Boieldieu's output of instrumental music was initially meager, and virtually ceased once he became one of the most popular opera composers in Paris, starting around 1797 (when he was only 22 years old). In his youth, he did write enough piano pieces to get himself appointed professor of piano at the new Paris Conservatory in 1798, and into the very beginning of the nineteenth century he also wrote regularly for the harp; when he moved from Rouen to Paris in 1795, he roomed with Sebastian Erard, the inventor of the double-action harp. Boieldieu's Harp Concerto in C, Op. 77, also redundantly known as Concerto in Three Tempi, is an appealing, tuneful work that retains a firm if not central place in the harp repertory.

The first movement, Allegro brillante, is about as long as the next two combined. It opens with a festive and somewhat ceremonial fast theme, which is followed by a flowing but restless melody and some busy, more generic material, all in the late Classical style employed in the 1790s with more individuality by the likes of Mozart and Beethoven. After the orchestra's presentation of the themes, the harp takes them up with a great deal of passagework, several trills, and a few glissandos tossed in for "brillante" effect. The soloist remains in the forefront for the remainder of the movement, with the orchestra providing rudimentary accompaniment and the occasional, requisite tutti declamation. The solo writing is especially intricate through much of the development section, but the harpist is denied a cadenza here.

The brief second movement, marked either Andante lento or Largo, depending on the edition, begins with an imposing, almost threatening minor-mode statement by the orchestra, with the harp then taking up a plaintive melody. The movement's second section is a sad but determined air that wouldn't be out of place in one of Boieldieu's operas. A transition leads directly into the final movement, aptly designated Allegro agitato. It's a rondo bouncing off an urgent, hyperactive primary theme. The intervening episodes become increasingly extroverted and brighter, with a brief, darkly sparkling cadenza just before the main theme's first return and another glissando-graced little cadenza just before the final episode.

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