For 10 years, I’ve been building gaelic harps similar to medieval irish harps, also called Clairseach (pronouced klarshak) clarsach .

The bronze strings and the single piece sound box give it an authentic and pure sound, unknown but eternal, with an intense and penetrating vibration that just has to be discovered. That sound doesn’t have anything in common with the soft and muffled sound of the nylon strings of celtic harps, and will enchant you. The repertoire also is typical of bards, with simple and bewitching melodies, and the playing technique is much more instinctive than on modern harps.

Formerly played by bards and harpers of gaelic countries (Ireland, Scotland, Wales,Brittany), the Clairseach (or clarsac ) is extremely robust, as it had to be carried by horse from town to town in difficult conditions.

Each instrument I manufacture is a unique piece, just like a work of art. Everything is done entirely by hand. The twenty eight strings are fixed to brass dowels, and the pins are made of ebony.

I use a beautiful timber which I take from trees planted by my grand mother as a big walnut tree. It fell during the storm in 99.

For more information about the clairseach, you can visit www.clarsach.net, where you will find all kinds of informations about the playing method and the history of this instrument, and meet Ann Heymann, a specialist of this instruments and also my artist and harp-maker friends...

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