Harp

“ The harp is our principal musical instrument. We have one that is portable and in form like a lyre; but our great harp is much larger than yours, differently constructed, and far more effective, combining, as it does, in its tones all the delicacy, expression, and oneness of a single executant, with the brilliancy and power of a combined body of performers. ”

“ You have heard of a little instrument called the æolian harp, which, when placed in an open window or anywhere where the wind will sweep across its strings, gives forth a very sweet and plaintive melody. Well, in Happy Valley every child who desires one—and who does not?—has an instrument very similar to that little harp, which they place where the soft breezes can sweep across it, thus evoking the most sweet and enchanting music, not sad like the melody of the æolian harps of earth, but cheerful, inspiring, and very tuneful. ”

“ I WILL WAKE MY HARP WHEN THE SHADES OF EVEN. [23]
I will wake my harp when the shades of even
Are closing around the dying day,
When thoughts that wear the hues of Heaven
Are weaning my heart from the world away;
And my strain will tell of a land and home
Which my wand'ring steps have left behind,
Where the hearts that throb and the feet that roam
Are free as the breath of their mountain wind.
I will wake my harp when the star of Vesper
Hath open'd its eye on the peaceful earth,
When not a leaf is heard to whisper
That a dew-drop falls, or a breeze hath birth. ”

“ An endless monotone of single notes
That ne’er began and nevermore shall end
Across the seas in dim metallics floats
The years to blend.
And they that bear the harp revere their lords,
The blind uncertain gods that smite the chords. ”

“ Any one who has seen an Æolian harp, and listened to the wild notes of its music, will be aware that the wires of the harp are swept by accidental currents of air; that when those currents have been strong, the notes of the harp have been raised to the highest pitch, and as the intensity of the currents has fallen, the musical sounds have deepened and softened, until, with melodious sighing, they have died away. No finger has touched the strings; no musical genius has presided at the harp to wake its inspiring sounds ”

“ See the harp in her hand, observe her rapt attitude—she is listening to melody—she hears, she rejoices, and yet the harp out of which she makes music only possesses one string—all the rest are broken. ”

“ To me they turn in vain.
I heard thee wake the deep harp chords
For other ears than mine,
I saw the light of thy soft eyes
Upon another shine.
The heart must speak or ever words
My depth of love can tell ”

“ I will string my harp with its sweetest strings,
And will sit me at thy feet,
And my hand shall waken a strain for thee
That is swellingly wild and sweet.
Look down! look down! on the waves of song
As they rise, and fall, and die—
Do you not see my wordless thoughts
Like barks glide murmuring by? ”

“ The same old harp, which was swept by a hand that has long since forgotten its cunning, now wakes to melody under the touch of one in whom life’s earliest pulses play. Its music ever floats between the cradle and the grave. ”

“ Boschsa how little the harp, can do to entrance the soul in musical delight.’ This is sensible criticism, in no far as it extends to the singing and playing of the individuals named: but the harp, when in the hands of those who best know how to use it—who seek not to astonish by what is called execution, which is only another name for murder, but study its pathetic and romantic character, and attempt nothing out of this—is an instrument that, in some shape or other, has charmed in all ages, and will continue to be admired wherever a taste for music is at all cultivated. ”

“ Gather together in one heap of useless rubbish (for they will never more be needed) , harp, lyre, flute, flageolet, violin and guitar, piano and organ. Even that harp of three thousand strings, which the divine hand has placed in the human ear, shall not again vibrate to the delicate touch of nature’s hand. ”

“ Then the harpman became so sad that he could not live in the midst of other men, but was off to the forest, and sate upon the hills both day and night, weeping, and playing on his harp so that the woods trembled and the rivers stood still, and hart shunned not lion, nor hare hound, nor did any beast feel rage or fear towards any other for gladness of the music. ”

