Jack Campin wrote:
But it wasn't the clarsach, and it was not a Scottish tradition. Like Scott's daughters, they were taught harp on a ruddy great big continental monster with levers and stuff. It was an orchestral harp. Unless, of course, the harp at Abbotsford is actually some later Victorian horror just put there because there are so many references to the girls' harp playing.The use of this music at the time is nearly invisible to history, as it was mostly by women wealthy enough to have access to a harp, which meant domestic performance. But it's obvious that women were the major market for instrumental sheet music, and the harp was their central instrument.
I sort of assume that 'real' harp music must be older than that, and use a smaller instrument altogether, since that is what's shown in pictures or carvings etc - a lap harp, not a floor harp, and live tuning, not levers. Also, even with a very sturdy apprentice, a harper couldn't really lug around something made to sit permanently in a palace or big country home. Itinerant harpers must have had instruments of a size you could manage on a packhorse, or maybe even on your own back. I'm aware that some players were extremely well paid and spent long periods in each castle/big hoos, and had large and costly instruments. But is that all there was?
David
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