Venezuelan harp?

[Andelin]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I was contacted by a woman near me who has bought a Venezuelan harp off eBay. She wasn’t sure how to tune it so I went to see what I could do. It was…interesting.  There was one black string st the top and some different colored string sets at the bottom–4 greens together, and a set of 5-6 blue strings at the bottom.  I don’t remember exactly. Has anyone ever seen a harp like this?  Without the red and black strings we weren’t sure what notes we were supposed to tune to. Anyone have any info or resources?  I couldn’t find anything online. Thanks!</p>

[Biagio]

Andelin, I don’t have any specific references for you but here is a place to start:

http://www.harpspectrum.org/folk/History_of_Latin_American_Harps.shtml

You/she might also try contacting some Latin American harp virtuosos specifically: two whom might be helpful are Alfredo Ortiz and John Lozier.

Geoff Welham has published a string chart for his Paraguayan harps that might possibly be helpful:

http://www.harpsatsang.com/harp_design/data/para36stringchart.html notice that the range includes Bb and Cs are blue, Fs red.

Hope this can get her started….

Biagio

[Angel Tolosa]

Dear Andelin,

How are you? I am Venezuelan harpist, I could to help to your friend about the harp.My website is http://www.angeltolosa.com

Hugs

[Author]

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