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I heard an interview with Lucinda Belle earlier this year on Radio 4 and just found some great videos of her on the web. She's got a deal with Island Records and an album out. I'm going to download it from iTunes now. Go Girl! Better still - good to see a harp at Ronnie Scott's
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What pitch to tune my harp to has been a particularly nerdy issue I have struggled with most of my orchestral life. I tune to A=442 as tuning to anything less than that makes the harp sound flat in an orchestra. I use to worry about what long term effect on the harp tuning so sharp would have, so I would tune to A=441. Until I had a chat some years ago to Billy (the main Salvi/L&H technician in the UK) and he told me he regulates all the harps to A=442 as that is what they are built to be regulated at. He also regulates harps across Europe and South Africa. So any worry I had about the harps being regularly tuned sharper than they are built for was ungrounded as they are already built to be tuned higher then 440. German Horngachers, I believe, are built for A=444. I wondered whether harps were being regulated to the same A=442 in the US and I found an interesting discussion on a US harp forum about it some years ago, so I'm glad it's not just me that has deep (quite sad) thoughts about the subject! Quite a few of US harpists on that thread seem to find issue with tuning so sharp. I also found an even more interesting discussion on a US violin forum which gave lots of detailed insight into it from a string players point of view, and it makes a fascinating read. So, when I was at Kneller Hall recently (which is the home of the Royal Military School of Music which trains musicians for the all of the bands in the British Army) I couldn't believe what I saw in their museum cabinet!!! And there I was thinking tuning A=442 was potentially a tad sharp. Check out the pitch that the British Army bands used to be at! Information about it in picture below. It makes tuning my harp at A=442 seem quite insignificant.  And yes, that is A=452!  |
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AuthorLauren Scott is a harpist & composer and has been blogging for over 10 years. CLICK HERE to subscribe to Lauren Scott's newsletterIf you enjoy reading Harpyness you can send me a virtual tip by clicking on the button below and buying me a virtual coffee. Cheers!
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March 2021
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