Rupert's Fun Facts
Rupert is Katie's teaching assistant. His imaginative contribution to lessons is always welcome.
Now Rupert is making his debut in writing, with some novel ideas about harps and harping.
There are lots of different meanings for the word harp - it can be a type of musical instrument, the name of a star, a kind of sea shell or even a verb.
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Paraguayan Harps
While Katie was in Leipzig recently, Rupert took advantage of her absence to do a little “travelling” of his own. He decided to investigate harps from South America.
Harps were introduced to the Americas throughout the 16th to 18th centuries largely by musicians from Spain. There would have been numerous different styles, resulting in the development of a wide variety of instruments across the continent. Today harps are played throughout the region including in Mexico, Venezuela and Chile, however, the Paraguayan harp has become particularly popular as an instrument design.
The harp is decidedly the national instrument of Paraguay. It is a diatonic instrument with typically between 32 and 40 strings. The harp was derived from instruments introduced into South America during the Spanish conquest. In the late 1600s the Jesuit missionary Antonio Sepp established a music school and instrumental workshops to encourage the indigenous Guaraní people to develop their skills as instrument makers. Sepp died in 1733 in San Juan in what is now Argentina.
Paraguayan harps are quite lightly strung allowing very rapid finger movement and intricate rhythms, they produce a clear, bright sound. These harps are symmetrical unlike European harps. The neck or head of the instrument is in two parts with a gap between. The strings, which are made from gut or nylon, rise from the centre line of the sound box and then pass through the gap between the two parts of the neck to be secured on pins which pass from one side of the instrument to the other. The arrangement can be clearly seen in the photo. It is believed that this design for the neck of the Paraguayan harp was introduced by an historic instrument maker called Pablo Ramírez*.
The instrument shown is the APYH-27 Professional harp made in the Gustavo Arias workshop in Asunción, Paraguay. We are grateful to Gustavo Arias for permission to use the photograph.
* The History of Latin American harps by Dr Alfredo Rolando Ortiz, https://harpspectrum.org/folk/History_of_Latin_American_Harps.shtml
27 January 2026
Christmas card harps
Let’s look a bit more closely at those “Christmas card” harps. The instruments are tall and thin, looking a little like angel’s wings, but they produced a sound we might not associate with angelic strumming.
These instruments are bray harps they were often depicted in art from the Middle Ages. Although they were strung with gut which might have produced a gentle sound, the strings were secured at the sound board by an L shaped pin which was positioned in such a way as to make the string vibrate against the pin. This produced a buzzing sound a bit like the braying of a donkey.
Although harsh, the notes are well sustained which made bray harps popular as dance instruments at least until the end of the 17th century, it is thought that their abrasive tone made them particularly suited to carrying through a crowded room.
These details from two paintings by Gerard David and Hans Memling which date from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries clearly show the bray pins where the strings of the harps meet the sound boards.
From Virgin and Child with four angels,
Gerard David, 1510-1515, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
From Madonna and Child with Angels,
Hans Memling, after 1479, National Gallery of Art Washington
Bray harps can be found in several museums such as this instrument at the Grassi Museum für Musikinstrumente der Universität Leipzig in Germany. It is thought to have been made in south Germany at the end of the 15th or early 16th century, though the pillar probably dates from around 1600.
Bray harps are still made today by specialist harp makers, particularly those with an interest in early music instruments; recordings of their sound can be found on various social media sites.
9 January 2026
The harp in the novels of Jane Austen
The novelist Jane Austen was born two hundred and fifty years ago on 16 December 1775. She is best known as the author of six novels which concern the lives of young women amongst the landed gentry in early nineteenth century England. Although Austen was not herself a harpist, she would have been very familiar with the instrument as one of her sisters-in-law and one of her nieces were accomplished players. The harp was a very popular instrument at this time amongst wealthy classes, so does the instrument feature in Austen’s books?
None of the lead characters in any of the novels plays the harp but of the six books only “Northanger Abbey” fails to mention the instrument. In “Sense and Sensibility” there is just a passing reference in which we are told that while attending a musical party Elinor is not much interested in the grand pianoforte, harp or violoncello. “Emma” fairs little better, the single point at which a harp is mentioned being when Mrs Elton is trying to coerce Jane Fairfax into becoming a governess, she says that “knowing” the harp would apparently improve Jane’s employment prospects.
