Celestial Harp

Celestial Harp A musical instrument designed to play the I Ching and Astrology.

Celestial Harp

The Celestial Harp was designed to play the horoscope of a person or of  the very moment one was playing. There are 78 strings on the harp but that includes 8 double strings. There are 64 string placements that correspond to the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. Each string is an I Ching hexagram and the frets appear  to be the lines of the hexagram.

The Celestial Harp is what is called a double bridged instrument. There is a spiral inner bridge and a square outer bridge. It is the relationship of the spiral to the square that determines the lengths of  the strings and the sequence of notes. The frets radiate out from the centre of the circle. The proportions and scales of the Celestial harp are determined by these three geometrical shapes: the spiral, the square and the circle (of frets).

It was designed to be played by several people at the same time. The strings can be plucked, strummed, slid, hammered and warped. An extended sound can be made by using an ebow. This allows for a great variety of sounds. The Celestial Harp is a sound machine. It is a classical instrument because it must be played  by one’s hands. It is an acoustic instrument, but it is also a percussive instrument in that it can be hammered. It is unique in the world and it is tremendously vitalizing to play.

The only thing in the world you can be sure of is change!