He also strove to democratize the instrument, long associated in the public mind with drawing rooms and those who can afford drawing rooms. (The more than 2,000 pounds of pressure exerted when the strings are taut puts the neck at chronic risk of warping.) These included increasing the harp’s acoustic vigor while simultaneously reinforcing its delicate neck. Salvi, assisted by a team of Italian cabinetmakers and Swiss watchmakers, made a number of technical innovations that remain hallmarks of his instruments. The harp has long been considered dainty, but it must be built to display grace under pressure, quite literally. Though it typically has only 47 strings, it is able to achieve a six-and-a-half-octave range by means of a set of pedals, which control a sophisticated mechanism that raises or lowers the pitch of the strings. More than any other orchestral instrument, the harp is a machine, weighing some 90 pounds and comprising more than a thousand moving parts. That instrument has since been played by the official royal harpist at many imperial functions, including the wedding reception of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011. Salvi presented him with an ornate, heavily gilded instrument known as the Prince of Wales harp. Prince Charles became the owner of one in 2006, when Mr. Prized for their power and sonority, Salvi harps are played today by many of the finest soloists and orchestral musicians in the world. With his acquisition in 1987 of Lyon & Healy, the venerable Chicago harp maker and his only major competitor, he came to preside over a genial global monopoly. Salvi, a former member of the New York Philharmonic who was equal parts harpist, artisan, engineer and evangelist, established the company in 1956. His death was announced by his company, Salvi Harps, of Piasco, Italy. Victor Salvi, who reigned for decades as the world’s foremost maker of harps, died on May 10 in Milan.
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