Aeolian harp in the old castle of Baden Baden, from an article in Scientific American Supplement, No. 483, April 4, 1885

Another aeolian harp

An aeolian harp (or æolian harp or wind harp) is a musical instrument that is "played" by the wind. It is named for Aeolus, the ancient Greek god of the wind. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x957, 613 KB) Aeolian harp in the old castle of Baden Baden - Project Gutenberg eText 14097 From http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x957, 613 KB) Aeolian harp in the old castle of Baden Baden - Project Gutenberg eText 14097 From http://www. ... Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly) since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ... Image File history File links Aeolian_harp. ... Image File history File links Aeolian_harp. ... A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

History

Aeolian harps were very popular as household instruments during the Romantic Era, and are still hand-crafted today. Some are now made in the form of monumental metal sound sculptures located on the roof of a building or a windy hilltop. Wanderer above the sea of fog by Caspar David Friedrich Romanticism is an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in 18th century Western Europe during the Industrial Revolution. ... Sound sculpture (related to sound art and sound installation) is a multimedia artform in which sculpture produces sound or the reverse. ...

Description

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 note, or identical strings can be tuned to different notes. The sounding board is the largest part of a string musical instruments body. ...

Sound

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 notes, sometimes only one tone is heard and sometimes chords. Typical fingering for a second inversion C major chord on a guitar. ...

Operation

The harp is driven by an aeroelastic effect. The merest motion of the wind across a string forces the air on the leading side to move faster than that on the trailing side; then (see Bernoulli's principle) the pressure ahead is slightly less than that behind, pushing the string further to the side, until the restoring force arising from deflection halts and reverses the motion. Aeroelasticity is the science which studies the interaction among inertial, elastic, and aerodynamic forces. ... -1...

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

The Wind Harp - The Song of the Hill (1972)

Aeolian harps are featured in at least two Romantic-era poems, "The Aeolian Harp" and "Dejection, an Ode", both by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) (pronounced ) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. ...

Henry Cowell's Aeolian Harp (1923) was one of the first piano pieces ever to feature extended techniques 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 (Op. 25, no. 1) 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. Henry Cowell (March 11, 1897 - December 10, 1965) was an American composer, musical theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. ... Cover of Henry Cowell: Piano Music, with Henry Cowell demonstrating the longitudinal sweeping string piano technique Extended technique is a term used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox or improper techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments. ... A short grand piano, with the top up. ... An etude (from the French word étude meaning study) is a short musical composition designed to provide practice in a particular technical skill in the performance of a solo instrument. ... A short grand piano, with the top up. ... The only known photograph of Frédéric Chopin, believed to have been taken by Louis-Auguste Bisson in 1849. ... Étude Op. ... For others with the same name see Robert Schumann (disambiguation). ... Sergei Mikhailovich Lyapunov (November 30, 1859 - November 8, 1924) was a Russian composer. ...

In 1972, Chuck Hancock and Harry Bee recorded a giant Aeolian harp reportedly built by the members of a commune on a hilltop in California. United released their double LP entitled The Wind Harp - Song From The Hill. 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. Burning Man is a project best known for an eight-day-long annual festival that takes place in Black Rock City, a temporary city on the playa of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, 90 miles (150 km) north-northeast of Reno, ending on the American Labor Day holiday in... For the English cricketer with a similar name, see Allan Lamb Alan Lamb is an Australian artist, composer, and sound sculptor. ...