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.
Mansfield Park
Next to the Pianoforte, the Harp is the most mentioned instrument in Jane Austen’s Novels. Harp lessons were reserved for
the priviledged daughters of indulgent parents. While the piano was necessary and functional, the harp was stylish. It
was an expensive indulgence taught by visting “Masters”. Some music training, along with art and dancing lessons was
deemed necessary to finish off the training provided by the family governess, regardless of Whether the family daugthers
were sent to school or not. Indeed, the level of education obtained by Jane Austen’s heroines is in direct proportion to
her family’s financial and social status. Jane Fairfax, Marianne Dashwood and Anne Elliot play the piano, but Catherine
Morland, daughter of a country curate neither draws or plays. Mary Crawford, Georgiana Darcy and Henrietta and Louisa
Musgrove, wealthy, fashionable young ladies, all, play the harp.
Patrick Doyle’s interpretation of a period Harp piece from the Sense and Sensibility soundtrack.
In his essay on female accomplishments, Henry Churchyard notes, “For women of the “genteel” classes the goal of
non-domestic education was thus often the acquisition of “accomplishments”, such as the ability to draw, sing, play
music, or speak modern (i.e. non-Classical) languages (generally French and Italian). Though it was not usually stated
with such open cynicism, the purpose of such accomplishments was often only to attract a husband; so that these skills
then tended to be neglected after marriage (Lady Middleton in Sense and Sensibility “had celebrated her marriage
by giving up music, although by her mother’s account she had played extremely well, and by her own was very fond of it”,
while Mrs. Elton in Emma fears that her musical skills will deteriorate as have those of several married women she
knows). In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet displays her relatively detached attitude towards the more
trivial aspects of this conventional game by adopting a somewhat careless attitude towards her “accomplishment” of
playing the piano, and not practicing it diligently.”
Lesley Barber’s interpretation of a period harp piece from the Mansfield Park soundtrack.
The harp’s origins may lie in the sound of a plucked hunter’s bow string. The oldest documented references to the harp
are from 4000 BC in Egypt (see Music of Egypt) and 3000 BC in Mesopotamia. While the harp is mentioned in most
translations of the Bible, King David being the most prominent musician, the Biblical “harp” was actually a kinnor, a
type of lyre with 10 strings. Harps also appear in ancient epics, and in Egyptian wall paintings. This kind of harp, now
known as the folk harp, continued to evolve in many different cultures all over the world. It may have developed
independently in some places.
The lever harp came about in the second half of the 17th century to enable key changes while playing. The player manually
turned a hook or lever against an individual string to raise the string’s pitch by a semitone. In the 1700s, a link
mechanism was developed connecting these hooks with pedals, leading to the invention of the single-action pedal harp.
Later, a second row of hooks was installed along the neck to allow for the double-action pedal harp, capable of raising
the pitch of a string by either one or two semitones. With this final enhancement, the modern concert harp was born.
The European harp tradition seems to have originated in ancient Ireland over a thousand years ago. In Irish mythology, a
magical harp, Daurdabla is possessed by The Dagda.
Most European-derived harps have a single row of strings with strings for each note of the C Major scale (over several
octaves). Harpists can tell which strings they are playing because all F strings are black or blue and all C strings are
red or orange. The instrument rests between the knees of the harpist and along their right shoulder. The Welsh triple
harp and early Irish and Scottish harps, however, are traditionally placed on the left shoulder. The first four fingers
of each hand are used to pluck the strings; the pinky fingers are too short and cannot reach the correct position without
distorting the position of the other fingers, although on some folk harps with light tension, closely spaced strings,
they may occasionally be used. Plucking with varying degrees of force creates dynamics. Depending on finger position,
different tones can be produced: a fleshy pluck (near the middle of the first finger joint) will make a warm tone, while
a pluck near the end of the finger will make a loud, bright sound.
Information gleaned from Wikipedia and The Jane Austen Information Page.
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