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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Harp music in eighteenth century Europe
Probably the two most familiar pieces of harp music written in the 18th century are the Concerto in B-flat major op. 4, no.6 by Handel and the Flute and Harp Concerto in C major K299 by Mozart. These two pieces composed forty years apart were written for two very different instruments and demonstrate the progress from late baroque to early classical style.
Handel’s Harp Concerto, formed part of the ode "Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music", which was first performed in 1738. It was played following the recitative “Timotheus placed on high” which praises the ancient Greek singer Timotheus and his harp. The concerto was written for William Powell, a Welsh harpist, who Handel had probably first met whilst he was composer in residence to the Duke of Chandos around 1718. Powell was a prominent, virtuoso performer who became harper to the Prince of Wales in 1736 at which time it has been suggested he may have acquired the beautiful David Evans harp now in the care of the Victoria and Albert Museum (see 15 April 2026). The concerto which is intricate with fast passages of changing tonality, was written for the triple harp.
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David Evans triple harp 1736
Victoria and Albert Museum London
Single-action pedal harp Paris c1780 unknown maker
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
In contrast Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto was composed for a single-action pedal harp. It was commissioned by Adrien-Louis de Bonnières, duc de Guînes, in Paris in 1778. De Guînes was a flautist whose daughter, Marie-Louise-Philippine de Bonnières, was a harpist who was taking composition lessons with the composer. Mozart apparently thought well of both instrumentalists as players but did not think highly of the young woman’s composing skills. Ultimately the relationship soured, De Guînes failed to pay for the concerto and offered only half the fee due for the composition lessons.
But Handel and Mozart were not the only composers writing for the harp in the eighteenth century. Across Europe the single-action pedal harp was becoming increasingly popular in the salons of the wealthy and music ranging from solo instrumental work, chamber music and concertos was being provided by a host of composers who travelled and worked widely. Although many of their names are no longer familiar their work is still in the canon of both students and performers.
Austrian composers who wrote for the harp in this era included Johann Albrechtsberger, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Joseph Haydn and Georg Christoph Wagenseil who taught harpsichord, though not harp, to Marie Antoinette. Germany could boast CPE Bach, Johann Hertel, Francesco Petrini, Johann Schroeter and Ernst Eichner while France produced composers such as Francois-Adrien Boieldieu and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
Bohemia was the birth place of Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz and Jan Ladislav Dussek. Krumpholz worked with French harp makers to help them develop and improve their instruments, his second wife was the French harpist and composer Anne-Marie Krumpholz (née Steckler). Dussek also married a composer, the Scottish harpist Sophia Corri. Both Krumpholz and Dussek led interesting lives which were somewhat entwined but that is probably best kept for another time.
Sources:
Andrewlawrenceking.com/2014/03/12/the-triple-or-modern-welsh-harp/
Guido Fischer, Album notes for Xavier de Maistre cd "Händel"
4 May 2026
John Egan, Harp Maker to King George IV and the Royal Family
The development of pedal harps during the eighteenth century caught the imagination of one inspirational Irish harp maker. John Egan, a blacksmith’s apprentice from Dublin was captivated by a chance encounter with a pedal harp and following intense study of the mechanism decided to begin making instruments himself. By the early nineteenth century Egan’s elegant and richly decorated Grecian style pedal harps adorned the drawing rooms of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy in Dublin and beyond.
By the early 1800s use of the traditional wire strung Irish harp was dying out. Egan realised that the mechanism used in the pedal harp could be adapted to develop a small gut strung chromatic harp in the style of the traditional Irish harp. Pedals would obviously not work on a small harp so he produced an instrument in which the mechanism within the column and neck of the harp was controlled by small buttons or ditals mounted on the pillar. Moving any single dital would cause fourchettes to rotate and engage all the strings of one note to change pitch. This allowed changes in key across the whole instrument.
