HARP, a musical instrument of the stringed kind, of a triangular figure, and held upright between the legs of the performer.
There is some diversity in the structure of harps. That called the triple harp has three rows of strings or chords, which in all make 78, or four octaves; the second row makes the half turn, and the third is unison with the first. There are two rows of pins on the right side, called buttons, that serve to keep the strings tight in their holes; which are fastened at the other end to three rows of pins on the upper side called the keys. This instrument is struck with the fingers and thumbs of both hands: its music is like that of the spinet, whence some have called it the inverted spinet. There are among us two sorts of this instrument, viz. the Irish harp, which is strung with wire; and the Welsh harp, strung with gut.
As to ancient harps, two are represented on Plate CL.—Fig. 26. is a trigonum or triangular harp. It is taken from an ancient painting in the museum of the king of Naples, in which it is placed on the shoulder of a little dancing cupid, who supports the instrument with his left hand, and plays upon it with his right. The trigonum is mentioned by Athenæus, lib. iv. and by Julius Pollox, lib. iv. cap. 9. According to Athenæus, Sophocles calls it a Pbrygian instrument; and one of his dipnosophists tells us, that a certain musician, named Alexander Alexandrinus, was such an admirable performer upon it, and had given such proofs of his abilities at Rome, that he made the inhabitants μυσομανοί, musically mad.
Fig. 25. is the Theban harp, according to a drawing made by J. Bruce, esq; from an ancient painting in one of the sepulchral grottos of the first kings of Thebes. "The performer is clad in a habit made like a shirt, such as the women still wear in Abyssinia, and the men in Nubia. This seems to be white linen or muslin, with narrow stripes of red. It reaches down to his ankles; his feet are without sandals and bare; his neck and arms are also bare; his loose wide sleeves are gathered above his elbows; and his head is close shaved. His left hand seems employed in the upper part of the instrument among the notes in alto, as if in an arpeggio; while, stooping forwards, he seems with his right hand to be beginning with the lowest string, and promising to ascend with the most rapid execution: this action, so obviously rendered by an indifferent artist, shews that it was a common one in his time; or, in other words, that great hands were then frequent, and consequently that music was well
understood, and diligently followed.
"If we allow the performer's stature to be about five feet ten inches, then we may compute the harp in its extreme length to be something less than six feet and a half. It seems to support itself in equilibrio on its foot or base, and needs only the player's guidance to keep it steady. It has 13 strings; the length of these, and the force and liberty with which they are treated, shew that they are made in a very different manner from those of the lyre. (See LYRE.)
"This instrument is of a much more elegant form than the triangular Grecian harp. It wants the fore-piece of the frame, opposite to the longest string; which certainly must have improved its tone, but must likewise have rendered the instrument itself weaker, and more liable to accidents if carriage had not been so convenient in Egypt. The back part is the sounding board, composed of four thin pieces of wood, joined together in form of a cone, that is, growing wider towards the bottom; so that, as the length of the string increases, the square of the correspondent space, in the sounding board, in which the tone is to undulate, always increases in proportion.
"Besides that the whole principles upon which the harp is constructed are rational and ingenious, the ornamental parts are likewise executed in the very best manner; the bottom and sides of the frame seem to be sicered, or inlaid, probably with ivory, tortoise-shell, and mother-of-pearl, the ordinary produce of the neighbouring seas and deserts. It would be even now impossible to finish an instrument with more taste and elegance.
"Besides the elegance of its outward form, we must observe, likewise, how near it approached to a perfect instrument; for it wanted only two strings of having two complete octaves in compass. Whether these were intentionally omitted or not, we cannot now determine, as we have no idea of the music or taste of that time; but if the harp be painted in the proportions in which it was made, it might be demonstrated that it could scarce bear more than the 13 strings with which it was furnished. Indeed the cross-bar would break with the tension of the four longest, if they were made of the size and consistency and tuned to the pitch that ours are at present.
"I look upon this instrument then, as the Theban harp, before and at the time of Sefostris, who adorned Thebes, and probably caused it to be painted there, as well as the other figures in the sepulchre of his father, as a monument of the superiority which Egypt had in music at that time over all the barbarous nations that he had seen or conquered.
"We know, about the time of Sefostris, if, as Sir Isaac Newton supposes, this prince and Sefac were the same, that in Palestine the harp had only ten strings; but as David, while he played upon it, both danced and sung before the ark, it is plain, that the instrument upon which he played could have been but of small volume, we may suppose little exceeding in weight our guitar; though the origin of this harp was probably Egyptian, and from the days of Moses it had been degenerating in size, that it might be more portable in the many peregrinations of the Israelites."
To the above account by Mr Bruce, Dr Burney subjoins the following observations, "The number of
Harp. of strings, the size and form of this instrument, and the elegance of its ornaments, awaken reflections, which to indulge would lead us too far from our purpose, and indeed out of our depth. The mind is wholly lost in the immense antiquity of the painting in which it is represented. Indeed the time when it was executed is so remote, as to encourage a belief, that arts after having been brought to great perfection, were again lost, and again invented long after this period.—
“With respect to the number of strings upon this harp, if conjectures may be allowed concerning the method of tuning them, two might be offered to the reader's choice. The first idea that presented itself at the sight of 13 strings was, that they would furnish all the semitones to be found in modern instruments within the compass of an octave, as from C to c, D to d, or E to e. The second idea is more Grecian, and conformable to antiquity; which is, that if the longest string represented Proslambanomenos, or D, the remaining 12 strings would supply all the tones, semitones, and quarter-tones, of the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic genera of the ancients, within the compass of an octave: but for my part I would rather incline to the first arrangement, as it is more natural, and more conformable to the structure of our organs, than the second. For with respect to the genera of the Greeks, though no historic testimony can be produced concerning the invention of the diatonic and chromatic, yet ancient writers are unanimous in ascribing to Olympus the Phrygian the first use of the enharmonic: and though in the beginning the melody of this genus was so simple and natural as to resemble the wild notes and rude essays of a people not quite emerged from barbarism; yet in after-times it became overcharged with finical fopperies, and fanciful beauties, arising from such minute divisions of the scale as had no other merit than the great difficulty of forming them.
“It seems a matter of great wonder, with such a model before their eyes as the Theban harp, that the form and manner of using such an instrument should not have been perpetuated by posterity; but that, many ages after, another of an inferior kind, with fewer strings, should take place of it. Yet if we consider how little we are acquainted with the use and even construction of the instruments which afforded the greatest delight to the Greeks and Romans, or even with others in common use in a neighbouring part of Europe only a few centuries ago, our wonder will cease; especially if we reflect upon the ignorance and barbarism into which it is possible for an ingenious people to be plunged by the tyranny and devastation of a powerful and cruel invader.”
Bell-Harp, a musical instrument of the string kind, thus called from the common players on it swinging it about, as a bell on its bails.
It is about three feet long; its strings, which are of no determinate number, are of brass or steel wire, fixed at one end, and stretched across the sound-board by screws fixed at the other. It takes in four octaves, according to the number of the strings, which are struck only with the thumbs, the right hand playing the treble, and the left hand the base: and in order to draw the sound the clearer, the thumbs are armed with a little wire pin. This may perhaps be the lyra,
or cythara of the ancients; but we find no mention of it under the name it now bears, which must be allowed to be modern.
Harp of Eolus. See ACOUSTICS, n° 10.