Picture 3.03
| Frame harp |
Marble statue from Thera/Santorini, one of the islands of the Cyclades near Greece. The sound box is horizontal, rising a bit towards the string-carrying neck. The pillar has a bird-like decoration at the top. It dates from around 2200 BC and is now in the P. Getty Museum, LA, USA.
Picture 3.01 Drawing on a rock near Megiddo in old Canaanite Israel. Most ancient picture of a frame harp. It is clearly different from arched harp and angular harp. It dates from about 3000 BC. |
Picture 3.02 Marble sculpture from the Cycladic Islands near Greece. This harpplayer has been found during excavations on the island of Keros. More small statues have been found of figures with or without musical instruments but all have the same bearing with their head, looking upwards. This harp is a frame harp though that has been doubted. The general opinion was that the frame harp could only be a European invention. This statue dates from aound 2200 BC and is now in the National Museum of Athens. |
Picture 3.03Marble statue from Thera/Santorini, one of the islands of the Cyclades near Greece. The sound box is horizontal, rising a bit towards the string-carrying neck. The pillar has a bird-like decoration at the top. It dates from around 2200 BC and is now in the P. Getty Museum, LA, USA. |
Picture 3.04 Picture 3.04Trigonon on a Greek vase. Wedding scene with Eros flying between the pair. De harpist has the thin side against her body, so perhaps the outer side is the sound box. This vase dates from 430 BC and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. |
Picture 3.05 Signet-ring from the studio of Dexamenos. This harp is a trigonon, being a pure triangle. It really measures 23 x 18 mm. The studio of Dexamenos the gemcutter was situated at the Black Sea, North of Greece. This region had its affluent time during the 5th century BCThe ring is now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. |
Picture 3.06 Imprint of the signet-ring of picture 3.05. The beauty of this gemcutter’s art shows the professional skill of the artist. |
Picture 3.07 THE TRIGONON AS HARP AS WELL AS PSALTERMany centuries later, in the 9th century AD , new pictures of the trigonon appear. Through many translations of Bible texts, musical instruments with the names psalter and harp show up. The translators of the Hebrew and Greek Bible-books used these names for instruments called kinnor [David’s instrument], kythera, psalterium and trigonon in these books. With the Holy Trinity in mind they translated these names as triangular or delta harp and psalter. At last all these different instruments were called harp, probably because of the West-European influence where the harp was foremost among the instruments. It still is today.It is also the word Psalter doesn’t only mean psalterium but obviously is the name of the Book of Psalms. In pictures the difference between harp and psalter is visible. It is a harp when you can see the hands through the strings, a psalter has the same form but has a soundboard behind the strings. You can’t see the other side. In the Bible the central figure in music is King David [around 1000 BC]. He is also the central figure in nearly all pictures. Every now and then Orpheo is acting but that is in a much later period.Pic... |
Picture 3.08 David is giving or taking a harp/psalter while bringing over the Ark of the Convenant.This MS is called the Folchert-psalter and dates from 865 AD. It is now in St. Gallen. |
Picture 3.09 This is a famous version of the Book of Psalms, drawn as a strip for people who couldn’t read. It gives them ample information about the meaning of the Psalms. This book is called the Utrecht Psalter but it was made in Reims, France. It dates from the 9th century AD. It is now in de Library of the Utrecht University under nr. 32. The small harp/psalter is carried by the singer under his arm. |
Picture 3.10 David playing on a psalter with a plectrum. This illustration was made in Reims, France, In 870 AD but is now in Rome in the Santo Paolo church. It is a fragment of a large painting of David with his musicians. |
Picture 3.11 A delta-harp as the Church Fathers had in mind. The strings are going from short, to long, to short again. The tuning pins are on a tall beam but the meaning is clear. This is not a musical instrument but the symbol of the Holy Trinity. The picture was made around 1001 AD in Reichenau and is now in the Municipal Library in Bamberg, Germany. |
Picture 3.12 Pictic High Cross with harpplaying David.In Scotland too like everywhere else in Europe, Christianity was brought with sermons and illustrations. The tall High Crosses full of Biblical scenes are still to be seen in Scotland and Ireland. But in those ancient times an other people had been living in Scotland, the Picts. This people lived in Eastern Scotland till they were thrown out by the upcoming Scots from the West. This sculpture with a delta-harp is still standing in Monifieth and dates from the 9th century AD. |
Picture 3.13 Drawing of David with delta-harp on the High Cross of Dupplin in Scotland. It dates from the same time and perhaps the same artist as the David of Monifieth [3.12].This is also 9th century AD, and stands at Dupplin, Scotland. Uitvergroot: |
Picture 3.14 Seven musicians with stringed instruments of which one is a delta-harp or psalter. This sculpture dates from the 2nd half of the 11th cenury AD. It is in the San Isidore church in Leon, Spain. This church is rich with sculptures. Most people couldn’t read and so they were informed by images about the meaning of what they heard in the church. |