John Egan Pedal Harp
Courtesy of Lisburn Museum, Northern Ireland
John Egan Royal Portable Harp
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Egan’s instrument was called the Royal Portable Harp, it was the same shape as a traditional Irish harp though considerably smaller but it had the flexibility of the modern pedal harp. The portable harp was popular with society ladies particularly after Egan was granted a royal warrant by King George IV in 1821 allowing him to style himself “Harp Maker to King George IV and the Royal Family”. A notable portrait painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1822 depicts Lady Elizabeth Conyngham, mistress of George IV, tuning her Egan harp. Although fashionable during the first half of the nineteenth century the portable harp gradually diminished in popularity as musical tastes changed and the wealth of Irish society declined.
Over a career spanning nearly 40 years John Egan made around 2000 harps, mostly from his workshop at 30 Dawson Street, Dublin. It is thought that less than 40 survive today.
Sources:
Lisburn Museum
Gabriella Dall’Olio, Trinity Laban Conservatoire
Nancy Hurrell, The Egan Irish Harps
Detail of ditals
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Name plate and fourchettes
29 April 2026
The advent of the single action harp
In the early eighteenth century a new mechanism was devised to allow harpists to play chromatic music. Metal hooks which increased the pitch of a string were already in use but they were not necessarily used on all strings and they had to be turned individually by hand. The Bavarian Jacob Hochbrucker (also known as Jakob Hochprugger) is generally credited with inventing a new system that allowed the pitch of multiple strings on a harp to be changed at the same time, this eventually became known as the single-action harp.
Jacob Hochbrucker was thought to have been born in Mindelheim, Bavaria in 1673; from around 1699 he lived and worked in Donauwörth as an instrument maker. In 1720 he introduced a pedal mechanism to harps which would revolutionise the way in which harps could be played. Pedals located in the base of the instrument were connected by a series of rods and linkages which ran up the pillar and along the neck to hooks which shortened the strings to create a note one semitone above the natural pitch of the string. The pedals were operated by the players feet and when one pedal was engaged every string of one particular note in the instrument would change pitch. While Hochbrucker’s instrument had a pedal for each note in the octave some other makers produced harps with fewer pedals. With the harp being tuned in E flat harpists could now play in a vast range of keys in an uncomplicated manner.
Hochbrucker’s son and nephews travelled across Europe promoting the harp which rapidly grew in popularity. When Marie Antoinette arrived at the French court in 1770 she took up the instrument making it highly fashionable with French aristocracy. By this stage various other harp makers were also creating pedal harps making exquisitely decorated instruments and introducing various modifications to the mechanism.
Reproduction of a Hochbrucker harp by Rainer Thurau
The method used by Hochbrucker to shorten the string was a crutch which was fitted to the neck of the instrument adjacent to every string. When a pedal was depressed the crutch turned and pushed the string towards a pin to shorten the string and thus alter the pitch.
In one variation on this method a flag like device called a crotchet pulled the string toward a bar on the neck of the harp having the same effect as a violin player putting a finger on a string to shorten it and produce a higher note. These mechanisms remained in use for around 60 years with only minor changes, it was only towards the end of the 1700s that significant alternatives began to be introduced.
Renault-Chatelain crotchet mechanism
Cousineau béquilles mechanism
One such alternative was the béquille mechanism used by the harp maker Cousineau from around 1780. This device involved two levers either side of a string, when a pedal was pressed the levers turned so that the string was gripped tightly between the two. This was said to be more reliable than the crotchet mechanism but the strings had a tendency to vibrate against the levers causing them to buzz.
In 1794 Sébastien Erard patented the fourchette mechanism which involved a single rotating disc with two prongs or forks. The string ran between the two prongs and when a pedal was depressed the disc rotated pressing against either side of the string to increase the pitch without affecting its alignment or changing the quality of the note produced. Over time the fourchette gradually became the standard mechanism.
Erard fourchette mechanism
In the early nineteenth century further developments would be made which would allow the pitch of a string to be changed twice using a single pedal. Harps with the new type of mechanism would be called double-action harps.
