Piano & Harp

The piano and harp each have more strings than any other instrument in the orchestra, but they’re not strictly members of the String section and we accord them a special place in the orchestra. Both are relatively latecomers to the orchestra family: the harp begins to turn up regularly in music written in the 19th century, the piano came into its own in the 20th.

The harp is the “instrument of angels”, which is why many listeners are surprised when they hear just how loud it is in the concert hall. All those rippling arpeggios and vibrant chords ring out clearly above even an orchestra of a hundred musicians. And when you put four of them together in a piece like Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique, the sound is phenomenal!

In Bach and Mozart’s day you’d often see a keyboard in the orchestra – a harpsichord or one of the early pianos (fortepiano). Those keyboards would have been fulfilling a kind of “rhythm section” function in the music. Then keyboards disappeared, with the exception of special effects instruments such as the bell-like celesta that Tchaikovsky uses in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The modern piano has joined the orchestra more recently, sometimes as a featured instrument (think Stravinsky’s Petrushka ballet music) and sometimes as part of the overall orchestral colour. Many composers of the past century have used the piano for its percussive potential, and some people even think of it as a percussion instrument (because the piano’s hammers strike the strings).

Piano

Harp

 

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