Picture 3.15 An illuminated manuscript of the Beatus, beginning of the first Psalm, full of singing Elders who are showing their harps and psalters. Beatus means blessed. This MS is in the cathedral of Burgos in Asturia, Spain and dates from 1086 AD. |
Picture 3.16 THE REAL EUROPEAN FRAME HARPThe first pictures of the European frame harp date from the 10th century AD. Characteristic features are the construction of the harp with pillar, sound box and neck, more strings and tuning pins alongside the neck.Picture 3.16The oldest known picture is this English harp, dating from the 10th century AD. It is a drawing in the Metrical Paraphrase of Scripture History, folio 54, by Caedmon. It is in Oxford, MS Junius 11. The harpist is supposed to be Jubal, the Biblical inventor of musical instruments. |
Picture 3.17 Oldest known picture of an Irish harp on the reliquary of St. Mogue, dating from the 11th century AD. It is now in the national Museum of Dublin, Ireland. |
Picture 3.18 David and his musicians. He plays an English harp with straight neck and pillar with a ‘nod’, tall sound box with holes for the sound. It is an illustration from an Anglo-Saxon MS and dates from the 10th century AD. |
Picture 3.19 David tuning his harp. A nice instrument with a kind of birdhead at the meeting of neck and pillar. Clearly visible are the little stops in the soundboard to keep the strings in place.This is an illustration from the Hunterian Psalter, MS Hunter 229, f.21v. It is now in the Glasgow University and dates from 1170 AD. |
Picture 3.20 Harp in North French style of David playing. This is a miniature from a psalter. It is now in the British Museum in London, Add. 11639 f.117b with the addition: Hebrew MS. It is from the late 13th century AD. |
Picture 3.21 English harp with David playing. It dates from the late 12th century AD and is now in the British Museum in London under Westminster Abbey Psalter MS 2A XXII f.14b. |
Picture 3.22 Sculptures on Romanesque churches were made to inform people about the faith. In the South of France, Spain and England sculptors made the most fantastic scenes to tell people about the temptations of the devil, appearing in many disguises. One such a mythical animal can be found on a pillar in the crypt of the cathedral of Canterbury in England, dating from the 12th cent ury AD. This relief is still there. |
Picture 3.23 Harp played by a dog in the St. Nicholas in Barfreston, UK. It is good to know that the harp first was an instrument of sin. Only later it became the instrument of angels. This relief is from the 12th century AD and still in place. |
Picture 3.24 The devil himself with a trigonon [delta harp or trianglular harp] in a tympanon of the church of Conques in Languedoc. ‘The devil allures the faithful people int the wrong directiom with his music’. It dates from the 11th century AD and is still in place |
Picture 3.25 A beautiful harp/psalter with an ass as harpist. It is from the 12th century AD.This relief is outside the St. Pierre de la Tour in Aulnay-de-Saintonge, France. |
Picture 3.26 Little monkey with a double-harp or double-psalter. It is not really clearly visible if there is a soundboard between the two rows of strings. Probably the two rows of strings were differently tuned. Relief in Surgèrers, France, from the 12th cenury. AD. |
Picture 3.27 Goat with a tall trigonon/triangular harp. Sculpture in the Notre-Dame de Beaune, France. Of course the goat was a sinful animal. It tries to seduce the faithful. It dates from the 12th century AD. |
Picture 3.28 Salomé’s dance accompanied by a harpist surrounded by little monsters. Sculpture in the San Salvador in Aragon, Spain. This harp looks like a tall trigonon/triangular harp. It dates from the 12th century AD |
Picture 3.29 Sculpture in Palacio de los Reyes, Navarra, Spain. An ass is playing like David and allures the badly singing faithful to the wrong path. |
Picture 3.30 Sculpture at the Dome of Siponto, Italy. A centaur is playing his trigonon/triangular harp. A centaur is a combination of a man and a horse and, though coming from an other mythical time, seems to belong to the guild of seducers. This one dates from the 13th century AD. |
Picture 3.31 Harp or psalter, anyway it has two rows of strings, tuning pegs on top. It is played by a dwarfish figure. This sculpture is sitting outside the church of Artaiz, Navarra, Spain and dates from the 12th century AD. |
Picture 3.32 One of four scenes on the narrow side of the Sumerian King’s Lyre. The ass is playing the big lyre, a jackal plays the sistrum and the bear sings directing the music. The lyre with this picture dates from 2500 BC en is now in the University Museum of Philadelphia, USA. |
Picture 3.33 Egyptian drawing on papyrus of an animal ensemble; monkey with flute, croc with lute, lion with lyre and ass with a big arched harp. The meaning of this strip is not known but it seems to be a political cartoon. It dates from 1300 BC and is in the Museum in Turin, Italy. |
Picture 3.34 Sumerian arched harp in a musical scene with asses and other animals. A story from 2800 BC about king lion who receives nice titbits and music from his servants. In the right corner of the drawing you can see the real character of this lion. He is killing a gazelle but strange to see, with a knife. So, a human disguise? This picture is a large print of a cylinder seal. It is now in the University Museum in Philadelphia, USA. |
