This article is the tenth in an extended series of articles addressing issues and myths surrounding traditional harps and their construction.

So, you are thinking about buying a harp or you already own one, or you have heard that there is a stringed instrument called a harp. What is a &Quot;harp&Quot;. The harp community itself has no idea. This does not mean that no one knows a harp when they see one. It means that even the professional harpers and luthiers do not know or agree upon what to call them. Controversy abounds. This article will review each term and cover the pros and cons of its use. Because there is no agreement within the harp community, no conclusions can be drawn.

First, a little background. In other instrument families there is a root instrument and then variations are called by some other name. The violin family consists of the root instrument, the violin, and then the derivatives, the viola, the cello, the double bass etc.. The problem with the harp family is that one of the derivatives took over the term &Quot;harp&Quot; so the root instrument is left without a term.

These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
Horatio speaking to Hamlet, Wm. Shakespeare, &Quot;Hamlet&Quot;

Pedal Harp: everyone agrees on one thing, pedal harps are the big ones and they all have pedals for key change. By using the term &Quot;harp&Quot; for this derivative, pedal harp folks usurp the term &Quot;harp&Quot; when they have a perfectly descriptive and agreed upon term available.

Folk Harp: right or wrong, for lots of people, &Quot;folk&Quot;, as a term, connotates Woodie Gutherie and rough craftsmanship. The public often thinks that only folk music can be played on a folk harp.

Lever Harp: another term upon which most folks agree. If a harp uses levers than, clearly, it is a lever harp. The problem here is that, though levers are a very different form of sharping than blades or hooks, harps with blades and hooks are functionally the same as a lever harp. Generally, harp folks call all harps that use levers, blades or hooks a &Quot;lever&Quot; harp. Specifically left out by the use of &Quot;lever harps&Quot; are cross harps, Welsh triple harps and, most importantly, any lever harp that does not happen to have levers installed. The term &Quot;lever harps&Quot; describes something that is affixed to the harp without actually describing the harp itself.

Non-Pedal Harp: while this term is correctly descriptive of any harp that does not have pedals, it has come to be regarded as a derogatory term because it is seen to infer that a harp should have pedals and that being &Quot;non-pedal&Quot; is somehow less. The same is true for terms like &Quot;pedal free&Quot; and &Quot;pedal lite&Quot;.

Neo-Celtic: this is a term that some use to describe any harp that does not have pedals, is of European descent and is nylon or gut strung. Like the terms discussed above, &Quot;neo-Celtic&Quot; essentially describes what the harp is not, namely, Celtic.

Traditional Harp: this term is less commonly used. It avoids the &Quot;non-pedal&Quot; problems but is not very specific. Our company has chosen this term by default but we agree that it is not really a complete term.

Celtic Harp: okay, here is one that generates serious confusion. Some folks think that if it does not have pedals and is not from South America or Africa, it is a Celtic harp. In reality, historically, Celtic harps had both wire and gut strings but in modern times, the term &Quot;Celtic&Quot; harp tends to be associated with wire strung harps.

Harp: recently, there has been some discussion around taking back the term &Quot;harp&Quot;. Because pedal harps are well and correctly described by the complete term and because modern nylon-strung harps are the descendants of the most common historical harps, there is some thought that instead of trying to chose between &Quot;lever&Quot; and &Quot;Non-pedal&Quot; and &Quot;neo-Celtic&Quot; and &Quot;traditional&Quot;, the most common harp, the root member of the modern harp family should simply be called the &Quot;harp&Quot;. Everything else that is a derivative should be called by its derivative name.

Concert Harp: lots and lots of folks refer to pedal harps as &Quot;concert&Quot; harps but pedal harps do not begin to be the only concert harps. Within all types of harps, there are concert quality instruments that are used by professionals in performance. The term &Quot;concert&Quot; correctly refers to the performance quality aspects of a given harp. In this light, pedal harps can properly be termed &Quot;symphony&Quot; harps or &Quot;orchestral&Quot; stringed instruments.

There are many other types of harps not discussed here but most of them have descriptive names like the cross harp, double harp, Welsh triple harp. These harps are all well named and, fortunately, most of us know what we mean when we use their names. As for the rest of it, you tell me!

For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.
Lord Alfred Tennyson

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