The first novel in which one of the characters plays the harp is “Pride and Prejudice”. Here in an exchange with Mr Darcy, Miss Caroline Bingley says “Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp” Unfortunately we hear no more about Miss Darcy’s playing although in the 1995 BBC adaptation of the novel a beautiful Grecian is on display in the drawing room at Pemberley.
The Musgrove family in “Persuasion” own a harp and it would seem that both Louisa and Henrietta play. Austen describes how the instrument adds to the confusion of the parlour, along with the “grand forte-piano … flower stands and little tables placed in every direction”. Later in the book a delightful image is conjured when Louisa arrives on foot to visit her sister-in-law, explaining that this allowed more room for the harp in the carriage.
Eliza Ridgley by Thomas Sully 1818
National Gallery of Art Washington
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It is in “Mansfield Park” that the harp makes a significant contribution to the plot. The harp is mentioned in the text long before it appears amongst the cast. The instrument belongs to Mary Crawford who has arranged for the harp to be sent from London to Mansfield Parsonage where she is visiting her sister. Mary understands the harp has arrived at Northampton but because the local farmers are engaged with the harvest no horse and cart can be hired to complete the journey. The instrument is eventually brought in a barouche, a rather elegant carriage.
Mary is a beautiful young woman and a skilled harpist and before long Edmund is falling in love.“The harp arrived, and rather added to her beauty, wit, and good-humour; …
“A young woman, pretty, lively, with a harp as elegant as herself, and both placed near a window, cut down to the ground, and opening on a little lawn, surrounded by shrubs in the rich foliage of summer, was enough to catch any man’s heart.”
16 December 2025
Mediaeval Instruments
As we come into December, Rupert thought it would be interesting to look at a few of the instruments that sometimes appear on Christmas cards, usually in the hands of angels. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp or KMSKA is home to a magnificent altar piece painted by Hans Memling between 1483 and 1494, it is called “God the Father with Singing and Music Making Angels”. The angels on either side of the painting are playing a variety instruments that were popular in the 15th century.
On the left as we look at the painting we see a psaltery, which looks a bit like a small horizontal harp, the strings could either be plucked or bowed.
Next is a tromba marina, this is a long stringed instrument which is bowed, its name comes from its sound which, because of the shape of the instrument and its bridge, resembles a trumpet.
The adjacent lute is easy to identify, this is a plucked stringed instrument similar to a guitar or mandolin but with a deep round back.
Then the first of the trumpets. At first sight this looks like a trombone, in fact it is a slide trumpet. The angel holds the mouthpiece next to their lips while sliding the main part of the trumpet to and fro to produce new notes.
On the far right of the first group of angels comes the shawm, this is a double reed instrument with finger holes used to produce a range of notes, a bit like on a recorder, it is probably a forerunner of the oboe.
The second group of players begins with another trumpet, this long straight instrument has no valves or slides, it is called a natural trumpet; different notes from the harmonic sequence can be produced by the player changing the tension in their lips. Then follows a second slide trumpet.
The large instrument in the centre of this panel is a portative organ, this is a small keyboard instrument with pipes; sound is produced when the player depresses keys whilst simultaneously operating a hand bellows.
Next comes a harp, every angel should have a harp, but Rupert will return to this style of harp at a later date.
Finally we see a viol, this instrument was made in various sizes and was bowed like a violin or viola, but like a guitar it has frets to fix the places where the player shortens the strings.
Rupert is lucky to be able to look closely at a modern reconstruction of the Memling slide trumpet. This instrument was hand-made for Katie in 2017 and carries the inscription "ΚΛΥΤΕ ΜΕΥ" which is an Ancient Greek declaration meaning "Hear me"
9 December 2025
The Harp Star, Vega, and the constellation Lyra
Lyra by Jacquie Parkinson
During the summer months in the northern hemisphere one of the brightest stars in the sky is Vega, the Harp Star. The star is about 25 light years away from Earth, it is the first star to be seen in the night sky during July and August, visible almost directly overhead. For many years Vega was used as the zero point on the brightness scale against which other stars and planets were compared.
The Harp Star is the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra which represents the lyre of either Hermes or Orpheus, it consists of five main stars which are visible to the naked eye.
The constellation has been identified and described since ancient times. The short passage below is from Phaenomena, a poem by the Hellenistic poet Aratus, who lived from 315 to 240 BC. It describes how Hermes placed the tortoise Lyre amongst the stars:
“And the Tortoise – she’s a little one. When barely out of his cradle, Hermes hollowed her out and named her the Lyre. He put her down before the Image of the Unknown Man, bringing her into the heavens. The Image, stretched out on its legs, moves with its left knee towards the Lyre. On the other side, the top of the Bird’s head turns around her. So between the head of the Bird and the knee of the Image, the Lyre is placed”
In more recent times the Unknown Image and the Bird have become known as Hercules and Cygnus.
