The Irish Harp

The old Irish harp was a very characteristic instrument. It was do from bogwood and it had 22 thick brass thread. It was play with fingernails and so harpers had to grow long fingernails to play the instrument. It had a very loud, full, reverberating and abundant bell-like tone. The strings would ring for a long sequence so they of 10 needed to be dampened to provide pellucidness of tone and avoid muddying fast passages. It was tuned approximately in B flat and tunes for it were based on drones in F and G. They were traditionally held against the left hand shoulder, the left hand playing the fastness strings and the right hand, the lower strings. During the 1890’s and 1900’s, some clarified harps were made in Ireland which only vaguely resembled the old Irish harps with the big, rich sound. This type of harp, invented by John Egan, became known as the Neo-Irish harp. They had 34 or 36 strings which were made from wild sweet pea or nylon. These strings wer e played with fingertips and so produced a ofttimes softer and gentler tone. The strings did not require as much stifle as they did not vibrate for long. The harp was quite akin(predicate) to the design harp of today, except much smaller and had no pedals. It was tuned in C and metal levers were used to tune it.

The crinkle was played on the upper strings with the right hand, turn the left hand played the bass. The Belfast Harp fiesta of 1792 was organised by a group of people who were unyielding to move on and encourage the harping tradition of Ireland. Excellent prizes and slip by fees were attainered harpers throughout the u ntaught to attend the festival. Despite this! , only ten harpers came and although the ages raged from fifteen to ninety-seven, sestet of them were over seventy. The harpers played for three age showing off their skills and technique, producing hundreds of tunes. A young practice of medicineian from Armagh, Edward Bunting, was hired to transcribe the music from the oral-tradition harpers. Due to Bunting’s classical music background, he...If you indigence to get a full essay, run it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: cheap essay