Arwen's Evenstar Harp, featuring Elven script and Arwen's Evenstar pendant from "The Lord of the Rings"
( The sound you are hearing is an actual recording of one of these magical instruments being played by the wind. If you hear nothing, make sure your speakers are on, or click "windharp.wav" to download the wave file.)
visits since 08/28/07
NEW FEATURE!! Scroll down to see the harps we have on hand, and find a link to download a wav file of each harp in stock. It's a chance to listen to each harp before you buy. Make sure your speakers are on, and sit back and listen to some beautiful, natural harp music.
My fascination with these instruments began back in the early '70s, thanks (believe it or not) to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I produced my first successful harp in 1992, and since then I have built hundreds of them and shipped them to customers all over the world. My efforts to save this ancient instrument from extinction have earned me a Commendation from HRH Prince Charles of Wales.
Building the Aeolian Harp
Are you thinking of building an Aeolian harp yourself? Please follow this link to information about my book, "Building the Aeolian Harp". I have written a step-by-step tutorial in which I share the tips, techniques and methods I have developed over more than 15 years of producing hundreds of these amazing instruments for customers worldwide.
Harps in the News!
We are very excited about two recent developments in our efforts to spread the word about these wonderful instruments. Please check out the 2 links below to see what is going on in various places around the world with harps that we've made here at East-Wood Products.
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EXCITING UPDATE! A Harp in the Recording Studio |
AVAILABLE NOW
These harps have just recently been completed. We plan to keep adding more and more, so check back often. If you have a special request or a special design in mind, please feel free to e-mail us at the address at the bottom of the page.
In all of these photos, the cover piece has been moved back from it's normal position so you can see the soundboard as well as the cover.
All of these harps are shipped FREE within the Continental US. A solid Brass tuning key, tuning instructions and care and maintenance information are all included FREE. For international shipments, only the actual shipping and insurance charges are added to the cost of the harp.
Click on the thumbnail image of any of these harps for more information. If there is a wav file available for the harp, it will start playing when it downloads. As weather permits, we will be adding wav files for each harp.
30" Black Walnut with Curly Maple
SOLD
30" African Padauk with Yellow Poplar
36" Walnut with Yellow Poplar
SOLD
36" Walnut with Yellow Poplar
SOLD
36" Curly Maple with Yellow Poplar
36" Rustic Pecan with Yellow Poplar
SOLD
36" Padauk with Yellow Poplar
Electronic Noise!
Do you ever get tired of all the electronic noise that surrounds us? All the same old songs on the radio, the same old CD's, and worst of all, daytime TV? I just love to turn all of that noise OFF, and put one of my harps in a window. It's so wonderful to hear wonderful music drifting through my home and to know that the music is being created only by the wind, naturally. Just beautiful music as pure as the songs of the birds that seem to gather close when my harp begins to play. And I can't EVEN describe to you what it's like to take a nap with harp sounds in your ears.
Thanks, Charming zephyr. -Hark! That tone!
Be true, sweet harp; hush all but thee:
Perform thy task untouch'd, alone,
And pour thy tide of harmony.
(This is the last verse of Leonard Bloomfield's poem AEOLUS. One of my personal favorites of the Aeolian Harp in Literature. If you'd like to read the full poem, click HERE.
Follow the link below to an interesting page about Aeolian Harps and their place in the history of poetry.
http://britlitwiki.wikispaces.com/Aeolian+Harps+and+the+Romantics
A Little More About
Aeolian Harps
Replicas of an 18th Cent. English design, these harps are made to sit in your open window and "sing" with the breezes that blow in and out of your home. These harps produce a most unusual and beautiful sound. The English poet Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote a poem "The Aeolian Harp" that gives a hint of the magical qualities of the music created by these wonderful instruments. You may have heard a short sampling of the sound of one of these harps when you first accessed this page. If not, Windharp.wav will download the sound for you.
We make these harps with a variety of wood species, and frequently customize them. The harps are made with 16 strings of monofilament nylon, closely spaced, which allow the harp to sing in a very light breeze.
There is a mystery about the Aeolian Harp that still has physicists arguing about it's ability to produce the sounds you will hear. There are 16 strings of equal length, all tuned to the same note, but they are of different diameters. When the wind decides to send you a song, the harp will begin to sing in harmonies high and low, loud and soft, with a haunting, mystical and ethereal voice. The resulting sound is completely dependent on the wind, and it is never the "same old song". (sorry, couldn't resist that one)
Air is like electricity and water in that it will follow the path of least resistance. If you were to place a 2 foot long harp in a window 3 feet wide, most of the moving air would just bypass the harp, flowing around the ends, reducing it's ability to sing. This is why I recommend thinking about which windows you like to open on those beautiful days when you want to let the fresh air in. These are the windows where you would want to place your harp. I like to make your harp approximately 1 inch shorter than the inside dimensions of the opening in your window. This way the harp is easily positioned in the open window, and the 1/2 inch gap on either end of the harp has very little effect on the harps ability to sing for you. These harps are designed for standard sash type windows, that allow you to close the window down on top of the harp. This not only holds the harp in place, but forces as much of the breeze as possible across the strings. When the window is holding the harp tightly in place, some of the sounds produced transfer into the wall, increasing the volume of the harp. This design will also accommodate windows that slide open, side to side, horizontally. You merely have to stand the harp up on end and slide the movable portion of the window up against it.
Another interesting thing I've learned after years of building these instruments is this. The longer the harp is, the more easily it will sing in light breezes. I won't even build one less than 24" long anymore. I once built one that was only 18" long, and the poor thing needed gale force winds to make it sound. Our favorite harp (which is now 14 years old) is 36" long, and will sing beautifully when there seems to be no wind outside at all. So there is a bit of a trade off. Longer harps cost more, obviously, but they will provide so much more listening pleasure that it's worth it to get the longest harp you can.
If you have any questions at all about these marvelous instruments, please feel free to e-mail me at the address listed below. I will make every effort to provide a prompt and accurate answer to any inquires you may have.