3 Large Early Medieval Harps
(Psalter Harps)
One of the iconic instruments of early manuscript illustrations is the harp. Not the big concert harp that we think of today, but smaller, portable harps. These lightweight harps were often strung with less than 20 strings, and didn't have the tuning levers of modern harps. They were strung in horsehair, gut, and later (1200s?) in wire. They were present and prevalent in every major European culture, having spread from the classical nations before the dark ages.
An Anglo-Saxon illustration from a psalter dating approx 1000 A.D
The Winchcombe Psalter harp illustration
Tapestry, Winchester or maybe St. Albans, England, 1200 AD
Maedoc book cover, leather, Ireland, 1000 AD
The instrument as we designed it has elements from a number of illustrations from the turn of the first millenia to the 12th century, the major ones are shown above. Like most instruments of this period, the body is hollowed from one piece of wood. In the case of instruments with lots of strings and direct pulling tension, the soundboard was usually the bottom of the hollowed box, with a back being added to cover the opening.
This project is a bit different from the projects that have come before. My daughters have become proficient enough at building to my standards that we are embarking on a set of experiments, building sets of instruments to the same plan but with different tonewoods, so that we can show the differences in tonal character of the different materials. This first experiment is a set of 3 of these harps. They are 32 inches tall, 16 strings, and held together with the tension of the strings. The first stringing will be in horsehair, as that was the more common material in the earliest harps (it was cheaper and easier to come by than proper gut for the average travelling musician of the 11-12th century). This configuration survived for a long time in the Welsh tradition, the Telyn Rawn (horse strung harp) being the cornerstone of Welsh bardic tradition for hundreds of years.
I am documenting this project as a mash-up of the photos from all three, as this is really a single project with three harps as the final product. The harp made of walnut belongs to me, the maple one is Aislinn's and the cherry one is Ceilidh's.
So here goes, once more into the breech and all that...
Aislinn cuts her maple post to length at the bandsaw.
Ceilidh makes one corner of the post square at the jointer in preparation for final dimensioning.
Dad plaining the post to final dimensions. We made a lot of chips this night.
Aislinn marking out the foot profile on her post. The foot came from the Winchcombe illustration, it was part of the process that we all sat down and designed our harp from the artistic renderings we had researched.
Ceilidh cutting her cherry post for the foot. This was the last cut before the bandsaw blade blew, scaring Aislinn half out of her wits. Can't blame her, this saw is loud when a blade breaks.
The foot is sanded. Just a simple curve, but very pleasing.
Using a custom made, precision curve template to lay out the neck transition. (OK, it's a roll of plumbers solder...). But it was exactly the curve we needed.
Dad overseeing the first cuts with the new blade. Had to make a correction to Ceilidh's left hand position. This is one of the curved cuts for the neck transition.
Profiling the neck transition on the oscillating spindle sander.
Cherry, maple, and walnut - the three posts have been shaped and are ready for hollowing.
All hail Sir Forstner, patron saint of helping medieval luthiers do things the easy way. Just my usual rough stock removal before attacking with chisels, planes, sandpaper, and other various abrasive and cutting implements of destruction.
Using a mocrometer through the soundholes to measure the approximate thickness of the soundboard. The walnut will likely be the most demure and muted of the three instruments, and I wanted an absolutely minimal soundboard thickness. This will, most likely, take this instrument out fo the running for even light tension wires, but hey, we still have Aislinn's maple beast for that...
Using a fine abrasive disk in the drill press to make adjustments to the thickness of the soundboard.
Because the soundboard is so thin, and because the grain runs lengthwise, I needed to add a string rib in the back of the soundboard. This is made of thin narrow strips of walnut with the grain running perpendicular to the soundboard grain. A stack of steel bars acts as a clamp.
You can see the narrow brace in the center of the 'floor' of the box. A little thinning and sanding and it's ready for the back.
Here are the three major pieces as designed, with the mortises and tenons cut.
And assembled without the back panel, to make sure of dimensions and fit. No glue, just the tension of the strings is all that holds the instrument together.
With the back glued on and a few coats of wax, the instrument is ready to have the tuning peg holds drilled and to be strung. Not many pieces, but the fits must be precise and the details are important if there is to be any sound at all from the horsehair / walnut combination.
Here is the walnut harp strung. The pegs are hard maple, the string pins that hold the strings in the soundboard are copper. It has a soft mellow tone, not loud but I didn't expect it to be. This was a small audience instrument, relying on the acoustics of a room. If can carry pretty well, but in horsehair strings it is definately not a rock solo axe. You can also get an idea of the size of the instrument. All in all, a pleasing sound, a bit breathy but nice.
