“The aspiration of the harp maker should be…

…the creation of an excellent harmony between acoustics, architecture and stability which should reflect the real ability of the harp maker.
Extensive knowledge about the history of the harp sound in context with the music of different eras is indispensable as well.

Conscientious work, physical knowledge and fine embellishments might make a skilled harp maker a master craftsman, but this mastery is reproducible. Only by the ability to create individual and therefore unique resonance properties of great brilliance, high tonal viability and optimal acoustical balance over the entire range of highest possible balance, a harp maker creates an individual, not replicable art work of sound.

“Only through the creation of this one unique sound, which exclusively bears his personal signature, the harp maker has the permission to define himself as an artist.”

Rainer M. Thurau, Harpmaker at Wiesbaden (Germany), January 2009 – Translated by Prof. Dr. A. Lawrence-King