We are very grateful to the textile artist Jacquie Parkinson for granting permission to use her beautiful representation of Lyra. It is a detail from “Universe” one of the panels in her magnificent work “Threads Through Creation”.
27 November 2025
Celtic Harps
Queen Mary Harp
National Museum of Scotland
Three very old Celtic harps survive today
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the Trinity College Harp in Dublin, also known as Brian Boru’s harp which is thought to date from the 14th or 15th century
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the Queen Mary Harp and the Lamont Harp or Clàrsach Lumanach, both of which date from the 15th century and are displayed in the National Museum of Scotland.
Originally such harps were strung with either gut or wire, with seven strings per octave in a single key signature.
The development of the harp across Europe and the rest of the world was a process in which various different types of harps overlapped with each other. As modifications in design were made, former harps became more or less fashionable, but rarely fell completely out of favour.
Celtic or clarsach harps, which are called cláirseach in Irish and clàrsach in Scottish Gaelic, are among the oldest form of harp still in use in Europe. These harps are broadly triangular in shape with a curved front pillar and a large sound box. They are clearly recognisable as similar in design to the instrument pictured on the Nigg stone (21 October 2025).
Clàrsach Lumanach
National Museum of Scotland
13 November 2025
Early European harps
The first artistic representations of harps in Europe date from the 7th and 8th centuries AD as sculptures in Ireland and Scotland. It is not clear how the harp arrived in the British Isles but it is possible that trading nations such as the Phoenicians brought instruments from the Mediterranean.
Unlike ancient Egyptian and Sumerian instruments, these early images of harps show clearly that the harp consisted of a frame of three parts: a neck, a resonant chamber and a pillar or column. The strings run between the neck and the resonant chamber, and are broadly parallel to the column. The harp frame would have been made of wood and the strings of metal, gut or animal hair.
In Old European languages the instrument was variously called ‘harpe’ (Old English), ‘harpa’ (Norse) and ‘harfe’ (Old German).
The picture shows a pencil sketch of the reverse side of the Stone of Nigg, an eighth century Pictish cross-slab, from the parish church of Nigg, Easter Ross, Scotland. The front of the slab displays an elaborately carved cross while the reverse illustrates various images possibly relating to King David. It provides one of the oldest representations of a European triangular harp. This engraving was taken from “A Short Account of some Carved Stones in Ross-shire, accompanied with a series of Outline Engravings" by Charles Carter Petley (1780 - 1830), which was published in Archaeologia Scotica, vol IV, in 1857.
21 October 2025
The invention of the harp, as told by Homer, Katie and Rupert
The first days in the life of a god are often eventful. Hermes was the son of a Maia, a goddess who lived in a cave on Kyllini, and Zeus, king of the gods on Olympus. Gods, like most animals, are up and about from the start, and so on the day he was born Hermes set out to on his adventures…
‘As he stepped out over the threshold of the high-roofed cave, there he found a tortoise, and gained ten thousand blessings. Hermes was the first to make the tortoise a singer. He encountered her at the courtyard gate while she was grazing on the thick grass in front of his home, waddling on her feet as she went. When the luck-bringing son of Zeus saw her, he laughed and said these words:
“A sign for me, already, and a very lucky one! I’m not complaining. Greetings, lovely being, beat of the dance, companion of the feast: pleased to meet you. Where did a mountain dwelling tortoise get that beautiful toy to wear, that shining shell? I’ll pick you up and take you home. You will help me and I will not dishonour you, but first you will bring me luck. Better to be at home, since it’s riskier outdoors. For you will be a protection against evil influence while you live, though if you should die, then you’d make beautiful song.” '
Hermes on the Tortoise by Ludwig Keiser
Kunsthaus Zurich
The scene that followed may be upsetting to animal lovers and tortoises, so Rupert, like the kindly carnivore he is, insisted we cut it. Suffice it to say, before long Hermes ended up with a hollow tortoise shell that made an excellent resonant chamber, and with a few additional features became the world’s first lyre also called a phorminx, harp or kithara.
