How to Write Music for a Harp

The harp has long been thought to be the most underutilized and misunderstood instrument in a symphony orchestra. Writing music for one requires myriad knowledge of not only what the harp is capable of doing, but also the capabilities of the harpist. You'll need these generalized tips on how to compose effectively so a harpist can be challenged musically without being driven mad with impossible technical demands.

Things You'll Need

• Piano staff notation paper
• Knowledge of harp fingerings
• Understanding sustaining harp tones
• Learning harp harmonics

Instructions

Basic Overview

1. Learn that writing music for a harp isn't the same as writing for a piano. Know that even though a harp staff is identical to a staff for piano, how it's executed is much different.

2. Remember that harps have strings that are plucked, which is different from how a piano is played, unless you add the plucking of piano strings to a score. Take this into consideration when writing passages of music for a harp.

3. Watch a harpist play and you'll find that the position of the harp prevents him or her from plucking strings easily in the bass clef with a right hand. Write music that enables the harpist to play all lower notes directly with the left hand and all middle or upper notes with the right.

4. Realize that a harpist can't concentrate directly on the strings while playing complicated passages. Create music that doesn't force the harpist to focus predominantly on the strings when he or she has to keep looking at the conductor or at the music stand.

Basics in writing for harp

1. Notate music exactly as you would on a piano staff while keeping one important aspect in one mind: Don't write passages where the harpist has to use the pinkie in either hand. A harpist only uses four fingers per hand due to the pinkie being too weak to properly pluck a string.

2. Write arpeggios that prevent the pinkie from getting involved in the fingering. Practice writing passages that utilize a smooth execution from the fourth finger to the third without making it awkward.

3. Try not to write notation with dotted notes as a method of sustaining a tone, especially in the upper registers. The middle and lower registers sustain without any use of pedal on the large harps you see in concert halls. Study the use of the bass clef notes on the harp, and know they sustain longer than any of the other strings.

4. Consider writing harp music in the key of C flat, where the best tone exists due to lack of need for pedal use.

5. Avoid creating crowded chords in writing for the harp since thick harmony can run together in the lower registers, hence a lack of clarity in sound. Construct simpler chords when creating harmony for the harp.

Composing harp effects

1. Know that the arpeggio is one of the most-used devices on a harp, yet it should be done within reason during a composition. Write arpeggios utilizing both hands. Writing an arpeggio for one hand while the other hand does another configuration ruins the beautiful flow of an arpeggio as heard during "The Waltz of the Flowers" in Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" ballet score.

2. Learn about finger-sliding glissandos and how each type of scale can be applied to a glissando on a pedaled harp. It's something that can't be done on any other instrument, including piano. Experiment by writing glissandos on whole tone and pentatonic scales, and play them on a harp to hear the interesting sounds they create.

3. Delve into the world of harmonics, where stopping the sound of one harp string and plucking the one above it will create an interesting tonal effect. Know that a harmonic sound will give the impression of a tone an octave higher than it really is. Be sure, when composing, that you indicate where the harmonic note is played on a harp string rather than the tonal sound it makes.

Tips & Warnings

• Many other complexities exist in writing for a harp, including using specific notation symbols that stand alone from any other instrument notation. Visit Reference 1 for more information on above examples and with important details on harp pedaling.

References

• Harpspectrum.org: Details on composing for harp