Chromatic burr harp, without pedal, with 78 strings, resting - Lot 132

Chromatic burr harp, without pedal, with 78 strings, resting on claw feet. Inscribed in ink "Pleyel (Paris), 900. Harpe Syste, Gve Lyon, breveté". Circa 1900. Damage to the veneer and missing parts. H. 188 cm Related work : - Collection of the Musée de la Philharmonie de Paris, Inventory no. E.983.8.1. At the request of several musicians, Gustave Lyon (1857-1936), director of Pleyel, filed a patent in 1894 for a new model of pedalless harp called the "chromatic harp". It is based on the principle of the cross-string harp, in existence since the 16th century, but the characteristic feature of chromatic harps is that they have one string for each semitone. The tension borne by the instrument, higher than on a classical harp, obliges us to build the console and column in metal, and to hang the strings from a metal windchest inside the body. This type of harp was not produced until the late 1920s. Gustave Lyon [1], a former polytechnician and director of Pleyel, Wolff & Cie, developed a chromatic harp in 1894, which was first exhibited at the Brussels World Fair (1897). It had no pedals and 76 strings in two rows: 44 for the left hand and 32 for the right. It was tuned in C major, whereas the diatonic pedal harp is tuned in C flat. Without pedals, its solid wooden body offers a warmer sound. There were plans to add pedals to the chromatic harp, to improve its chromaticism and glissandi, but the war of 14-18 prevented the project from coming to fruition. Production ceased in 1930, and teaching fell into disuse. The chromatic harp was taught at the Paris Conservatoire from 1903 to 1933, and at the Brussels Conservatoire from 1900 to 1953, and again from 1978 to 2005.