Schematic diagrams of single action mechanisms
Original Hochbrucker
Crotchet mechanism
Béquille mechanism
Erard fourchette
Sources:
Beat Wolf, The Louis XVI Harp, Harpspectrum.org
Mike Baldwin and Lewis Jones, The Hochbrucker Family
and the Adoption of the Pedal Harp before 1760, AMIS 2022
Ann Fierens
Rainer Thurau
22 April 2026
A trio of triple harp makers
Once the triple harp had been introduced to the English court in the 1600s it quickly became popular both in England and Wales. In the 18th and 19th centuries there were a number of noted harp makers in the British Isles including David Evans of Covent Garden, John Richards of Llanrwst and Bassett Jones of Cardiff, some of their instruments survive and can be seen in museums around the world.
One of the earliest surviving triple harps in England is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is a richly decorated instrument and is marked “David Evans Instrument Maker, In Rose Court, near Rose Street, Covent Garden, London 1736”. Little is known about Evans, but it is possible that he was the same David Evans who was employed as harpist to George III. It is also possible that William Hogarth used one of Evans’ harps as a model for the instrument pictured in the engraving of the scene from The Rake’s Progress which shows the protagonist, Tom Rakewell, at the Rose Tavern in Covent Garden (1735).
John Richards of Llanrwst was one of the best known triple harp makers in Wales during the 1700s. He was born in 1711 and in 1755 he was commissioned to build a harp for the celebrated harpist John Parry. For a time, Richards was living in London as harpist to Queen Charlotte and was a friend of George Frederick Handel. In 1759 Richards returned to Wales where he continued to make harps, he died in 1789. An image of a John Richards harp is shown in the article below (7 April 2026).
Above: harp from the back
Side: harp sound board
David Evans 1736
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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Bassett Jones harp for The Great Exhibition, 1851
By permission of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.
By the mid-nineteenth century the pre-eminent maker of the triple harp in Wales was Bassett Jones. Born in 1809 at St Nicholas, Glamorganshire, as a young man Bassett Jones worked in Cardiff as a wheelwright. But by the 1830s he had become a recognised maker of Welsh harps. In 1834 an Eisteddfod was held at Abergavenny, this was a competitive festival of music and poetry organised to promote Welsh culture. It had been suggested that a harp to the value of 20 guineas should be given to the winner. Bassett Jones was commissioned to build this prize harp, which he did so from detailed drawings of a John Richards instrument. He went on to become the official harp maker to future Eisteddfodau making prize harps for the competition winners for some years.
In 1843 Bassett Jones built a harp to be presented to the infant Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII and subsequently he went on to be named “First maker of triple harps to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert”. There followed a request to make a harp for The Great Exhibition of 1851, the Queen suggesting that the “artistic or ornamental part of the instrument will be emblematical of the Cymry, and the design and exquisite workmanship are intended to surpass anything of the kind hitherto manufactured at Mr. Jones’s establishment”. This beautiful instrument is adorned with dragons at its feet, a leek at the base of the column and fleur de lys feathers in a coronet at the crown with intricate gold leaf decoration of flora and fauna across the soundboard. The Great Exhibition harp is now held at St Fagans National Museum of History, Wales.
The use and making of triple harps within the United Kingdom flourished until the end of the nineteenth century. But the gradual move towards larger orchestral instruments led to a decline in the traditional Welsh harp. The early music revival of the mid twentieth century brought about renewed interest in older styles of harps with several craftspeople around the world now making triple harps and other “traditional” instruments.
Sources:
Andrewlawrenceking.com/2014/03/12/the-triple-or-modern-welsh-harp/
Kathryn Leigh Hockenbury, The triple harps of Bassett Jones (1809-1869): Context and Organology
Anthony Baines, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum
15 April 2026
Why are bass strings so long?
Or put another way why are harp strings such varied shapes and sizes?
If you look at any harp you immediately see that the high notes are produced by short strings whereas the deep notes are produced by long strings. When you tune your harp you tighten the strings, or increase the tension, to raise the pitch. Look at your harp a bit more closely and you will see how the strings gradually become thicker as the notes get deeper. This means that the mass per unit length of the string is increasing as the notes get deeper.
The change in length and thickness of the strings is easy to see but the tension may seem a bit more obscure. Try plucking one of the bass notes on your harp and you may well see it moving because the tension is lower than in the higher strings, this is particularly visible on the deep metal strings on a pedal harp.
