HARP OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
King David
In England the harp was a regal accomplishment, and every gentleman as well as prince could sing to the harp and play his own accompaniment. Every one knows how King Alfred, who was a fine musician, explored the Danish camp in the guise of a minstrel. All the early literature of England is full of allusions to the harp and harp-playing. The harp always appeared at ceremonies. For instance, in 1413, at the Coronation of Henry V, “the harmony of the harpers drawn from the instruments struck with the rapidest touch of the fingers, note against note, and the soft, angelic whisperings of their modulations, were gratifying to the ears of the guests.”
In 1251 the new coinage of Ireland “was stamped in Dublin with the impression of the King’s head in a triangular harp.” The arms of Leinster on a field vert, a harp, or stringed argent, were subsequently applied to the whole kingdom of Ireland.
At the end of the thirteenth century Vincenzo Galilei writes: “This most ancient instrument was brought to us from Ireland (as Dante says), where they are excellently made, and in great numbers, the inhabitants of that island having practised on it for many a century. Nay, they place it in the arms of the kingdom and paint it on their public buildings and stamp it on their coinage, giving as a reason their being descended from the royal prophet David. The harps which these people use are considerably larger than ours and have generally the strings of brass and a few of steel for the highest notes, as in the clavichord. The musicians who perform on it keep the nails of their fingers long, forming them with care in the shape of the quills which strike the strings of the spinet.”
The harp appears frequently in illuminated manuscripts. It is played by ladies as well as by gentlemen, and by amateurs as well as by professional musicians. It is always of the type shown in the illustration of King David, facing page [286], taken from a manuscript of the Fourteenth Century.
Another Mediæval harp is shown in our illustration, facing page [280]. This picture is taken from a beautiful illuminated manuscript of the famous Romaunt of the Rose, by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung, made in the Fifteenth Century. The first minstrel is playing the harp; the second, the flute; and the last the “pipe and tabor.” They are richly dressed. The first minstrel is wearing purple and black hose, scarlet mantle, green sleeves, and black velvet cap; the second in purple and green hose, pink and black mantle, green sleeves, and red velvet cap; the third minstrel is wearing purple and green hose, green and purple mantle, and black velvet cap. The small, green leaves of the trees over the brown wall show that the time is early spring.
The Mediæval harp had but one scale; and the only way to shorten the string was to press it down firmly with the finger.
Gradually people tried to improve the harp. The first idea of pedal mechanism is due to a Bavarian named Hochbrucker in 1720. Further improvements were made by Cousineau, a French harper, and his son, who doubled the pedals and the mechanism connected with them and practically originated the idea of the modern harp. Cousineau also arranged the pedals in two rows.