> Nyper"wondering about the notes on the 22-string harp"old

I'm not sure what they were in antiquity, but orchestral and Celtic harp strings now are tuned equivalent to the white notes on a piano, CDEFGABC and continuing. You get the sharps and flats on a Celtic harp (or lever harp) with a little lever mechanism at the top of each string which can be flicked up or down with the left hand while playing, as required, or set to a particular scale in advance. Orchestral (or pedal) harps work the same way only there's a pedal at the base of the harp with three possible positions for each note. For example, you move the D pedal to the "sharp" position to make all the Ds into D sharps. It's much, much easier than a lever harp because it does all the octaves of that note at once, plus it allows you to keep using your hands for playing.

On a *traditional* old-style Celtic harp (wire strings and no levers), you have to re-tune the scale manually each time you play in a different key, and you can't use accidentals. All the harps of antiquity would have been like this, whatever notes they were tuned to. I have one of these (home-made, 22 strings) and it sounds terrific but it's hell to play unless it's a very, very simple tune. Fortunately most medieval tunes are.

Brunnen-"way out of practice"G