[Harp-L] octave-baritone-chromatics

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rick Epping wrote (a while ago, but I've been away):

"Sometimes I find the high range of my octave diatonics to be too  
shrill. "

As someone who finds the high octaves of most harps above C rather  
shrill, I fully understand.

" I
have consequently begun building them with the the top three or four  
holes
tuned to unison instead of octave by dropping the high octave reeds  
down an
octave to match the low octave reeds. "

The Suzuki SCT-128 tends to get into a bit of an interference pattern  
with the tremolo in the upper range, due to various factors (most  
likely a factor of comb chamber resonance and the way close pitches  
draw and fight with each other depending on the situation).  Thus Pat  
Missin (who, as always, did a marvelous job tuning, customizing and  
otherwise setting up my SCT for me) decided to tune have the top  
octave be unison.  As you said, it doesn't make too much of a  
difference in actual playing, though I wish it was all tremolo, but  
for the most part I tend not to venture up there too much anyway (the  
lowest two holes mostly).

I think modifying the reeds and/or reed-plates in the SCT to become  
an octave harp (with or without a unison top octave) would probably  
be more than I'm willing to undertake (or underwrite:).  True,  
retuning could do it, but changing things by that much gets into some  
serious questions of scaling and the like which I'd rather avoid.   
The problem is either you have to detune reeds excessively in the  
base to get to the baritone range, and there are significant problems  
there (which is why I don't already have a baritone 64 made from  
stock)  or you have to retune them up an octave--I don't know Suzuki  
chromatic reed-scales for their SC line, how those relate to the SCT  
or the like so can't say where and how reed replacement would work here.

" It's remarkable how
unnoticeable the transition from octave to unison voicing is while
playing."

I can believe it.  In organs most of the harmonic corroborating stops  
tend to break pitch several times over the range of a keyboard, (so  
as to stay within the range of human hearing, amongst other things).   
When played alone these mixtures sound weird and illogical, but when  
used as part of the chorus, they are all but unnoticeable.  I'd bet  
that's similar to this case, especially as here you are only dealing  
with unisons and octaves and not other intervals.

"I got the idea from Conjuncto accordion players, who often change the
tremolo reeds on the lowest right-hand notes to reeds an octave higher,
tuning the remaining tremolo reeds to unison, in order to bring out  
the low
notes."

I didn't know that.  I'll have to listen more closely to the bass  
notes on my Esteban Jordan stuff to see if he did that.




 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
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