“ And the harp itself (yes, even so extensive is the occult power they wield) makes its own special appeal to you, [Pg 24] and with its taste for delicacy seems suddenly like a dull tormented thing, swaying and trembling under the stiff sullen fingers of its master, there on the garish pavement—an instrument which, but for the uncertainty of life (ah, the uncertainty of life!) ”

“ There is always a kind of fine æolian harp music to be heard in the air. I hear now, as it were, the mellow sound of distant horns in the hollow mansions of the upper air, a sound to make all men divinely insane that hear it, far away overhead, subsiding into my ear. ”

“ Time has laid his hand
Upon my heart, gently, not smiting it,
But as a harper lays his open palm
Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations. ”

“ The very nature of the harp is chordal, and the sculptures always depict the performer playing with both hands, the fingers being more or less outstretched. That the music must have been of a deep, sonorous character, we may gather from the great size of the harps and the thickness of their strings. ”

“ Now men came to say of the harper that he could play the harp so that the forest swayed, and the rocks quivered for the sweet sound, and wild beasts would run up and stand still as if they were tame, so still that men or hounds might come near them, and they fled not. ”

“ The harp presents a triangular form of singular beauty, the graceful curve of the neck adding to the elegance of its appearance Although the outline has varied at different epochs and in different countries, the relation of its proportions to the musical scale—a condition of symmetry in musical instruments—is in the harp very close ”

“ Imagine an Æolian harp provided with all the scales, commingled by an artist's hand into all manner of fantastic, ornamental combinations, yet in such a way that you can always distinguish a deeper ground tone and a sweet continuous melody above—and you have an approximate idea of his playing. ”

“ It was at once followed by the notes of a guitar that seemed to float in space, the strings vibrating, not as though touched by human hands, but in fitful, meaningless chords like those of an Aeolian harp. ”

“ A harp might conceivably be so framed by its maker that every string, tho rightly tuned and rightly struck, according to the theory and design of the instrument, should emit when touched a separate discord. Or it may be so framed, as we know by experience, that from it shall flow, when fitly swept by an educated hand, the concerted numbers of noble music; inspiring the thoughts with their spiritual force, or suffusing the very air around us with an audible glory, and making it drop benedictions upon us. ”

“ As the instrument is new, so it is also easy to construct and very pleasant. It is the admiration of every one. It is made exactly to tit a window, in which it is placed ; and the harp, while the window remains shut, is silent : but as soon as it is opened, an harmonious sound, though somewhat melancholy, coming from the passing wind, astonishes the hearers; for they are not able to perceive from whence the sound proceeds, nor yet what kind of instrument it is, for it resembles neither the sound of a stringed nor yet of pneumatic instrument, but partakes of both. ”

“ Cultured races and primitive peoples alike played the harp. The Greeks had three-cornered harps and the Romans had harps with a curved frame, pegs, and sound-box. The famous lyre was a kind of harp. The ancient Irish harp, called cruit, and also crwth, which in time became a sort of fiddle-harp and was played with a bow, seems to have been an ancestor of the violin. As early as 200 B.C. the Irish children were taught that “the spirit of song dwelt among the trembling strings of the cruit.” ”

“ According to the miniatures in manuscripts, the harp was of a size that the top of it{215} did not extend higher than the head of the performer, who played upon it in a sitting posture (Fig. 190) . There were, however, harps of a lighter character, which the musician bore suspended from his neck by a strap, and played upon while standing up. This portable harp was the one that may par excellence be called noble, and was the instrument on which the trouvères accompanied their voices when reciting ballads and metrical tales (Fig. 191) . ”

“ With scoffs the minstrel crowd replied, 34
Dost thou a harp request!
And loud in mirth, and swelled with pride,
Some his rain-dripping hair deride,
And some his sordid vest.
Pilgrim, a harp shall soon be found, 35
Young Hoel instant cried;
There lies a harp upon the ground,
And none hath ever heard its sound,
Since my brave father died.
The harp is brought: upon the frame 36
A filmy cobweb hung;
The strings were few, yet 'twas the same;
The old man drawing near the flame,
The chords imperfect rung: [Pg 214]
Oh! ”

