An inline chromatic harp is a

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

where the strings for all 12 chromatic notes of the octave are placed in one row (the same way strings are placed on a standard concert harp), as opposed to their being placed in two or three (parallel or crossing) courses. At least one example of a harp with ''two'' parallel inline chromatic courses has also been produced. Single course inline chromatic harps have been produced for at least the past 110 years: in 1902 Karel Weigel of Hanover (Germany) patented a model of inline chromatic harp.Karl Weigel'
patent
(wit
patent text and drawings
He built at least one 54 string (4 octaves and a fourth) model which is now housed in the

Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science museum, science and technology museum, technology, with a ...

(Munich). A disadvantage of inline chromatic harps is that

glissandi In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In ...

can only be performed chromatically.

References

Frame harps {{harp-stub