We are moving into a new phase of operations here - we are
going to start building instruments for sale and try to make a career
and family business out of it. Who knows? It has to be
better than relying on some random employer in these current
financially uncertain times... And if the girls start ot get
their name known, maybe they can pay their way through college with a
better job than McDonalds...
One of the iconic instruments of early manuscript illustrations is the harp. Not the big concert harp that we think of today, but smaller, portable harps. These lightweight harps were often strung with less than 20 strings, and didn't have the tuning levers of modern harps. They were strung in horsehair, gut, and later (1200s?) in wire. They were present and prevalent in every major European culture, having spread from the classical nations before the dark ages.
An Anglo-Saxon illustration from a psalter dating approx 1000 A.D
The Winchcombe Psalter harp illustration
Tapestry, Winchester or maybe St. Albans, England, 1200 AD
Maedoc book cover, leather, Ireland, 1000 AD
The instrument as we designed it has elements from a number of illustrations from the turn of the first millenia to the 12th century, the major ones are shown above. Like most instruments of this period, the body is hollowed from one piece of wood. In the case of instruments with lots of strings and direct pulling tension, the soundboard was usually the bottom of the hollowed box, with a back being added to cover the opening.
This project is a bit different from the projects that have come before. My daughters have become proficient enough at building to my standards that we are embarking on a set of experiments, building sets of instruments to the same plan but with different tonewoods, so that we can show the differences in tonal character of the different materials. This first experiment is a set of 3 of these harps. They are 32 inches tall, 16 strings, and held together with the tension of the strings. The first stringing will be in horsehair, as that was the more common material in the earliest harps (it was cheaper and easier to come by than proper gut for the average travelling musician of the 11-12th century). This configuration survived for a long time in the Welsh tradition, the Telyn Rawn (horse strung harp) being the cornerstone of Welsh bardic tradition for hundreds of years.
I am documenting this project as a mash-up of the photos from all three, as this is really a single project with three harps as the final product. The harp made of walnut belongs to me, the maple one is Aislinn's and the cherry one is Ceilidh's.
So here goes, once more into the breech and all that...
Aislinn cuts her maple post to length at the bandsaw.
Ceilidh makes one corner of the post square at the jointer in preparation for final dimensioning.
Dad plaining the post to final dimensions. We made a lot of chips this night.
Aislinn marking out the foot profile on her post. The foot came from the Winchcombe illustration, it was part of the process that we all sat down and designed our harp from the artistic renderings we had researched.
Ceilidh cutting her cherry post for the foot. This was the last cut before the bandsaw blade blew, scaring Aislinn half out of her wits. Can't blame her, this saw is loud when a blade breaks.
The foot is sanded. Just a simple curve, but very pleasing.
Using a custom made, precision curve template to lay out the neck transition. (OK, it's a roll of plumbers solder...). But it was exactly the curve we needed.
Dad overseeing the first cuts with the new blade. Had to make a correction to Ceilidh's left hand position. This is one of the curved cuts for the neck transition.
Profiling the neck transition on the oscillating spindle sander.
Cherry, maple, and walnut - the three posts have been shaped and are ready for hollowing.
All hail Sir Forstner, patron saint of helping medieval luthiers do things the easy way. Just my usual rough stock removal before attacking with chisels, planes, sandpaper, and other various abrasive and cutting implements of destruction.
Using a mocrometer through the soundholes to measure the approximate thickness of the soundboard. The walnut will likely be the most demure and muted of the three instruments, and I wanted an absolutely minimal soundboard thickness. This will, most likely, take this instrument out fo the running for even light tension wires, but hey, we still have Aislinn's maple beast for that...
Using a fine abrasive disk in the drill press to make adjustments to the thickness of the soundboard.
Because the soundboard is so thin, and because the grain runs lengthwise, I needed to add a string rib in the back of the soundboard. This is made of thin narrow strips of walnut with the grain running perpendicular to the soundboard grain. A stack of steel bars acts as a clamp.
You can see the narrow brace in the center of the 'floor' of the box. A little thinning and sanding and it's ready for the back.
Here are the three major pieces as designed, with the mortises and tenons cut.
And assembled without the back panel, to make sure of dimensions and fit. No glue, just the tension of the strings is all that holds the instrument together.
With the back glued on and a few coats of wax, the instrument is ready to have the tuning peg holds drilled and to be strung. Not many pieces, but the fits must be precise and the details are important if there is to be any sound at all from the horsehair / walnut combination.
Here is the walnut harp strung. The pegs are hard maple, the string pins that hold the strings in the soundboard are copper. It has a soft mellow tone, not loud but I didn't expect it to be. This was a small audience instrument, relying on the acoustics of a room. If can carry pretty well, but in horsehair strings it is definately not a rock solo axe. You can also get an idea of the size of the instrument. All in all, a pleasing sound, a bit breathy but nice.