All these factors affect the pitch of the note, they are connected by the String Frequency Equation.
The pitch of a note is determined by the frequency with which air vibrates, in a stringed instrument such as the harp this is the frequency at which the string vibrates. The String Frequency Equation connects that frequency produced (f) to the length (L), tension (T) and the mass per unit length (µ). The equation is written as:
John Richards triple harp c1750
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
In words this equation says that frequency increases when the tension in the string goes up and when the length of the string and the mass per unit length go down. Or more simply a short, tight, thin string produces a high frequency note and a long, dense, loose string produces a low frequency note.
7 April 2026
Chromaticism in Italy
While Spanish harpists were developing chromatic harps with two rows of intersecting strings (see 10 February 2026), Italian harp makers gradually moved towards three sets of parallel strings. The outer two courses which were tuned in unison being the diatonic notes and the inner course, which could be played by either hand, being the semitone notes. The harps were called arpa doppia.
Barberini triple harp
Museo nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali, Rome
Very few original Italian instruments survive although the Barberini harp which dates from around 1605 to 1620 can be found in the Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti Musicali in Rome. This harp also appears in a famous painting from 1632 “Allegoria della Musica” or “Venus playing the harp” by Giovanni Lanfranco. Another triple harp from the early seventeenth century is featured in Domenichino’s “King David Playing the Harp” from 1619, this painting clearly shows the three courses of strings on the instrument. Both of these harps have relatively narrow soundboards which would have limited the sound produced.
King David Playing the Harp
Domenichino
A much broader instrument was made by Giovanni Vettorazzo from Vicenza, in 1793 this can be found at the Grassi Museum für Musikinstrumente der Universität Leipzig in Germany.
The triple harp was brought to London during the seventeenth century by the French player Jean le Fielle who was in the entourage of Henrietta Maria of France when she became the queen of Charles I. It was quickly adopted by Welsh musicians in London and in Wales who appreciated its intricacy and found the instrument suited the Welsh style of playing. On the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 a Welsh player named Charles Evans was appointed to the court of King Charles II with the title “His Majesty’s harper for the Italian harp”.
Use of the triple harp gradually diminished in continental Europe after the introduction of the pedal harp in the mid eighteenth century but maintained its popularity in Wales and subsequently became known as the Welsh Harp. In the British Isles there were a number of renowned harpists such as John Parry and Edward Jones. Composers continued to write for the triple harp well into the 1700s, one of the most famous pieces being the Concerto for Harp by G F Handel which first appeared in 1738.
Giovanni Vettorazzo Harp
Graasi Museum fürMusikinstrumente der Universität Leipzig
31 March 2026
Turlough O’Carolan
(born 1670 died 25 March 1738)
To mark the anniversary of his death, Rupert is looking at the life of the blind Irish harpist Carolan.
Turlough O’Carolan, often simply referred to as Carolan, was an Irish harper, singer and composer. He was born in 1670 in County Meath where his father was a blacksmith, but later the family moved to County Roscommon in Connacht. Carolan was educated by a benefactor and when he was blinded by smallpox at the age of eighteen he was apprenticed to a harpist.
O’Carolan became an accomplished harper, for more than fifty years he travelled throughout Ireland with a horse and a guide performing and composing at the great houses of the land. It was a time when harpers were highly respected within the community and Carolan would have been welcomed as an honoured guest. Many of his works were “planxties” which are pieces dedicated to a particular wealthy patron. A small number of his works were published during his lifetime in 1724 in a compilation entitled “A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes” by John and William Neal instrument makers from Dublin. A comprehensive collection of more than 200 tunes was published in 1958 by Donal O’Sullivan.
Carolan's harp
National Museum of Ireland
Carolan played a traditional Irish harp with metal strings which were plucked by finger nails (see 13 November 2025). A harp believed to belong to him is held at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
O’Carolan wrote songs in Gaelic but few copies of his lyrics survive. Today he is best known for pieces such as Carolan’s Concerto, Planxty Johnston and Madam Cole. Recordings of these pieces can be found on Katie’s YouTube channel Cornishharp.
