Aeolian harp
Encyclopedia
An aeolian harp is a musical instrument
that is "played" by the wind. It is named for Aeolus
, the ancient Greek
god of the wind. The traditional aeolian harp is essentially a wooden box including a sounding board
, with strings stretched lengthwise across two bridges. It is placed in a slightly opened window where the wind can blow across the strings to produce sounds. The strings can be made of different materials (or thicknesses) and all be tuned to the same pitch
, or identical strings can be tuned to different pitches.
The Aeolian harp - already known in the ancient world – was first described by Athanasius Kircher
(1602–1680) in his book Phonurgia nova (1673). It became popular as a household instrument during the Romantic Era
, and Aeolian harps are still hand-crafted today. Some are now made in the form of monumental metal sound sculpture
s located on the roof of a building or a windy hilltop.
The sound is random, depending on the strength of the wind passing over the strings, and can range from a barely audible hum to a loud scream. If the strings are tuned to different note
s, sometimes only one tone is heard, and sometimes chord
s.
The harp is driven by von Karman vortex street
effect. The motion of the wind across a string causes perioding vortex downstream, and this alternating vortex causes the string to
vibrate. Lord Rayleigh first solved the mystery of the aeolian harp in a paper published in the Philosophy Magazine. The effect can sometimes be observed in overhead utility lines, fast enough to be heard or slow enough to be seen. A stiff rod will perform; a non-telescoping automobile radio antenna can be a dramatic exhibitor. And of course the effect can happen in other media; in the anchor line of a ship in a river, for example.
. In William Heinesen
's novel The Lost Musicians set in Tórshavn
, Kornelius Isaksen takes his three sons to a little church where, in the tower, they sit listening to the 'capriciously varying sounds of an Aeolian harp', which leads the boys into a lifelong passion for music. Aeolian harps are mentioned in Vladimir Nabokov
's classic Lolita
. A lyre
is mentioned in Percy Bysshe Shelley
's "Ode to the West Wind
" which is another name for an Aeolian Harp. The Aeolian harp is also mentioned in Shelley poem "Mutability." An aeolian harp is featured in Ian Fleming
's 1964 children's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to make a cave seem haunted.
Henry Cowell
's Aeolian Harp (1923) was one of the first piano pieces ever to feature extended technique
s on the piano
which included plucking and sweeping the pianist's hands directly across the strings of the piano. The Etude
in A flat major for piano
(1836) by Frédéric Chopin
(Étude Op. 25, No. 1 (Chopin)
) is sometimes called the "Aeolian Harp" etude, a nickname given it by Robert Schumann
. The piece features a delicate, tender, and flowing melody in the fifth finger of the pianist's right hand, over a background of rapid pedaled arpeggios. One of Sergei Lyapunov
's 12 études d'exécution transcendante, Op.11 No.9, is named by the author "Harpes éoliennes" (aeolian harps). In this virtuoso piece, written between 1897 and 1905, the tremolo accompaniment seems to imitate the sounding of the instrument.
In 1972, Chuck Hancock and Harry Bee recorded a giant 30 feet (9.1 m) Aeolian harp designed and built by 22-year-old Thomas Ward McCain on a hilltop in Chelsea, Vermont. United released their double LP entitled The Wind Harp - Song From The Hill. (An excerpt of this recording appears in the movie The Exorcist
.) In the spirit of this, in 2003 an Aeolian harp was constructed at Burning Man
. Australian artist, composer and sound sculptor Alan Lamb has created and recorded several very large scale aeolian harps.
On his album Dis
(1976), Jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek
used recordings of an Aeolian harp which was situated at a Norwegian fjord as a background sound.
Builders of pipe organ
s have included stops
intended to imitate the sound and timbre of the aeolian harp. German builders were the first to include such a stop from the 1820s. The Aeolian Harp stop is not a harp—it is simply a rank of pipes
using a low wind pressure and voiced to imitate the sound of the real instrument. It is therefore classified as a 'string' stop. These stops are amongst the softest found on pipe organs.
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
that is "played" by the wind. It is named for Aeolus
Aeolus
Aeolus was the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology. In fact this name was shared by three mythic characters. These three personages are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which Aeolus was which...
, the ancient Greek
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
god of the wind. The traditional aeolian harp is essentially a wooden box including a sounding board
Sounding board
A sound board, or soundboard, is the surface of a string instrument that the strings vibrate against, usually via some sort of bridge. The resonant properties of the sound board and the interior of the instrument greatly increase loudness over the string alone.The sound board operates by the...
, with strings stretched lengthwise across two bridges. It is placed in a slightly opened window where the wind can blow across the strings to produce sounds. The strings can be made of different materials (or thicknesses) and all be tuned to the same pitch
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
, or identical strings can be tuned to different pitches.
The Aeolian harp - already known in the ancient world – was first described by Athanasius Kircher
Athanasius Kircher
Athanasius Kircher was a 17th century German Jesuit scholar who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology, and medicine...
(1602–1680) in his book Phonurgia nova (1673). It became popular as a household instrument during the Romantic Era
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, and Aeolian harps are still hand-crafted today. Some are now made in the form of monumental metal sound sculpture
Sound sculpture
Sound sculpture is an intermedia and time based art form in which sculpture or any kind of art object produces sound, or the reverse...
s located on the roof of a building or a windy hilltop.
