Lauren Scott harp
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Why Blog? Well, I'm a bit of a harp nerd, and it's the quirky more unusual side of harping that usually catches my eye and ear! You won't find posts about harp competitions, and the standard harp repertoire here. You will, however, find posts about interesting harp items I have come across on the internet, as well as nerdy stuff like posts about harp strings and blisters etc. I post lots of videos of harpists from around the world and their projects, and finally, I post the very occasional bit of news about me. 

Tuning A=440, 441 or 442?

1/11/2010

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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.
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And yes, that is A=452!
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