> Has anyone tried twisted (as opposed to overspun) strings on a harp?
I have experimented with warious forms of compocite string in both metal
and gut. The concept of winding 2 gut strings together (catline) is a very
old process first recorded in the 14th C. This gives added mass without
destroying flexibility and also, it is easier to get a more constant
siammeter on the tinner strings and so helps avoid falseness. The concept
of a semi-wrapped string also appears fairly early (early 16th C Florence &
Naples) but there is no evidence of this being applied to harps or lutes,
just lira and gambas. The whole design of the theorboed lute and the
neopolitan doppia was to increase the string length to avoid weight\length
problems. Considering that the physical size of the average Neopolitan male
was 5'3", a harp of over 6' that required the aid of a stool to tune had to
be designed on physics rather than aesthetics.
The texture of a semi-wrap is very unpleasant under the finger as it
entails a fine wire in an open spiral along the length of the string
(again, weight without stiffness) and is needed on the comparatively short
stringlength of the bowed strings.
I hae tried making wire catlines but discovered tha, in order to get the
wites to sear against each other, they have to be made at extremely high
tension and wrapped at the ends. If they are not put under tension almost
imediately, there is a tendancy to unwind and even if the string survives
long enough to actually be played, the tone is inferior to a plain string.
I would suggest that if we stick to practical scales for the historic
instruments, there is no need to create these strings and modern folk harps
can be strung, with modern strings, to whateever range and scale the maker
designes them for.
On the subject of citterns, these are historically strung with a single
gauge of wire. I know of people who have twisted 2 wires together on the
instrument for the lowest note but as the cittern has an extremely short
string length and a tiny resonator in comparison, tone quality is never
what one could call good. The paired stringing and re-entrant tuning
produce a strange sound anyway and the instrument was intended as a simple
'diversion' instrument rather than a 'classical' instrument.
Your thoughts?
Mike