS store to have printed and spiral bound. The Christmas collection was the largest; I had to break the set up into three volumes as UPS’ limit is 150 pages per book. At the moment I’ve just completed the Lent and Easter collections and will soon be sending these out for printing.

Below is a Polish Lenten hymn in the key of F. As my new Argent Fox double strung harp is currently tuned to the key of Bb, this means I flip the Truitt levers on all of the E strings to the up position, taking the strings from E flat to E natural. The strings that are tuned to Bb don’t need to have their levers adjusted.

And under the Cross Mother stood  – Polish Lenten hymn

This hymn gives only the melody – no harmonization – and repeating notes, which is perfect for what I want to do on my double strung harp. Play the first F on the right side, the second F on the left side. The strings will not be precisely in tune and this will result in a shimmering, celeste effect.

The rest of the melody allows for Baroque ornamentations – turns, mordents – usually I play this on the left side of the harp while continuing to play the melody “straight” on the right set of strings.

Also breaking the eighth notes down into sixteenth notes is very effective. The opening F can be played twice: an octave apart on the right side in rapid succession, followed by the same F repeated on the other side an octave apart as sixteenth notes.The double-strung harp is very flexible!

Another thing you can do is to look at the last line and notice that the melody is scalar… this offers the opportunity to once again insert sixteenth notes between each of the ones on the printed page. They can be a second, third, fourth, five or an octave above or below, as long as rhythmic consistency is maintained and no clashing harmonies occur. On a wire harp, good damping technique is essential here! If you can damp rapidly on notes that may clash but let the “good” notes keep ringing on, the result is a beautiful singing, ringing natural sound. The trick is to not let the damping itself be obvious… abrupt stopping of sound anywhere does not work well with these hymns! But this is a skill that develops itself over time.

There are numerous opportunities for improvisation on a wire-strung harp with melodies like this. A solid background in music theory is very helpful. It will give you insights and creative ideas how to take a melody apart and put it back together again in imaginative ways and in real time, before your church congregation!

Jasmine Kitty has aspirations!

If you’ve just discovered the wire harp (or heard one being played), for starters it’s good to know that most folks in the overall world of harps (Classical, Celtic) tend to think of historical Irish wire-strung harp when this branch of the harp family comes up. That is, replica instruments of period harps made in Ireland sometime during the 1600’s and 1700’s and the accompanying music repertoire, e.g. O’Carolan, etc.

These harps are small, have no sharping levers and are diatonic: think playing in the key of C if you are familiar with the piano. No sharps or flats. To extend this analogy to the piano, you can only play music that doesn’t use the black keys. Unless of course, you stop and retune the harp to a different key, say F. Then you would get a Bb in there. But modulation to another key, like E Major, would be impossible.

The Trinity College Harp, Dublin, Ireland.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Around 1830 or so, or just before then, maybe in the late 1790’s, the old diatonic Irish wire-strung harp was beginning to die out. Its replacement? The new concert pedal harp, which made changing keys possible. But it was not a wire harp, with the beautiful, singing ringing tones of wire. It was really a different kind of harp altogether… the concert pedal grand that most people think of when you say “harp”. The orchestra harp.

However. In the world of wire harp there is another branch, albeit a small one. Contemporary wire-strung harps make no pretense to being historic replicas of an instrument from any period in the past. Instead, they look to the future, with their structural design emphasizing flexibility to accommodate today’s music. Certainly they can play the music of the past very well, but they allow instead for the growth and development of a long tradition, now being able to play sharps and flats, thus opening the door to a much wider array of music you can play on them.

Here I am playing my cross-strung wire harp with husband George at the pipe organ, Sunday services at St. Stephen’s

They have sharping blades or levers. They are cross-strung. They are multi-rank (more than one set of strings, each with a set of levers). The possibilities are endless.

For just getting started though, you will probably want to stay in the realm of the diatonic and move on to sharps and flats (chromatics) after you’ve learned the basics. There are a number of issues in playing wire strings that make things quite different from a nylon-strung Celtic harp or indeed, a concert pedal grand. For the most part, they’re played with the fingernails – usually – and there is a whole art form in learning to correctly damp with the finger pads because the strings have a very long ringing sustain. If the strings are not damped, everything runs together and sounds like mush. After a while this way of playing becomes automatic and you won’t have to think about it, but in the beginning you think about it quite a bit!

The wires are very high tension and they are not pulled like a guitar string. Doing so would cause breakage. For the most part, you lightly draw a nail over a string and a millisecond or so later another finger pad drops down on a previously played ringing string. Eventually you learn to pluck chords and intervals and smoothly damp the previously ringing ones as you progress to the next, all without making the damping sound like an abrupt end to the ringing tones. Or buzzing if you accidentally touch just so.

There are a couple of very good introductory method books that you can start with, if you have access to a wire-strung harp (of any kind). Ann Heymann has published two tutorial books that will get a beginner up to proficiency, although her repertoire is very traditional. Her Secrets of the Gaelic Harp is the one I began with and probably the best one you will find on the subject. This book will make you work very hard but get through it and her follow up one Coupled Hands for Harpers and you should be good. Once you have the basics down you can start to study technique from other harping traditions. For me, it was Yolanda Kondonassis’ On Playing the Harp, a pedal harp exercise book, with lots of beautiful arpeggios.

You’ll probably find your harp to be teaching you just as much as the textbook does. And you may well find yourself modifying the traditional techniques you’ve mastered to suit your own style and your harp.

Another kind of harp!

Harp image: Photo 130374963 / Concert Harp © Alina Osadchenko | Dreamstime.com

Harp seal image: Photo 130374963 / Concert Harp © Alina Osadchenko | Dreamstime.com