Jump to content

Origin of the harp in Europe: Difference between revisions

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Line 8: Line 8:


==Scottish Origins ==
==Scottish Origins ==
The earliest descriptions of a European triangular framed harp i.e. harps with a fore pillar are found on carved 8th century Pictish stones.<ref> Alison Latham (2002), The Oxford Companion to music, (Harpa) Oxford University Press p. 564.</ref><ref> The Anglo Saxon Harp, 'Spectrum'', Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 290-320.</ref><ref> The Origins of the Clairsach or Irish Harp. ''Musical Times'', Vol. 53, No. 828 (February 1912), pp. 89-92.</ref><ref> Scotland, Insight Guides. Josephine Buchanan 2003, pp94 Published 2003
The earliest descriptions of a European triangular framed harp i.e. harps with a fore pillar are found on carved 8th century Gaelic High Cross.<ref> Alison Latham (2002), The Oxford Companion to music, (Harpa) Oxford University Press p. 564.</ref><ref> The Anglo Saxon Harp, 'Spectrum'', Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 290-320.</ref><ref> The Origins of the Clairsach or Irish Harp. ''Musical Times'', Vol. 53, No. 828 (February 1912), pp. 89-92.</ref><ref> Scotland, Insight Guides. Josephine Buchanan 2003, pp94 Published 2003
Langenscheidt Publishing Group.</ref> Pictish harps were strung from horsehair. The instruments apparently spread south to the Anglo Saxons who commonly used gut strings and then west to the Gaels of the Highlands and to Ireland.<ref> J. Keay & Julia Keay. (2000): ''Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland'', Clarsach, p. 171. Harper Collins publishers.</ref><ref>History Literature and music in Scotland 1700-1560
Langenscheidt Publishing Group.</ref> Pictish harps were strung from horsehair. The instruments apparently spread south to the Anglo Saxons who commonly used gut strings and then west to the Gaels of the Highlands and to Ireland.<ref> J. Keay & Julia Keay. (2000): ''Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland'', Clarsach, p. 171. Harper Collins publishers.</ref><ref>History Literature and music in Scotland 1700-1560
Russell Andrew McDonald 2002 University of Toronto Press, Arts Medieval
Russell Andrew McDonald 2002 University of Toronto Press, Arts Medieval

Revision as of 18:30, 8 April 2008

The Nigg stone 790-799A.D carving of a Pictish harp in a 19th century illustration, minus the top section.
The harper on the Dupplin Cross, Scotland, circa 800 AD
The harper on the Monifeith Pictish stone, Scotland, 700-900 AD
File:Maedoc.jpg
Maedoc book-cover, Ireland, circa 1000 AD

The origins of the triangular frame harp are lost in the mists of time. Triangular objects on the laps of seated figures appear in artwork of the early medieval period in Ireland, Scotland and other parts of North West Europe. This page outlines some of the scholarly controversies and disagreements on this subject.


Scottish Origins

The earliest descriptions of a European triangular framed harp i.e. harps with a fore pillar are found on carved 8th century Gaelic High Cross.[1][2][3][4] Pictish harps were strung from horsehair. The instruments apparently spread south to the Anglo Saxons who commonly used gut strings and then west to the Gaels of the Highlands and to Ireland.[5][6] [7] Historically the carvings were made in the period after the establishment of the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata. Despite the lack of direct evidence, some argue for a Gaelic influence. However, there are only thirteen depictions of any triangular chordophone from pre-11th century Europe, and twelve of them come from Scotland.[8] Moreover, the earliest Irish word for a harp is in fact 'cruit', a word which strongly suggests a Pictish provenance for the instrument.[9] Only two quadrangular instruments occur within the Irish context on the west coast of Scotland and both carvings instruments date two hundred years after the Pictish carvings. [10] The first true representations of the Irish triangular harp do not appear till the late eleventh century in reliquary and the twelfth century on stone and the earliest harps used in Ireland were quadrangular lyres as ecclesiastical instruments, [11] [12] One study suggests Pictish stone carvings may be copied from the Utrecht Psalter, the only other source outside Pictish Scotland to display a Triangular Chordophone instrument.[13] The Utrecht Psalter was penned between 816-835A.D.[14] While Pictish Triangular Chordophone carvings found on the Nigg Stone dates from 790-799 A.D.[15] and pre-dates the document by up to thirty-five years.

