I would like to know more about scoring for the harp. I don't really intend to attempt to write music for the harp but I would like to improve my understanding and appreciation. I am considering western classical music and the modern pedal harp.
So, the instrument is tuned to a C♭ scale but there are 7 pedals which can be used to raise a set of strings (e.g. all Fs) by one or two semitones. (I am aware that a few extreme strings might not be affected but this is unimportant to this question.) So, it is clearly possible to set the instrument to play in any major scale.
Now here are the questions, all to do with how often I could reasonably expect the player to change the pedal settings.
I presume that it would be reasonable to require a change between movements. E.g. the first movement is in C but the second is in G and the Fs must be sharpened between the movements.
How about within a movement? Suppose that the movement modulates from C to G, can I expect a change between bars even if there is no rest?
In 1 and 2, do I need an instruction to change the pedals or would the key signature be sufficient?
Within a bar? Suppose that I want 4 F♮ quavers, followed by 4 F♯ quavers and a G. Is that possible? If the last F♮ is still resonating when the pedal is changed, will the note bend or stop prematurely? If I don't want that effect, could I expect the player to sharpen both the E and F strings for that bar and play the F♮s on the E string? They would need to return the E to ♮ in the following bar.
How about minor keys? Obviously we can set the instrument to the key signature of A minor but I will often want F and G to be sharpened. For example, could I request a rising glissando with F♯ and G♯ followed immediately by a descending glissando with F♮ and G♮?