ANCIENT ORIGIN OF THE HARP

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 341, 18 August 1914, Page 7

ANCIENT ORIGIN OF THE HARP

The history of the piano counts as a day compared with the harp. We have authentic records that as early as 1800 8.C., the first lyre was evolved from the mind of the high priest of Osiris, who, in one of his daily walks along the banks of the River Nile found an empty tortoise shell spanned with dried ligaments. Happening to strike it, ho noticed that it gave forth pleasing sounds, and he at once made an instrument on the plan of the tortoise shell. From the lyre, it was but an easy stop to the harp. Milesius, one of the Phoenician priests, carried it with liim in his conquest to Ireland, and there he planted it among the music loving Celts in 1260 13. C. The royal instrument became a controlling feature in Druidical worship, and the harpist, or bard, ranked with royalty, the prophet and priest. The Druids advanced the harp from eleven to 32 strings and crowned their efforts in its improvement by the evolution of the pillar, which has ever since found uni versal adoption.

Our modern harp consists of fortyfive or forty-seven strings, seven pedals —one for each note in the octave—and the wonderful instrument shares with the piano and organ the faculty of being autonomous; that is to say, it needs no accompaniment, and furnishes both melody and harmony.

It is not a difficult instrument to

learn, as many imagine, and experience proves that more satisfactory results are obtained in a brief space of time than on any other musical instrument. Undoubtedly the reason why the harp has not heretofore been recognised as' a groat solo instrument is because those who pose as harpists and teachers have not striven to demonstrate the capabilities of the instrument.

The first requisite for learning the harp is a perfect ear, the player being obliged to tune constantly, as the strings are affected by extreme climatic changes. The great composers, Handel, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Berlioz, Wagner and Liszt, rendered the harp absolutely indispensable in expression of certain effects, and no other instrument or combination of instruments could give the desired tone color required tc various passages. Modern composers Elgar, Saint-Saens, Debussy, Puccini Strauss, Herbert and many others have most effectively utilised the half in orchestral settings.—Miss Loretti de Lone in “The New York Tribune.’