French Origins

The earliest drawings of triangular-frame harps appear in the Utrecht Psalter, written and illustrated in the early 9th century from a scriptorium in Rheims. [16] Ten of the illustrations show figures holding harp-like instruments, and in six of them the forepillar is clearly shown. The Utrecht Psalter was penned between 816-835A.D.[17] and found its way to the scriptorium at Christ Church in Canterbury, England 970A.D. where several copies were produced. [18] Although portraits of the biblical King David playing a stringed instrument were already a feature of European religious manuscript art, manuscripts before this time show David with a medieval lyre rather than a harp. [19]


Irish Origins

The Irish origins of the triangular harp are fiercely argued, the triangular instruments depicted on 8th century stones from Kells and Monasterboice being cited.


Exotic Origins

There is evidence that triangular frame harps may have existed in ancient Greece


References

  1. ^ Alison Latham (2002), The Oxford Companion to music, (Harpa) Oxford University Press p. 564.
  2. ^ The Anglo Saxon Harp, 'Spectrum, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 290-320.
  3. ^ The Origins of the Clairsach or Irish Harp. Musical Times, Vol. 53, No. 828 (February 1912), pp. 89-92.
  4. ^ Scotland, Insight Guides. Josephine Buchanan 2003, pp94 Published 2003 Langenscheidt Publishing Group.
  5. ^ J. Keay & Julia Keay. (2000): Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland, Clarsach, p. 171. Harper Collins publishers.
  6. ^ History Literature and music in Scotland 1700-1560 Russell Andrew McDonald 2002 University of Toronto Press, Arts Medieval Recent introduction from Scotland to Ireland of the triangular harp.
  7. ^ Celtic Music History and Criticism Kenneth Mathieson 2001 Backbeat books p192
  8. ^ Alasdair Ross, "Pictish Chordophone Depictions", in Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, 36, 1998, esp. p. 41; Joan Rimmer, The Irish Harp, (Cork, 1969) p. 17.
    Also: Alasdair Ross discusses that all the Scottish harp figures were copied from foreign drawings and not from life, in 'Harps of Their Owne Sorte'? A Reassessment of Pictish Chordophone Depictions "Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies" 36, Winter 1998
  9. ^ J. Keay & Julia Keay. (2000): Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland, Clarsach, p. 171. Harper Collins publishers.
  10. ^ Celtic Music History and Criticism Kenneth Mathieson 2001 Backbeat books p192
  11. ^ Celtic Music History and Criticism Kenneth Mathieson 2001 Backbeat books p192
  12. ^ The Story of the Irish Harp its History and Influences Norah Joan Clark (2003) North Creek Press
  13. ^ Alasdair Ross discusses that all the Scottish harp figures were copied from foreign drawings and not from life, in 'Harps of Their Owne Sorte'? A Reassessment of Pictish Chordophone Depictions "Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies" 36, Winter 1998
  14. ^ Snyder's Medieval Art, 2nd ed, p32. Luttikhuizen and Verkerk
  15. ^ http://www.stams.strath.ac.uk/research/pictish/database.php?details=186.
    The Nigg stone is dated before the Utrecht Psalter and cannot have influenced the Pictish carvers to copy harp figures from the Ross study; date cited from Strathclyde University STAMS Pictish Stones Search Facility
  16. ^ The Anglo-Saxon Harp Robert Boenig Speculum, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 290-320 doi:10.2307/2865415 This article consists of 31 page(s).
  17. ^ Snyder's Medieval Art, 2nd ed, p32. Luttikhuizen and Verkerk
  18. ^ The Anglo-Saxon Harp Robert Boenig Speculum, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 290-320 doi:10.2307/2865415 This article consists of 31 page(s).
  19. ^ The Anglo-Saxon Harp Robert Boenig Speculum, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 290-320 doi:10.2307/2865415 This article consists of 31 page(s).

Bibliography

  • John Bannerman, "The Clàrsach and the Clàrsair", in Scottish Studies, vol. 30 no. 3, 1991
  • Keith Sanger and Alison Kinnaird, "Tree of Strings - Crann nan Teud", Kinmor 1992
  • Seamus Roch Ryan, "The Sound of Revolution" 2006
  • Henry George Farmer (1947). A History of Music in Scotland London, 1947 p. 280
  • Roslyn Rensch (1989). Harps and Harpists Indiana University Press, 1989 pp. 125-127
  • Francis Collinson (1966). The Bagpipe, Fiddle and Harp. from Traditional and National Music of Scotland, Routledge & Kegan Paul, reprinted by Lang Syne Publishers Ltd., 1983
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Origin_of_the_harp_in_Europe&oldid=204268765"