It is useful to know that as far back as the 18th century such devices have
been thought through. I also mentionned in my earlier postings that Gustave
Lyon, of Pleyel&Wolff, Cie had equiped several models of his cross strung
harps with pedal activated damping systems, between 1897 and 1906.
I am generally aware of the fact that after all the trouble of designing and
building such systems, harpists still prefered to use their hands... that is
in the case of gut strung concert size harps, where these systems were
installed and...harp that builders forgot about them. My point is still
that, I do not believe that damping mechanisms have been mounted on wire
strung harps (or I don't know). Wire harps, particularly if they have more
than 4 octaves, present acute damping challenges. Some of these challenges
can be addressed effectively by using fingers to damp the strings, as
eloquently demontrated by Ann Heymann in the "Secrets of the Gaelic Harp", a
pragmatic Tutor for these instruments. Eight fingers, however, can only
achieve so much in terms of damping and I believe that a system of pedals
which would activate for instance a selective damping of the base string
octaves may help players without distracting them from their current finger
damping strategies.
In any event, my prime motivation in this project (if it becomes one) will
be to equip a 4 chromatic octave "cross strung" wire harp. I have built
three samples of these instruments and I am trying to play one currently. My
impression is that they could use some sort of damping mechanism...even if
it were only to silent all these free accidentals in the bass area.
Sofar your input has been:a) don't do it, fingers do a good enough job...b)
by all means do it; if wire harps were equiped with damping mechnisms I
would own one...
Thank you all and happy New Year.
Philippe
plement@magi.com