This article in its original form first appeared in 1995 in the FoMRHI  (Fellowship of Makers and Restorers of Historical Musical Instruments) Quarterly.

In 1808 Sebastien Erard (1752 – 1831) registered his first patent for the double-action harp with fourchettes¹. The subsequent patents of 1810² and 1821³ document further the development in the Erard mechanisms.

It is generally accepted that Sebastien Erard was the inventor of the double-action instrument, although a much discussed and recently rediscovered Cousineau⁴ harp pushes back this invention to the early 1780s. Evidence came to light during my research into the mechanisation of the harp illustrating that Erard was not the first to register a patent for a double-action harp with fourchettes.

Before discussing this new information, which has been available in the form of a patent since 1807, it is necessary to look at the late years of the single-action.

The initial mechanisation of the harp is generally attributed to Hockbruker during the first two decades of the eighteenth century. Many makers were involved in the development of the single-action harp. These makers may be divided into three distinct schools, according to the method by which the pitch of the open string is raised by one semitone. Nadermann, Cousineau, Renault & Chatelain, Wolter, Louvet and Holtzmann among others made crochet harps. The production of these harp continued in France into the nineteenth century, falling from fashion in England due to developments attributed to Erard.

During the last thirty years of the eighteenth century Georges Cousineau (1733 – c.1799) and his son Jacques Georges Cousineau introduced their bequille mechanism. This mechanism, consisting of two small crutch-ended levers placed both to the right and left of the string, stopped the string without moving it out of alignment.

During the late years of the eighteenth century Sebastien Erard, an inventor who registered many improvements for the harp and pianoforte, was known to be working on a more perfect method of stopping harp strings to produce a semitone. In 1794 he patented his single-action⁵.

This was achieved by using what Erard described as a fourchette. The fourchette could be turned to stop the string by the depression of the pedals enabling two prongs to move the string equally from opposing directions.  

This advancement was considered to be the pinnacle of single-action technology. Indeed in his book, The Harp in its Present Improved State, Pierre Erard (1796 – 1855), nephew of Sebastien writes;

… the French harp and Sebastien Erard’s compared might be said to have that striking difference between each other, in point of tone, which exists between a grand pianoforte and a harpsichord.

In 1801 Erard registered his second patent⁶, the first in the U.K. for a fully chromatic harp. Erard devised a clever though complicated mechanism which:

… was capable of rendering the harp capable of modulating into every usual or practicable scale of music, by immediately rendering the tone or pitch of all the chords or strings of the same name or denomination either flat, sharp or natural at pleasure, by the instantaneous operation of a lever, treadle, or other suitable instrument of communication from the hand or foot, so as to alter the tension of the said string, and also of turning each several chord or string with greater certainty and precision than has hitherto been done.

This mechanism employed a wheel attached to the tuning pin which by the depression of one pedal turned each pin of a particular note of the scale, increasing the tension on the string to achieve a semitone. By this method each string could be rendered flat, natural or sharp⁷. None of these Erard harps are known to survive. Cousineau, working with Ruelle, patented a harp⁸ in 1799, known as the ‘harpe à chevilles mécaniques’ in which the pedals acted on the tuning pins. It is unclear who arrived at this solution first. Its likely Erard would have been aware of this invention and continued to develop this principle, registering further patents in London and Paris in 1802. Cousineau also invented a double action harp with fourteen pedals, arranged in two rows of seven, one above the other, as early as 1782. This harp is believed to have been later owned by Erard.

In 1807 a patent⁹ was registered by Charles Groll of Leicester Fields, in the Parish of Saint Martin, and City of Westminster. I propose that this patent is the first registration of a double-action pedal harp with fourchettes. The patent drawings show an ingenious yet simple mechanism. They also illustrate two fourchettes acting upon one string. (Figure 1).

1. Apparatus for stopping the string, either to give the natural note of the series to which the string is tunes, or the next semitone above on the sharp note designated by the same musical letter or character which shall or may have been appropriated on the said string.

2. Apparatus fixed within the next of the harp, for the purpose of giving requisite motion at one and the same time to the axis of the stopping apparatus applied to all the strings of any one and the same note or denomination, in order that the whole of any such notes may be rendered flat, sharp, or natural at once, as may be required.

The associated patent drawings demonstrate the method by which the fourchettes were activated. (Figure 2).