Harp sheet music

Pedal harp and lever harp are not interchangeable

Pedal harp music assumes you can change the pitch of a whole class of strings instantly with your foot, in the middle of a phrase, with both hands still playing. On a lever harp each change is made by hand, one string at a time, which means the passage has to stop while you do it. A modulating pedal-harp piece is simply not playable on a lever harp, no matter how good the player is.

Editions marked "lever harp", "Celtic harp", "folk harp" or "non-pedal" have been written or arranged with this constraint in mind. Editions with pedal diagrams — a small grid of lines and marks, usually at the start of a system — are for pedal harp. If a listing shows neither, and the music is from the standard classical repertoire, assume pedal.

Piano music does not transfer

Harp arrangements of piano pieces are genuine arrangements, not the piano text with a new cover. The harp has no sustain pedal, no black keys to fall back on, and a fourth finger that does not play at all — the little finger is not used. Anything written for piano has to be redistributed between the hands and often re-voiced. Buying a piano edition intending to read it on the harp does not work.

Fingering, and why harp editions cost more

Harp fingering and, on pedal harp, the pedal changes are editorial decisions that take real work and materially affect whether a piece is playable. A good harp edition is marked throughout. Free scans of nineteenth-century harp music are often unmarked or marked for an older instrument, which is why experienced players still buy modern editions of music that is out of copyright.