re: #60 makeitstop

So they shift the entire tuning, or just certain strings or sections of strings?

Pardon me for asking potentially dumb questions - I’ve never been near a harp, let alone played one.

It depends. On a lever harp, you preset the key of the song by sharping various strings. During the song, you change individual strings by sharping/unsharping them to sound accidentals- notes outside of the base signature.

On a pedal harp, each pedal has three positions, open-sharp-flat, that changes every seventh string when moved. Seven Pedals. On some really chromatic pieces, (Debussy, Mahler) or some of the more modern uses of tone (Bartok, Stravinsky, Cage), the harpist must dance the pedals like a dervish to keep up.