“ I left the harp to choose its theme, and knew not truly whether the harp had been Peiwoh or Peiwoh were the harp."
This story well illustrates the mystery of art appreciation. The masterpiece is a symphony played upon our finest feelings. True art is Peiwoh, and we the harp of Lungmen. At the magic touch of the beautiful the secret chords of our being are awakened, we vibrate and thrill in response to its call. Mind speaks to mind. We listen to the unspoken, we gaze upon the unseen. ”

“ The king then marched into Sussex and engaged the Normans on the hill of Senlac near Battle (see Hastings) . After a fight which lasted from morning till evening, the Normans had the victory, and Harold and his two brothers lay dead on the field (14th of October 1066) .
HARP (Fr. harpe; Ger. Harfe; Ital. arpa) , a member of the class of stringed instruments of which the strings are twanged or vibrated by the fingers. The harp is an instrument of beautiful proportions, approximating to a triangular form, the strings diminishing in length as they ascend in pitch. ”

“ The Harp is not a regular member of the Orchestra: he is only an occasional guest. Although a stringed instrument, the Harp does not belong to the “Strings.” He comes from another line, another race,—from the minstrels and bards. The Harp has a poetic and a passionate utterance all his own, which is of an entirely different kind of poetry and passion from that of the Violin tribe. ”

“ The first instrument dealt with is the harp, the essential feature of which is that each string gives but one sound. [72] It is not clear to me why the psaltery and dulcimer are separated from the harp, since they also have unstopped strings and therefore unalterable notes. Whereas the interpolated chapter ii. is concerned with instruments—the gittern and citole—whose tones are alterable in pitch by “stopping,” i.e., altering the length of the vibrating part of the string. ”

“ The Anglo-saxons frequently accompanied their vocal effusions with a harp, more or less triangular in shape,—an instrument which may be considered rather as constituting the transition of the lyre into the harp. The representation of king David playing the harp is from an Anglo-saxon manuscript of the beginning of the eleventh century, in the British museum. The harp was especially popular in central and northern Europe, and was the favourite instrument of the German and Celtic bards and of the Scandinavian skalds. ”

“ THE HARP THAT ONCE THROUGH TARA'S HALLS.
I.
The harp that once, through Tara's halls,
⁠The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls
⁠As if that soul were fled.—
So sleeps the pride of former days,
⁠So glory's thrill is o'er,
Arid hearts, that once beat high for praise,
⁠Now feel that pulse no more! ”

“ For, as the violin sounds most brilliantly in the cross or sharp notes, but the harp best in the B-tones or flat notes, when the fewest pedals possible are moved; I thereby obtained for both instruments the most favourable and most effective key-notes: for the violin namely, D and G; for the harp E and A-flat. A second advantage was, that, from the lower tuning of the harp, a string would less frequently break, which in public performances in very warm rooms so frequently happens to the harpist, and mars the enjoyment of the hearers. ”

“ Those who arrive in the morning are entertained until evening with the conversation of young women, and the music of the harp, for each house has its young women and harps allotted to this purpose. In each family the art of playing the harp is held preferable to any other learning. ”

“ The harp has always been considered one of the most pleasing and perfect of musical instruments. Here the skilled performer has absolutely free scope for his genius, because his fingers can pluck the strings at will and hence regulate the overtones, and his feet can regulate at will the tension, and hence the pitch of the strings. ”

“ And drink often, between whiles good ale or wine, and sing a song to the harp"--for he had taught me harp playing, in which I had great delight, and which he loved much, and everyone said that none could play the harp like me in all Scotland; "and forget not either often to throw the lance at the target in the monastery garden. Much book reading withers the body." ”

“ The harp is a very ancient instrument. It was played thousands of years ago in Egypt and Assyria. In fact it was the favorite instrument of the Egyptians and it was often magnificently ornamented. The Egyptian harp had no front pillar, and sometimes it looks in the hands of the player like a boat with a sail of strings. ”