Hear Chromatic Harps

[Enthalpy]

Hello everybody!

The concert or pedal harp is too rare. But what about the chromatic harp then?

The concert harp is diatonic, with pedals to change the key. Pretty much inadequate for romantic and posterior music, and many scores are clumsy or impossible. While smaller chromatic harps were known, in 1894 Gustave Lyon invented a large concert chromatic harp at Pleyel. Alas, the new instrument couldn't play the existing scores with diatonic glissandi, it demanded new skills too, and didn't succeed. The big instruments are survivors built by Pleyel up to 1930. One is in Brussel's fabulous Musée des Intruments de Musique, a handful are played. We can say: rare.
en.wiki - fr.wiki - de.wiki (contents differs)
scholarlyrepository.miami.edu link to 10MB PhD thesis there
fr.wiki alleges that the last professor, Francette Bartholomée, retired in 2005, but Paola Chatelle teaches the harp in Brussels and plays the chromatic harp, and Vanessa Gerkens too teaches the chromatic harp in Belgium.

• The older triple-raw chromatic harp is well alive in Wales
  I_ImURf8KUE from 19:12 to 26:55
  while the crossed chromatic instrument gets rare in Spain
  I_ImURf8KUE from 27:64 to 30:26
  the whole Bbc documentary is fascinating.
• The big Pleyel instruments sound a bit dry and narrow to my ears. Maybe pedal harps sounded that way too and got a wider body meanwhile. Also, the additional strings knowingly demand a stronger table, heavier and stiffer, and the eccentric implantation lets the strings feel a stronger resistance.
• More recent harps, also cross-strung with 7+5 strings per octave for natural notes and accidentals. They are smaller up to now, like 5 octaves instead of 7, and sound even dryer. What's the string material?
• Recent small harps with 6+6 strings per octave regularly spaced. These too sound dry. Their proponents give playing arguments for the 6+6 against the 7+5. My impression (I don't play any harp!): the 6+6 instrument hasn't still developed the mean virtuosity of the 7+5 but is played by a wider group:
  Website - Forum
• Recent small harps with 12 strings per octave in one row.
• Doesn't exist yet: I proposed tables parallel to the strings for loudness
  scienceforums

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To promote the instrument, Pleyel commissioned Debussy the Danse sacrée et danse profane for chromatic harp and orchestra. These pieces are presently played on the pedal harp, reportedly with difficult pedal movements. Here Francette Bartholomée plays them
Danse sacrée - Danse profane
I suppose she plays on the chromatic instrument, because I don't hear the usual parasitic noises and unnecessary caesurae, for instance at 1:15 and 3:27 in the Danse sacrée. To my ears it's nicer.

Still by Francette Bartholomée on the grand Pleyel chromatic harp, pieces with quickly varying key signature if any - I have no idea how difficult they would be on a pedal harp
Ballade sur un vieux Noël wallon oublié, composed by Joseph Jongen
Nocturne 2 - Nocturne 3 - Pastorale, composed by Pierre Bartholomée
These same pieces would sound abstruse and aggressive on a violin. Composers should write more often for the harp.

Paola Chatelle learned from Francette Bartholomée, she plays on a grand Pleyel chromatic harp here
jPFU88Xbpt0 composed by Auguste de Boeck
8erLhcxsSRM - 5l60HrCxkFA composed by J.S.Bach
her website paolachatelle.be contains hearing samples http://paolachatelle.be/shop.html and more information.

Vanessa Gerkens too learned from Francette Bartholomée, playing here a grand Pleyel chromatic harp
L'écume des âmes - Avalon - La Phoenix, own compositions
She has a website too http://harponomie.be with infomation about the instrument harponomie.be/...renaissance
She wants new instruments to reproduce the Pleyel model. Marc Brulé already makes a 5 octaves one.

Here you can compare with an excellent pedal harp. The sound is deeper
Salvi factory tour
different manufacturer, different age, wider body - and fewer strings located at the table's centre.

Mirjam Rietberg plays a 6+6 chromatic harp made by Zangerle
J.S.Bach - Debussy - Dowland (Around 1600!)
Her website mirjamharp.com and her Youtube channel mirjamrietbergharp

Émilie Chevillard plays jazz on a single-row chromatic harp, here in the group Colunia jazz
gk2pqW2tIqg - tjDf9COt4Es solo at 5:12
a chromatic instrument seems the obvious choice for jazz, but others play the pedal instrument.