The sound is random, depending on the strength of the wind passing over the strings, and can range from a barely audible hum to a loud scream. If the strings are tuned to different note
Note
In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....
s, sometimes only one tone is heard, and sometimes chord
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
s.
Operation
Von Kármán vortex street
A Kármán vortex street is a term in fluid dynamics for a repeating pattern of swirling vortices caused by the unsteady separation of flow of a fluid over bluff bodies...
effect. The motion of the wind across a string causes perioding vortex downstream, and this alternating vortex causes the string to
vibrate. Lord Rayleigh first solved the mystery of the aeolian harp in a paper published in the Philosophy Magazine. The effect can sometimes be observed in overhead utility lines, fast enough to be heard or slow enough to be seen. A stiff rod will perform; a non-telescoping automobile radio antenna can be a dramatic exhibitor. And of course the effect can happen in other media; in the anchor line of a ship in a river, for example.
Aeolian harps in literature and music
Aeolian harps are featured in at least two Romantic-era poems, "The Eolian Harp" and "Dejection, an Ode", both by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
. In William Heinesen
William Heinesen
Andreas William Heinesen was a poet, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands.- His Writing :The Faroese capital Tórshavn is always the centre of Heinesen's writing. He is famous for having once called Tórshavn "The Navel of the World". His writing focuses on contrasts between darkness and...
's novel The Lost Musicians set in Tórshavn
Tórshavn
Tórshavn is the capital and largest town of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the north west of the town lies the high mountain Húsareyn, and to the southwest, the high Kirkjubøreyn...
, Kornelius Isaksen takes his three sons to a little church where, in the tower, they sit listening to the 'capriciously varying sounds of an Aeolian harp', which leads the boys into a lifelong passion for music. Aeolian harps are mentioned in Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
's classic Lolita
Lolita
Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
. A lyre
Lyre
The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
is mentioned in Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
's "Ode to the West Wind
Ode to the West Wind
Ode to the West Wind is an ode written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 near Florence, Italy. It was published in 1820 by Charles and James Ollier in London as part of the Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, With Other Poems collection...
" which is another name for an Aeolian Harp. The Aeolian harp is also mentioned in Shelley poem "Mutability." An aeolian harp is featured in Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
's 1964 children's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to make a cave seem haunted.
Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s:...
's Aeolian Harp (1923) was one of the first piano pieces ever to feature extended technique
Extended technique
Extended techniques are performance techniques used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres....
s on the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
which included plucking and sweeping the pianist's hands directly across the strings of the piano. The Etude
Étude
An étude , is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano...
in A flat major for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
(1836) by Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
(Étude Op. 25, No. 1 (Chopin)
Étude Op. 25, No. 1 (Chopin)
Étude Op. 25, No. in A-flat major is a solo piano work composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1836, and published in 1837. Its romanticized names are "Aeolian Harp," for Schumann's description of it, and "The Shepherd Boy," for Chopin's advice to a pupil to picture a shepherd boy refuging in a grotto to...
) is sometimes called the "Aeolian Harp" etude, a nickname given it by Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
. The piece features a delicate, tender, and flowing melody in the fifth finger of the pianist's right hand, over a background of rapid pedaled arpeggios. One of Sergei Lyapunov
Sergei Lyapunov
Sergei Mikhailovich Lyapunov was a Russian composer and pianist.-Life:Lyapunov was born in Yaroslavl in 1859. After the death of his father, Mikhail Lyapunov, when he was about eight, Sergei, his mother, and his two brothers went to live in the larger town of Nizhny Novgorod...
's 12 études d'exécution transcendante, Op.11 No.9, is named by the author "Harpes éoliennes" (aeolian harps). In this virtuoso piece, written between 1897 and 1905, the tremolo accompaniment seems to imitate the sounding of the instrument.
The Exorcist (film)
The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
.) In the spirit of this, in 2003 an Aeolian harp was constructed at Burning Man
Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
. Australian artist, composer and sound sculptor Alan Lamb has created and recorded several very large scale aeolian harps.
On his album Dis
Dis (album)
Dis is an album by Norwegian jazz composer and saxophonist Jan Garbarek recorded in 1976 and released on the ECM label in 1977.-Reception:The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this album as part of its suggested Core Collection....
(1976), Jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek
Jan Garbarek
Jan Garbarek is a Norwegian tenor and soprano saxophonist, active in the jazz, classical, and world music genres. Garbarek was born in Mysen, Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war Czesław Garbarek and a Norwegian farmer's daughter...
used recordings of an Aeolian harp which was situated at a Norwegian fjord as a background sound.
Builders of pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
s have included stops
Organ stop
An organ stop is a component of a pipe organ that admits pressurized air to a set of organ pipes. Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; some can be "on" , while others can be "off" .The term can also refer...
intended to imitate the sound and timbre of the aeolian harp. German builders were the first to include such a stop from the 1820s. The Aeolian Harp stop is not a harp—it is simply a rank of pipes
Organ pipe
An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a specific note of the musical scale...
using a low wind pressure and voiced to imitate the sound of the real instrument. It is therefore classified as a 'string' stop. These stops are amongst the softest found on pipe organs.
External links
- Stoney Cross 2 - an example piece of music made on an aeolian harp.
- windharfe.m3u - a livestream of an aeolian harp at the University of Ulm (Germany).