DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

HAEP HARP 3i!5
probably of a low and sweet tone. But while
all Egyptian harps wanted this important member
for snpport, they were not limited to one
size. There seems to have been a great variety
in dimensions, number of strings, and amount of
ornament. Some, like Brnce's, were placed upon
the ground ; others "vvere upon rests or stools,
to admit of the player's standing. Those held
by seated players were more like the Greek
trigonon, a link between the harp and lyre.
The Assyrian harps resembled the Egyptian in
having no I'ront pillar, but diti'ered in the soundboard
being uppermost, the lower angle being
a simple bar for the attachment of the strings.
Carl Engel (Jfusif: of (he most Aticunt A'ations,
London, 1S64) regards the absence or presence of
the front pillar as distinguishing the Eastern
harp from the Western, but it may he that the
distinction is rather that of ancient and modern,
for the very earliest Western harp of which a
representation exists, that in Bunting's Aiicicnt
Music of Ireland, attributed by him to an earlier
date than .i.D. 830, has no front pillar. The
beautiful form of the more modern Irish harp is
well known from its representation in the royal
coat-of-arms. Two specimens are to be seen in
one is a cast of
the Victoria and Albert Jluseum ;
the ancient harp in Trinity College, Dublin, said
to have belonged to Brian Boiroinihe, but now
attributed to the King of Thomond {eir. 1221),
who sent it as a pledge to Scotland, from whence
it was removed by Edward I. to 'Westminster.
In the reign of Henry A^III. it reverted to the
then Earl of Clanrickard. In these the body
is perpendicular, or nearly so, instead of slanting,
as in modern harps ;
curved to admit of this,
the front pillar being
and the neck—in the
Irish harp called the Harmonic Curve— descending
rather to meet it. This form gives a
more acute angle to the strings, which were of
brass, two to each note, the sounds being produced
by the pointed hnger-nails of the player.
The number of strings is uncertain, but the
harp, shown in the
fragments of the ' ' Dalway
Special Exhibition at South Kensington in
1872, inscribed ' Ego sum Regina Cithararum,'
and dated .\.ii. 1621, justify our assuming the
large scale of fifty-two for this instrument.
[This har[i was made by Donal O'Dermody for
Sir John FitzGerald of Cloyne, Co. Cork, and
is still in the possession of the Dalway family
at Ballahill near Carrickfergus. The soundboard
is missing, hut the harmonic curve and
forearm are in good preservation, w. h. g. f.]
The Irish Gaelic harp must have been the
Scotch Gaelic one also. According to Gunn
{Historical Inquiry, etc., Edinburgh, 1807) a
lady of the elan Lamont in Argyle took a harp
with her on her marriage in 1640 to Kobertson
of Lude, whicli had for several centuries been
the harp of a succession of Highland bards.
Gunn described it as then existing, thirty-eight
inches high and sixteen broad, with thirty-two
strings. [It was lent by Mr. W. Moir Bryce
to the Loan Exhibition of the Musicians' Company
in Fishmongers' Hall, 1904. w. H. a. v.]
Another, also then exiting and in excellent
preservation, he stated to have been the gift of
Queen Mary of Lorraine to Miss Gardyn of
Banchory. It was smaller tlian the Lude harp,
and had originally twenty -nine strings, increased
later to thirty. [It was sold by auction
in Edinburgh on March 12, 1904, for S.'iO
guineas, and purchased for the Antiquarian
Museum of that city. "W. H. G. F. 1
The Welsh Harp has likewise a jierpendicular
body, but is larger than the Irish, increasing
considerably downwards. The neck ascends, the
front pillar being longer. The "Welsh harp has
three rows of gut strings, the outer rows being
unisons in diatonic series, the inner the chromatic
semitones.
The earliest representation of the portable
mediieval harp, which so many painters loved
to delineate along with lutes and viols, is perhaps
that in Gerbert's Le Cantu et Musica Sacra,
copied from a MS. of the 9th century in the
jMonastery of St. Blaise in the Black Forest,
destroyed by fire in 1768. The form of this
instrument is preserved in the modern harp, the
front pillar only differing in being straight instead
of slightly curving, to admit of the movement
of the rods for working the pedals.
That the Western harp belongs to Northern
Europe in its origin there seems to be no doubt.
Jlax Mtiller claims the name as Teutonic, aiul has
contributed these historic and dialectic forms :—
Old High GeTma.n, Sarapfia ; Middle do. .i/oj-jijA'
Moderndo., Harfe ; OldNorse, Harpa. From the
last were derived the Spanish and Italian Arpa,
the Portuguese Harpa, and the French Harpe
—the aspirate showing the Teutonic origin.
The Anglo-Saxon form was Hearpe. The Basque
and Sclavonian, as well as the Romance, tuuk
the name with the instrument, but there is a
remarkable exception in the fact of the Keltic
peoples having their own names, and these
again divided according to the Gaelic, and
Cymric branches. Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte
has supplied the following illustration :— Irish
Gaelic, Cidirseach ; Scotch do., Oidrsach; Manx,
C/aasagh ; Welsh, Telyn ; Cornish, Telcin ;
Breton, Telcn.
The Medieval harp, a simple diatonic instrument,
was sufficient in its time, but when modern
instrumental music arose, its limits were found
too narrow, and notwithstanding its charm of
tone it would have fallen into oblivion. It had
but one scale, and to obtain an accidental seniitone
the only resource was to shorten the string
as much as was needed by firmly pressing it with
the finger. But this was a poor exjjedient, as it
robbed the harpist for the time of the use of
one hand. Chromatic harps were attempted by
Gei-man makers in the ISth century, but it
was found impracticable, through difficulty of