What styles of music does the harp play?

Answer 1

"the harp" can refer to many varieties of harp, since the term refers to just about any resonator with free strings stretched so they can be plucked and make the resonator couple the sound to air. (Even extra strings on a guitar are called 'harp strings' when they are not run over a fingerboard, but simply used as basses or additional open notes.)

The modern concert harp has a very wide and facile ability with music, and is able, in the hands of a good harp musician of playing in just about every style there is; classical, modern, pop, special-effects, Folk Music, and all of the historical music that was composed or could be arranged for harp. In essence, it is a piano actuated by the fingers, with few limitations (which are related to the essential diatonic nature of the instrument.) Specifically, as long as the seven strings in each octave can be tuned to the scale being used (and with the modern pedal harp, retuned while playing), the harp can do a pretty good job of making music from it.

Harps in Western History tend to be limited to the notes that the seven strings per octave can produce (although some mechanisms, some of which are quite ingenious and low-tech, can affect even this limitation) and are intended for playing diatonic music. They are quite effective in music of Ireland of the last 500 years, and early music from the middle-baroque as far back as anyone could imagine.

Harps in Eastern History have more limitations in those countries, like Japan, which have sociological limitations on instruments (for instance, in Japan, certain instruments are considered unsuitable for women, while others are considered unsuitable for men!)

Harps may be more appropriate for playing historical music than, say, pianos, because the player can fairly-easily retune the instrument and use just intonation or historical temperaments as easily as modern 12-tone equal temperament!

Answer 2

"the harp" can refer to many varieties of harp, since the term refers to just about any resonator with free strings stretched so they can be plucked and make the resonator couple the sound to air. (Even extra strings on a guitar are called 'harp strings' when they are not run over a fingerboard, but simply used as basses or additional open notes.)

The modern concert harp has a very wide and facile ability with music, and is able, in the hands of a good harp musician of playing in just about every style there is; classical, modern, pop, special-effects, Folk Music, and all of the historical music that was composed or could be arranged for harp. In essence, it is a piano actuated by the fingers, with few limitations (which are related to the essential diatonic nature of the instrument.) Specifically, as long as the seven strings in each octave can be tuned to the scale being used (and with the modern pedal harp, retuned while playing), the harp can do a pretty good job of making music from it.

Harps in Western History tend to be limited to the notes that the seven strings per octave can produce (although some mechanisms, some of which are quite ingenious and low-tech, can affect even this limitation) and are intended for playing diatonic music. They are quite effective in music of Ireland of the last 500 years, and early music from the middle-baroque as far back as anyone could imagine.

Harps in Eastern History have more limitations in those countries, like Japan, which have sociological limitations on instruments (for instance, in Japan, certain instruments are considered unsuitable for women, while others are considered unsuitable for men!)

Harps may be more appropriate for playing historical music than, say, pianos, because the player can fairly-easily retune the instrument and use just intonation or historical temperaments as easily as modern 12-tone equal temperament!