Lyon & Healy: the American Harp
(2022)
author(s): Ian Mcvoy
published in: KC Research Portal
The design of the pedal harp underwent a series of dramatic changes at the turn of the century, most of them attributable to the inventive minds at a Chicago-based musical instrument manufacturer and music publisher, Lyon & Healy.
Of the many innovations of the Lyon & Healy company, three of the utmost importance to the development of the instrument: the “adjustable fourchette,” allowing simple regulation of the harp’s tuning in the natural and sharp positions, the “single-link mechanism,” an internal change to the mechanism greatly simplifying both function and manufacture, and lastly the “extended soundboard,” an extension of the soundbox of the instrument allowing for greater volume. Each of these improvements has since been adopted by every modern-day harp maker.
This paper endeavors to combine original patents, miscellaneous historical documents, and evidence gathered from extant historical instruments by Lyon & Healy to identify each of the above and other specific changes, their inventors, the time of their introduction, as well as the overall motivation behind each of these important changes.
How the Degree To Which Instrumentalist and Composer Work Together Affects the Compositional Process, the Composition and the Final Performance
(2022)
author(s): Stef Van Vynckt
published in: KC Research Portal
This research focuses on the compositional process from the point of view of the performer. It examines the extent to which collaborations with composers have an effect on the composition and subsequent performance. More specifically: how do compositions in which you, as an instrumentalist, were involved during the composition process compare to compositions where this was not the case? How does the relationship with the composer contribute to the final performance?
She plays angel music (where people might die)
(2020)
author(s): Michael Wolters, Paul Norman
published in: Research Catalogue, Birmingham City University: Faculty of Arts, Design and Media
She plays angel music (where people might die)
Post-Internet Music as a comment on the absorption of knowledge
This exposition articulates the research within the artistic work She Plays Angel Music (where people might die), a 60-minute concert-installation for 5-25 female harpists. The research was triggered by highly questionable and incomplete information on the history of harp composition found on Wikipedia. While it is generally accepted that Wikipedia is not a reliable source in academia, it still a powerful source of knowledge amongst the general public. Thus, the incomplete display on the site promotes
a) the historic and continuing discrimination of women from music composition in the classical music world and
b) the continuing rejection of contemporary music in favour of music by dead composers in the classical music world.
This exposition takes the reader through the compositional steps that were performed in order to create a post-internet work that attempts to highlight political situations by gathering publicly available information into a controversial context.
Angelical music XVI-XVIII centuries music from the New World
(2020)
author(s): Carlotta Pupulin
published in: KC Research Portal
CARLOTTA PUPULIN
Baroque Harp
Supervisor: Dr. Inês de Avena Braga
Title: Angelical music for a New World
Research question: How did music develop in Hispanic America between the XV-XVII centuries?
Squalid and Obscure: Timbral Word Painting at the Arpa Doppia
(2017)
author(s): Hannah Rose (Kit) Spencer
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Kit (Hannah Rose) Spencer
Main Subject: Baroque Harp
Research Supervisor: Kate Clark
Title of Research: Squalid and Obscure: Timbral Word Painting at the Arpa Doppia
Research Question:
Can timbral refinement, through synthesized notation and subsequent technical exercises, enhance contrast and word painting in arpa doppia continuo realisations of Seconda Prattica songs?
Summary of Results:
While functionally versatile, the arpa doppia, an Italian harp of imposing size with multiple layers of resonating strings, revealed its nature as fondamento, in the subtle art of continuo. Direct contact with the open strings gave singers, accompanying themselves on the harp, unparalleled control over the instrument’s timbral potential. This is reflected in the role of the instrument within musica secreta, private concerts at the courts of Ferrara and Modena stylistically favouring word painting and chromaticism, in ensembles such as the concerto delle donna and Baroni sisters. The expressive freedom of their art influenced poets and composers and contributed to the development of the seconda prattica at the turn of the sixteenth century. Indeed, voice and harp were held up as the ideal way to perform epic poetry, a reflection of the mesmerising contrast and colour their combined forces could deliver. How do we find this unique skill-set today from a broken line of tradition, contending with limited, conflicting primary resources? There is very little surviving repertoire specific to the instrument, and other sources such as paintings are static representations with considerable variation in position and placement of the instrument, body and hands, making it hard to replicate. In the years dedicated to exploring the arpa doppia, we harpists uncover these insights through shared motions and motivations of our forebears— finding a way to play like them by trying to vividly colour the text as they did. This is a way artistic research can bring to life the spectrum of lost practice and technique. My research has resulted in the creation of timbral notation for the arpa doppia, easily added to music notation and publishing software. This notation is designed to help recreate as much as possible all the timbral refinement found by the hands of masterful singer-harpists. It documents, builds upon and preserves the invaluable research of historical practitioners, using visual, contact-based diagrams to provide clarity in understanding this evocative and highly specialised art form. With this foundation of timbre and text, it aims to reconstitute the virtuosity, influence and innovation of the original arpa doppia players, through our shared practice today.
Biography:
While playing as the Australian Youth Orchestra's Principal Harpist, and as a fellow of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Kit Spencer's Honours degree culminated in studying Berio's infamous Sequenza II with its foremost interpreter, Alice Giles. Her passion for colour, gesture and bass lead her to arpa doppia, beginning with Andrew Lawrence King's St. Petersburg production of Landi's La Morte d'Orfeo and Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in Bauska Castle, Latvia.