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The Story of the Harp PART ONE. PART THREE ENGLISH, SCOTCH, AND IRISH HARPERS. THE HARP IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. THE IRISH HARP UNDER KING JAMES I. PART FOUR CHAPTER
XIV. INVENTION OF THE PEDAL HARP. Hochbrucker's device—Defect of the pedal—Improvements by the Cousineaus père et fils—The double-action harp—Meyer's improvements—Prince Oginski—His tribute to Irish harpers. CHAPTER XV. THE HARP AS AN ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENT. Handel scores for the harp. Florian Gassman. J. E. Krumpholz. Louis
Adam. Mozart. Dussek. P. Meyer. Daniel
Steibelt. CHAPTER XVI. IRISH HARPERS OF THE MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Maguire the harper. Hugh Kelly. Jerome Duigenan. Dominick Mongan. Denis
O'Hampsey. The Jacobite period. CHAPTER XVII. SOME OLD-TIME VIRTUOSI. Madame Krumpholz. Louis Cardon.
De Marin. Madame Dussek. Moralt.
Guillaume Gatayes. Naderman
fih. Thomas Billington.
Jean Elouis. Minor artists. CHAPTER XVIII. WELSH HARPERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
PART FIVE CHAPTER XIX.
REVIVAL OF THE IRISH HARP. CHAPTER XX. THE DOUBLE-ACTION HARP. CHAPTER XXI. VIRTUOSI OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. CHAPTER XXII. THE HARP IN THE ORCHESTRA. Preface. Although the Harp, mainly by reason of the introduction
of the pianoforte, has not maintained its prestige in the salons
of the great, yet it still holds an honoured place in the orchestra,
and claims many amateur votaries. Of course
there is a professorship of the harp in the principal musical conservatoires;
and all the big European and American festivals requisition the
instrument either for solo or concerted work. Apart from the graceful outline of the harp, there is
something indefinable in its strains, something ethereal and sui
generis. The very mention of the instrument recalls to mind the
number of allusions to it in the Bible. Who has not read of the
myriad harpers harping upon their golden harps in the New Jerusalem?
Has not the theme of David playing on his harp been ever popular
with mediaeval painters? The story of Jubal’s lyre has recently been corroborated by
a sculptured tablet in Chaldea, due to the researches of the great
American explorer, Mr. St. Chad Boscawen. Year by year archaeologists
are bringing to light hidden tablets on which harps are depicted.
Certain it is that from the earliest period of the world's history
a form of harp has existed. The present little volume does not pretend to be scientific,
in the strict acceptance of the term; nor yet is much account taken
of conflicting theories as to the most ancient forms of harps, or
exact data relative thereto. As is sufficiently indicated by the
title, it is only purposed to tell the story of the harp from the
earliest records to the close of the last century. General accuracy,
however, is aimed at, and an endeavour is made to render the narrative
alike of interest to the professional as well as the amateur. In a certain sense, this venture may be regarded as a
pioneer work on the harp, as, save for the book by Bruce Armstrong,
and the articles in Grove's Dictionary and the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
there has not previously been published any special history dealing
adequately with this venerable instrument. No apology is needed for the prominence given to the
Irish harp in the following pages. Ireland has been for centuries
associated with “The harp that once thro' Tara's halls”, and the
instrument figures in the arms and coinage of the kingdom. Dante,
as quoted by Vincenzo Galilei, attests that the Italians received
the harp from Ireland, and German historians tell of the Irish monks
who founded scores of religious houses all over the Continent, bringing
with them their harps and bells. At the same time I have endeavoured
to do no injustice to other harp-loving countries, and I have summarised
the most recent discoveries in the East in regard to sculptured
harps, especially at Crete, Egypt, and Babylonia. No one is more painfully aware of the shortcomings of
the present volume than the writer himself, but the chief object
has been to present in a popular form the various evolutions of
the harp until its final development by Erard,
at the commencement of the nineteenth century, and to furnish a
readable account of the leading harpists from mediaeval days to
our own times; as also to point out the
bearing of the harp in the orchestra, and its introduction into
the scores of such giants as Wagner, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, and Gounod.
My best acknowledgments are hereby tendered to Francis
Joseph Bigger, Esq., M.R.I.A., Belfast,
for several of the blocks used for illustrating the subject of the
Irish harp; and also to the proprietors of the Irish Rosary, Dublin, for the
use of blocks of the Ullard Harp, Brian
Boru Harp, Dalway Harp, Hempson Harp, and M'Fall “Tara”
Harp. WM. H. GRATTAN FLOOD. Enniscorthy, July, 1905. Epochs in the History of Harp-making. A.D. 1218.—First recorded improvement in the construction
of the harp by Aedh O'Sochlann,
Vicar of Cong (Ireland). 1220.—The “Brian Boru” harp.
1418.—John Bore, of London, harp-maker to King Henry
V. 1585.—William Bathe constructs a harp “of a new device”
which he presents to Queen Elizabeth. 1621.—The “Dalway” harp, made
by Donnchadh MacTadhg
O'Dermody. 1623.—Invention of a new double-string harp by F. Robert
Nugent, S.J. 1661.—A new form of harp invented by Sir Samuel Moreland.
1685.—Invention of the Chromatic harp. 1710.—Improvements in the Welsh harp. 1720.—Invention of the pedal harp by Hochbrucker. 1752.—Improvements in the pedal harp by the Cousineaus, père et fils. 1780.—Cousineau doubles the
pedals, thus originating the idea of the modern double-action harp.
1785.—Krumpholz improves the
single-action harp. 1792.—Sebastian Erard takes
out a patent in London or an improved pedal harp—single-action.
1809.—Partial double-action harp patented by Erard. 1819.—Erard’s double-action
harp patented. 1836.—Pierre Erard, nephew
of Sebastian Erard, patented the Gothic
harp, which superseded the Grecian harp.
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