 Henry Dagg and the Sharpsichord at TEDxArendal, Norway, 2016 Photo: Birgit Fostervold | |
| String instrument | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Chordophone |
| Inventor(s) | Henry Dagg |
| Developed | 21st century |
| Musicians | |
| Björk | |
The Sharpsichord is a musical instrument created by Henry Dagg in Faversham, Kent. [1] It is a pin-barrel harp or Stroh Harpsichord that plays music using a system of pegs, like a music box. [2] [3] The pegs slot into a grid of 11,520 holes [1] to program songs onto a 46-string harp using a chromatic scale of almost 4 octaves from C2 to A5 (the 47th Lever activates dampers for the lowest strings when changing Chords). [4] The harp is then amplified by a pair of large horns very akin to a Stroh violin which also uses Horns to amplify its sound. [1] [4] The instrument can also be played more traditionally using a keyboard. [4] The Sharpsichord is solar-powered and can play 90 seconds of music at a time. [5] [4] [6] It is made of stainless steel and weighs 2,500 kilograms (5,500 lb) altogether. [4] [7] Dagg has stated that the Sharpsichord is intended as a tribute to Cecil Sharp, a collector of folk music. [4]
It took around four years for Dagg to create the Sharpsichord after he was enabled to do so following a commission from the English Folk Dance and Song Society in 2006. [1] The society asked Dagg to create a trio of instruments to use in a "sound garden" following a grant from the Big Lottery Fund. [3] [5] Dagg only produced one instrument: the Sharpsichord. [4] Due to the Sharpsichord being perishable it was not able to be used in the garden and Dagg later had to refund the money. [7] [5] The instrument took a total of £90,000 to build. The Sharpsichord was used by Björk on her Biophilia tour for the song Sacrifice. [7] [8] [4] [6] [9] [10] [11]