RT,
> If you join any of the Historical Harp Societies- they would surely provide > you with an explanatory booklet, but in a nit-shell a Baroque harp is a > instrument in use during the Baroque Era, i.e. a more or less chromatic > instrument with either two or three rows of strings, or single a row > instrument with hooks. That is like saying that a Samisen is a Baroque instrument because it was played in Japan during that time. You have the Welsh triple strung, a Spanish version and an Italian version (and I'll not go to my notes to get the exact names. Then you have the hooks (now called blades) and which are now levers. Are these all the same instrument, as you tend to say the Renaissance Lute is but one. > Where did you get the info that 'Medieval' harps were wire-strung? > RT Probably because they were. The harp of the Dark Ages and Medieval times was basically a Celtic instrument, remnants have been found in Celtic areas of eastern Europe and they were celebrated in the Ireland of the 6th century. This is not to say that they weren't elsewhere, after all most of our western instruments are the descendents of Greek and Middle Eastern instruments (for the simple reason that almost everything else in Europe originated there). I'm not going to take the time at this moment to detail the sources (and I must admit that I've always wondered how wire strings could be on early instruments - how in the hell did they make wire?). But the sources are there. Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