After all this creativity, Hermes was feeling hungry, so he went to look for something to eat. He stole the cattle of his half-brother Apollo, the archer god, the son of Zeus and Leto. But Apollo tracked Hermes down, dragged him from his cradle, and carried him off to face the consequences. Things were getting a bit out of hand, when Hermes had an idea…
White kylix depicting Apollo and the lyre, Delphi
Photo by Dennis Jarvis
‘Easily, Hermes softened glorious Leto’s son, the Far-Shooter, just as he wish to, even though Apollo was stronger. Taking the lyre in his left hand, with the plectrum he tried each string turn. Under his hand she rang, breathtaking. Phoebus Apollo laughed, delighted. The lovely cry of her ineffable voice went through his soul and sweet desire stirred in his heart as he listened… Love, against which all arts fail, seized the heart in Apollo’s breast, and speaking winged words to Hermes he said:
“Cow killer, artful labourer, companion of the feast: this thing of yours is worth fifty cows!” '
And thus Hermes paid for the cattle with the tortoise shell lyre he had made.
4 October 2025
Harps in ancient cultures
Harps of one kind or another have been in existence for thousands of years. The first known harps originated in ancient Sumer in southern Mesopotamia and in Egypt around 3,000 BC. These instruments were mostly either bowed with strings running from one side to the other of the bow shape or angular with strings cutting across the corner of the instrument, although there are some images of frame harps which have a fore pillar.
Angle Harp Egypt Museum 2019
Typically these early instruments, called balang in Sumer and benet in Egypt would have had up to seven strings. In later instruments the number of strings increased.
Harpists in ancient Egypt were highly esteemed and the names of several such as Hikino and Nebnefert have been found recorded over the ages.
Egyptian Bow Harp
Metropolitan Museum New York
2 September 2025
Fans of the Harry Potter books will be well aware that the first book in the series centre’s around the existence of the Philosopher’s Stone, a stone which is the source of the Elixir of Life. Hermione, Ron and Harry realise that the stone must be hidden at Hogwarts and they believe that someone is trying to steal it. However, the staff at Hogwarts have devised various hazards which any potential thief must overcome. Before the trio can reach the stone to confront the thief they must get through the Devil’s Snare plant, catch a flying key, play a dangerous game of Wizard’s Chess and solve a riddle about potions.
But first they must get past Fluffy, the huge three headed dog belonging to Hagrid, who guards the entrance to the secret hiding place. Hagrid has let slip that Fluffy can only be calmed by the sound of music. When Harry and his friends begin their quest, they find Fluffy slumbering on a trap door with a harp playing magical music to keep the dog asleep.
Like many others Rupert wonders if he might not have enjoyed being at Hogwarts.
18 August 2025
Congratulations to Katie’s former student Bethany Coggon who was awarded the inaugural Royal Welsh College Brooch for Harp Excellence by RWCMD President Dame Shirley Bassey at the College’s annual dinner in June.
The brooch, formerly used by the Official Harpist to The Prince of Wales, has been given on permanent loan by the King, who is Patron of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. It will be awarded annually to the harpist who achieves the highest mark in their summer recital.
29 July 2025
Aeolian harps are very ancient musical instruments, they are formed when strings are stretched between two or more fixed points. The sound is produced by wind moving over the strings. In some cases the strings are stretched over a sound box, but they can also be arranged simply to allow air to move past the strings. The instrument is named after Aeolus, the Greek god of the winds.
Metropolitan Museum, New York
Aeolian harps are mentioned in the Bible in Psalm 137 where the the poet says "By the rivers of Babylon ... on the willows we hung up our harps".
Prof. Henry Gurr
21 July 2025
This afternoon Rupert took part in a parachute jump from the top of the church tower at Calstock, Cornwall. He managed to successfully land in the middle of the target area and his courage was rewarded with a badge
29 Jume 2025
Thomas Moore was an Irish Catholic, the son of a Dublin grocer. His poetry and songs were popular in Regency England. In 1807 Moore wrote "The harp that once through Tara's halls" which reflects the loss of Irish culture under English rule in Ireland.
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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,
And hearts, that once beat high for praise,
Now feel that pulse no more.
No more to chiefs and ladies bright
The harp of Tara swells;
The chord alone, that breaks at night,
Its tale of ruin tells.
Thus Freedom now so seldom wakes,
The only throb she gives,
Is when some heart indignant breaks,
To show that still she lives.
14 June 2025
Harps are like tulips -
Tulips don't shout for attention; they bloom in quiet grace.
21 May 2025
Katie McClaughry - Wedding Harpist