Carolan is now regarded as Ireland’s most famous composer, monuments to him have been erected, parks are named after him and his image appeared on the Irish £50 note. He is also remembered in St Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin with a marble memorial stone.
24 March 2026
St Patrick's Day
The harp in Irish coinage
St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, he is remembered in Irish communities around the world on 17th March. Patrick is not known to have had any connection with the harp, but harps are ubiquitous around Ireland, not only as musical instruments but appearing as symbols of the Irish identity on logos, Irish passports and also money.
Since the time of King John, around 1200 AD, a succession of English kings introduced various coins into Ireland. These were initially pennies, half-pennies and farthings but in the mid-1400s Edward IV introduced higher value coins called groats which were worth four pence or a third of a shilling. The coins were typically hammered with an image of the king on one face and either a crown or cross on the reverse or obverse side.
1942 Irish half crown
Tudor Irish harp Groat
In sixteenth century Ireland harpers were considered to be high status musicians and the harp was regarded as probably the most important instrument in Gaelic society. The harp came to symbolise the culture and identity of the Kingdom of Ireland. So much so that when King Henry VIII introduced new coinage in around 1534 the groats and half-groats carried for the first time the harp as the symbol of Ireland on the reverse face. These coins became known as “harp groats”. Later Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I went on to issue shillings bearing harps on the reverse side which were called “harp shillings”. Apart from periods when the crown was in dispute during the mid- and late-1600s, Irish coinage has continued to carry the image of a harp on one side from that time to the present day.
17 March 2026
Rose Adélaïde Ducreux
To celebrate International Women's Day Rupert decided to look at a wonderful self-portrait by an eighteenth century artist and harpist.
Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux was born in Paris in 1761, the eldest child of the artist Joseph Ducreux. She learnt to paint in her father’s studio and exhibited in public for the first time in 1786. She remained in Paris throughout the turmoil of the French Revolution exhibiting at the Louvre Salon in 1791, 1793, 1795, 1798 and 1799. Ducreux never signed her work with the result that most has not been identified. In 1801 she went to Saint-Domingue (now known as Haiti) to marry a maritime prefect, but she quickly contracted yellow fever and died in July 1802
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Self-portait Rose-Aldélaïde Ducreux
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
It was not unusual for women artists at this time to include artefacts which highlighted their accomplishments in their self-portraits. In this picture, first exhibited in 1791, Ducreux advertises her skill as an artist and also as a musician, she is portrayed as being totally at ease with her instrument the harp. She is believed to have been both a harpist and a composer though none of her works survive.
The detail on the instrument clearly suggests a harpists knowledge. It is a single action pedal harp, possibly made by Georges Cousineau, it is very similar to an instrument by the same maker in the Historisches Museum Basel. The strings are beautifully delineated even to the detail of showing red coloured C and dark coloured F strings. While Ducruex plucks a string with her left hand she holds a tuning key in her right. The music behind the instrument is a clearly depicted song perhaps suggesting that she sang to her own accompaniment.
Source: Harp Art by Tim Stuart, We Do Music, 2007
8 March 2026
St Piran's Day
St Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall and its tin miners, every year the Cornish celebrate St Piran's Day on the 5th March. Rupert has spent much of his life in Cornwall and he thought it would be interesting to explore St Piran's connection with harps and harpists.
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As a young man Piran was priest and counsellor to King Aengus of Munster, Ireland. Legend has it that the king being fond of music had in his court seven harpists who would play and sing for him. One stormy day the harpists drowned in a dangerous bog and all that could be found of them was their harps. St Piran hung the harps on trees beside the bog so that their music could still be heard as the wind moved through the strings. He then prayed for three days and three nights and finally the harpers were brought back to life.
Later Piran fell foul of the king who had him cast into the sea tied to a millstone. But luckily the saint was freed of his bonds and the millstone floated on the water until it was washed up at Perranporth on the north coast of Cornwall. Apparently St Piran also discovered how to smelt silver coloured tin from its black ore giving rise to the colours of the Cornish flag.
5 March 2026
The Blind Spanish Harpist
Harpists frequently find themselves playing music by Cabezón, who is often mentioned simply as a blind Spanish composer. But this is a rather narrow description of an incredibly talented man.
