This creative project includes a harp recital presented on April 27, 1969, and a paper comprising the evolvement of the harp into a chromatically capable instrument and the teachers and composers who have worked with it. The inventions leading to the final solution in 1810 of the double action pedals are presented as well as the following improvements which have resulted in the sonorous tonal quality of today's concert grand harps.Although the double action pedals were presented in 1810, many years passed before the harp received the acceptance of major composers. This study traces the developing recognition of the harp and the harp virtuosi and teachers who influenced this acceptance through their concert tours, technique and method books, and principally by preparing numerous harpists as talented performers and teachers. / School of Music

When one realizes how little the harp of the 1700's had advanced from its Biblical predecessors, its neglect by such masters as Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven does not seem remarkable. Why should a serious composer waste his time in writing for an instrument with no facilities for modulating, an instrument the weak tones of which would be lost in an orchestra?