The harps played by the harpers
of the old Gaelic orders were an aristocratic instrument,
played in the courts of kings and before the chiefs of clans.
It had an important role in Gaelic culture, legend and folklore.
About the 13th century, when Feudalism reached its height,
the Troubadours began appearing. European harpers earned their
living by moving from town to town, using small harps for
self-accompanied singing, storytelling, news-telling and in
instrumental groupings. Harpers were second only to the chieftain
or king, often serving as advisors and leading armies into
battle. Unarmed, they were recognized and respected by the
enemy and were generally immune from harm.
The age of chivalry with its
troubadours and minstrels began a new renaissance in harps.
The Medieval harps during this time were small enough to be
held on the player's lap, and had between 7 to 25 strings
and they had narrow sound boxes often carved out of a solid
log. Medieval harps were apparently wire strung although gut,
hair and plant materials were used as well. By the 11th or
12th century, the upper neck begins to assume the contours
of what we call the "harmonic curve" which attempted
to more closely match the string's length with its frequency
or pitch. Very little elce is known about the instruments
of this period.
During the middle of the 14th
to 16th century, larger harps known as Gothic harps appeared.
This harp had around 24 gut strings, a relatively tall instrument
compared to earlier harps and is the ancestor of the later
Renaissance harp. The Renaissance harp evolved into the Italian
Double-Row Harp, the Italian Arpa Doppia, the Spanish Renaissance
harp and the Chromatic harp. These versions of the Renaissance
harp eventually developed into the modern the folk harps of
Latin America, the "Orchestral, Pedal or Concert"
harp of Central Europe and possibly the modern "Irish"
or "Celtic" harp from the "Isles".
Still small and light by modern standards, the Gothic style
Harp was the standard harp throughout Europe into the late
Middle Ages and the Renaissance period in music history.
They were strung with gut strings at a much lower tension
than we are accustomed to today. Earlier models had 19 to
22 strings, later harps known as early Renaissance harps
were larger and had 26 to 30 strings. They were tuned diatonically
with the soundbox generally hollowed from a plank of hardwood,
giving the harp a distinctive plucked sound to complement
the lute, an instrument the gothic harp often played with
in consort.
The Wartburg Single-Row Gothic Harp (circa
1350-1450) was acquired during the middle of the 19th century
for the art collection of the Wartburg Museum, Eisenach,
Germany. It purportedly belonged to Oswald von Wolkenstein,
who lived in Tyrol from 1377-1445. It is beautifully inlayed
with Certosinia-workand has 26 gut strings and a full set
of brays at the string base to sharpen the strings by a
semi-tone. It is a 'carved-body' type and made of maple.
It stands at 109 cm high. (See Image below)
The Wartburg Gothic Harp
Note the small soundbox
|
The Italian Double Row Harp
with two sets of strings
|
By the late Renaissance a number of variations on the Gothic
/ Renaissance harp theme were in use. The
single-course Renaissance harp remained only capable of
playing seven notes per octave or the diatonic scale (the
white notes on a piano). The major composers of the 16th
to 18th centuries demanded all 12 chromatic notes of the
scale (white and black notes on the piano). One solution
was a chromatic harp, a harp with 12 strings per octave
. Chromatic harps were built in Spain in the 16th and 17th
century. A double harp with two rows of strings was built
in 1581. Soon afterwards, the triple harp appeared where
the player would reach between two diatonic scaled rows
of outer strings to play the chromatic notes in between.
The double and triple harps continue today in the Welsh
tradition.
The Italian Double-Row Harp (circa 1675) had 2 parallel
rows or courses of strings and was chromatic (having both
the black notes and the white notes like a piano). It had
a carved soundboard of maple and a five-staved back made
of walnut with 52 chromatic notes with all gut strings.
(See Image above)
"Bolognia Doppia"
with 2 rows of strings
Reproduction from the doppia in the
Museo Medival, Bolognia, 1600.
Eric Early Harps |
"Barberini" Italian Baroque Harp
with 3 rows of strings.
Reproduction from the original built for
Cardinal Antonio Barberini, Rome 1635.
Eric Early Harps |
"Barberini" Italian
Baroque Harp
Note the string positioning.
Eric Early Harps |
The Italian Arpa Doppia was a three-course harp of the
late Renaissance or early Baroque period had 26 chromatic
strings in the central row, with 24 trebles on the right,
and 25 basses on the left. The soundbox was constructed
of hardwood staves, and the soundboard is maple.
Early Spanish Harps were single-course or cross-strung harps
generally with 29 strings. The single
course- harp could be fretted against the neck for semi-tones.
The cross-strung harps had chromatic strings (the
black piano notes) intersecting, or passing between the
diatonic strings (the white piano strings), forming an X.
In this way, all chromatic and diatonic strings were playable
by both hands at any point on the harp. The soundboard is
very much like the guitar with spruce and cross braced for
reinforcement, creating a wonderful sound.
Wire strung harps or ancient Irish harps may be the predecessors
of our current lever harps in folklore but not in technical
development. These instruments were wire strung (brass,
iron, silver, or gold) often with the soundboxes carved
from a single piece of willow (bog wood). Technical innovations
garnered from many geographical centers of the late Renaissance
Europe plus the invention of the modern lever mechanism
in Japan in composite have eventuated in the modern Celtic
harp
In the 1600s, the later Spanish
or Renaissance harp was taken to the new world by Jesuit missionaries
and developed in a completely different way. The indigenous
peoples were fascinated with the instrument, made some changes
to it and adopted it as part of their own culture. There are
many kinds of harps in Latin America, including the Venezuelan
harp, Mexican harp and arpa llanera - harp of the plain. Almost
all South American Countries have their own versions of harps.
In construction and playing techniques, these harps are quite
different from the traditional European harps. They were made
of thin wood (cedar and pine) and were much lighter than the
European harp. The strings were routed up the centre of the
neck and the instruments were bi-symmetrical resulting in
few structural stresses. Eventually tacitos were used to sharpen
notes to change key. The playing style and techniques were
vibrant and dynamic in contrast to the softer European tone.
Modern Paraguayan harps usually have 36 nylon strings tuned
to the diatonic scale and are played with the fingernails.
The sound is bright with a shorter sustain period after the
plucking of each note.