Antonio de Cabezón (or Cabreçon) was born near Burgos in northern Spain in 1510, nothing is known of his early life except that he became blind as a young child. He grew up in the early years of Spain’s Golden Age after the Catholic monarchs had finally conquered the southern part of the country. This was a period when music and the arts flourished and a distinctive Spanish style evolved.
In 1526 Cabezón entered the royal household being employed by Isabella of Portugal, the consort of Charles V of Spain, to play the clavichord and organ. In due course he also taught Isabella’s children including Prince Felipe. In 1543 Felipe became regent of Spain and Cabezón was appointed court organist. Antonio and his brother Juan, who was also a court musician, travelled extensively with Felipe when he visited Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and England, where Felipe or Philip married the Tudor queen Mary. Cabezón was still employed by the king when he died in Madrid in 1566.
During his lifetime Cabezón composed hundreds of pieces of music which probably could have been played on a variety of instruments, including dance and chamber music, liturgical music such as hymns, Magnificats, Kyrie arrangements and possibly a mass which is now lost. Some of Cabezón's work was published in his lifetime most notably in a collection called Libro De Cifra Nueva para tecla, harpa, y vihuela which was produced by Luis Venegas de Henestrosa in 1557. The Pavane and Variations which occurs on the ABRSM exam syllabus is included in that collection. One of Cabezón's five children, Hernando de Cabezón, was responsible for the posthumous publication in 1578 of more of his father’s work in a volume called “Obras de música para tecla, arpa y vilhuela” (Works for keyboard, harp and vihuela).
The Pavane by Cabezón as written in 1557. Rupert will have a look at the changes in music notation at a later date.
Source – Cabezón family by Louis Jambou, Grove Music Online
18 February 2026
Early Spanish Chromatic Harps
Early modern times brought many changes to all forms of art, literature and music across Europe. In music compositions became increasingly chromatic and it became clear to some harp players and instrument makers that the traditional diatonic harp which was tuned in a single key was not well suited to the compositions of the sixteenth century.
There were ways to play chromatic sequences on the harp but they were not straight forward. Skilful players such as Ludovico who was harpist to Ferdinand, King of Aragon was said to be able to shorten the length of a string to sharpen a note by pressing it against the neck of the harp, a bit like a lever on a modern harp. Another common method called scordatura involved retuning individual strings to change to tonality of the instrument in different octaves. But neither of these techniques were adequate to deal with range of music which was becoming popular.
Spanish instrument makers were the first to develop a chromatic harp, this was a double harp with two rows of strings which probably intersected between the soundboard and the neck without touching. One row of strings, contained the diatonic notes (like the white keys on the piano) and the other row had the accidentals (like the black keys).
Ribayas harp by Rainer Thurau
Detail of the Ribayas harp by Rainer Thurau
It is thought that this form of harp, the “arpa de dos ordenes”, was invented by Juan de Carrión an instrument maker, probably from Madrid, who worked in the second half of the 1500s. A further improvement was made around 1555 by Juan Bermudo a Franciscan Friar who introduced red strings to distinguish the chromatic from the diatonic notes. These developments both resulted from and contributed to the period known as Spain’s Golden Age, but more of that another time.
The instrument pictured here is the Ribayas harp made by Rainer Thurau, it is a recreation of a small Spanish chromatic cross-harp dating from the seventeenth century. We are grateful to Rainer Thurau for permission to use these photographs.
Sources
Cristina Bordas The double harp in Spain from the 16th to the 18th centuries, Early Music May 1987
John Griffiths Vihuela Database, https://vihuelagriffiths.com/vihuela/persons/56356/
10 February 2026
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*.
More recently there have been many famous Paraguayan harpists such as Félix Pérez Cardozo, Luis Bordón, José de los Santos González, Nicolás Caballero, Mariano Gonzalez, Adolfo Bernal also known as Papi Galan, Cesar Cataldo, María Cristina Gómez Rabito de González, Marcelo Rojas, Ismael Ledesma, Marcos Lucena and Martin Portillo.
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 and for their contribution to the content of this piece.
* 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
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).
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.
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