Questions: 15 String Lap Harp Plans

by Art Robb

Originally published in American Lutherie #98, 2009

 

Shirley Ward from the Internet asks:

I am looking for blueprint plans for a regular triangular shaped 15-string lap harp, also referred to as a plucked psaltery. But not the hognose style.

Art Robb from Wiltshire, England responds:

The word psaltery covers a range of instruments. The plucked psaltery comes in many shapes, but I have not seen a triangular one. Trapezoids are the shape used most often these days although old paintings and sculpture more often shows the hognose shape. The tuning is usually diatonic. Plucked psalteries are very old, arriving in the west sometime after 1000AD, and they are ancestors of the hammered dulcimer, the harpsichord, and, eventually, the piano.

The bowed psaltery is relatively modern. I can find no reference for them before 1890 and certainly no medieval references. It appears to have been invented for school use, and although it looks old, it simply is not. They are usually triangular, as this allows access to the strings with a bow. The tuning is chromatic with a scale on one side and the accidentals on the other. Fancy players will use two or more bows.

I used to teach musical instrument making evening classes and developed a range of plans for the students. One plan for both a plucked psaltery and a bowed psaltery can be purchased from my website at www.art-robb.co.uk. ◆