Picture 3.35 A cartoon by Froissart, 1388 AD, in the Chronicals of Brabant, showing a pig in lady’s wear playing on a gothic harp. |
Picture 3.36 A cartoon by Froissard, 1388 AD, of a little pig playing on an early-gothic harp. Drawing in the Chronicals of Brabant. |
Picture 3.37 West-European small harp in the hands of a siren/mermaid who tried to seduce the seafaring men. It is a small drawing in Queen Mary’s Psalter from the 14th century AD. |
Picture 3.38 West-European small harp played by this monkey/monk. Drawing in the Queen Mary Psalter from the 14th century AD. |
Picture 3.39 Little donkey with a West-European small harp drawn in a medieval ‘Antiphonal for the festivities’ from 1260 AD. This is a MS illumination from the time books were still written by hand. This book is in the Abbey of Cambron, Belgium. |
Picture 3.40 Gothic fancy harp. The illustration is of the French king François I, depicted as king David. 16th cent. AD. Detail from a wood carving in the Auch Cathedral, France. |
Picture 3.41 Gothic harp from Bruges, Belgium, 15th cent. AD. Illustration of a May aubade when a lover presents flowers to his beloved. The three musicians accompany the lover. The vertical letters seem to indicate musical notes (e.g. harp strings). |
Picture 3.42 Gothic harp from France, 14th cent. AD. The neck and the pillar of this harp are made of ivory. The sound box was renewed when the harp was renovated. This harp is on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. |
Picture 3.43 Gothic harp, an illustration from the bible printed in Zwolle (Netherlands), 15th cent. AD. The bible is kept at the Friary in Zwolle. |
Picture 3.44 Early Gothic harp, detail from the missal ‘The resurrection’ by Henry van Chichester, 12th cent. AD. This missal is now in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester University, England. |
Picture 3.45 Painting by Rembrandt illustrating a music-making group, 17th cent. AD. The line of the neck of the harp is not curved as it should be. This makes it a fancy harp. The painting is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. |
Picture 3.46 Detail of a painting of Saul and David by Rembrandt, 1655 - 1660 AD. The detail shows David playing the harp. The harp depicted is after an existing instrument, a relatively large Western European frame harp. The painting is in the Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague, The Netherlands. |
Picture 3.47 Illustration from a manuscript with portraits of prophets, 15th cent. AD. David is depicted as a harp player on the bottom left. The manuscript is in the British Library, London, England. |
Picture 3.48 Gothic harp from the 15th cent. AD in an illustration of the musicians Dufay and Binchois in ‘Le Champion des Dames’ by Marin Le Franc (AD 1451). The harp has a beak-like connection between the pillar and the neck, as well as a flat sound box. To be found in the Bibliothèque National in Paris, France. |
Picture 3.49 Early Gothic harp from England, 12th cent. AD. The strings of this harp go to the pillar instead of the sound box. This sculpture is to be found in Salisbury Cathedral, England. |
Picture 3.50 Gothic harp from the 10th cent. AD. This picture looks like a festive occasion enlivened by harp and flute music. This harp is depicted on a Picto-Scottish stone in Lethendy, Perthshire, Scotland. |
Picture 3.51 Scottish, gothic harp from the 17th cent. AD. This carving can be found in Hill House, Dunfermline, Scotland. |
Picture 3.52 Gothic harp from the Iona Psalter, 12th/13th cent. AD. This is the book of Psalms, intended as a hymnal. The illustration depicts king David. The MS containing this illustration came from Oxford and is now in the National Library of Scotland. |
Picture 3.53 Brian Boru harp from the 15th or 16th cent. AD. It is the oldest existing Irish harp, made from willow and strung with metal strings. This harp has wrongly been associated with the Irish king Brian Boru from the 10th cent. AD. It is now in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. |
Picture 3.54 The Scottish Queen Mary harp from the 16th cent. AD. This harp is said to have been presented by Queen Mary to Beatrix Gardyne, one of her ladies in waiting. Characteristic of this harp are the metal strings and the sound box carved out of one piece of wood. This is one of the three harps surviving from this period. The harp is now in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh, Scotland. |
Picture 3.55 Scottish harp, the so-called clarsach Lumanach (Lamont harp) from the 15th/16th cent. AD. It is a sturdy harp with brass fittings to keep pillar and neck together. The neck shows the characteristic ‘Scottish hump’, making it undeniably a Scottish harp. Now in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh, Scotland. |
Picture 3.56 Fitzgerald-Kildare harp from Ireland from AD 1672. This harp with 36 strings is so big that it must rest on the floor to be played. The instrument is richly decorated with wood carvings, including the coat of arms of the Fitzgerald family. The harp was built especially for this family. It is now in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, Ireland. |
Picture 3.57 Irish-Scottish harp in a painting of musicians at the Danish court.17th cent. AD. |