The Harp's Warm Sustained Tone
The concert harp is the modern pedal harp used in orchestras, with 47 strings spanning nearly 6½ octaves. Each string is color-coded: red for C, blue/black for F, and natural for the rest, helping harpists navigate this wide range visually. Our virtual harp captures a single octave's worth with the triangle-wave + long-decay envelope that characterizes harp's resonant, sustained tone.
Pedals — The Genius of the Pedal Harp
Each concert harp has 7 foot pedals, one per diatonic note (C, D, E, F, G, A, B). Each pedal has 3 positions: flat, natural, sharp. Pressing a pedal simultaneously sharpens (or flattens) all strings of that note across the entire harp — a brilliant mechanical system. Future versions of our virtual harp will emulate these pedal positions in software.
From Ancient Egypt to Modern Orchestra
Harps are among the world's oldest instruments, with early bowed and angular harps from ancient Egypt (~3000 BCE). Today's pedal harp was perfected by Sébastien Érard in the early 1800s, making fully chromatic key signatures available to harpists. The harp remains central to orchestral color and Celtic folk traditions worldwide.