2Very rare, but the slow movement of Schubert’sC major String Quintetdemonstrates it magnificently.3All the indirect relationships from a minor tonic are distinctly strained and, except in the violently contrasted doubly indirect keys, obscure as being themselves minor. But the direct artificial modulation is quite smooth, and rich rather than remote. See Beethoven’sC♯ minor Quartet.4No classical example, though the clearer converse from a major tonic occurs effectively.5Not (with the exception of II) so violent as when from major tonic. Bach, whose range seldom exceeds direct key-relationships, is not afraid to drift from D minor to C minor, though nothing would induce him to go from D major to C major or minor.
2Very rare, but the slow movement of Schubert’sC major String Quintetdemonstrates it magnificently.
3All the indirect relationships from a minor tonic are distinctly strained and, except in the violently contrasted doubly indirect keys, obscure as being themselves minor. But the direct artificial modulation is quite smooth, and rich rather than remote. See Beethoven’sC♯ minor Quartet.
4No classical example, though the clearer converse from a major tonic occurs effectively.
5Not (with the exception of II) so violent as when from major tonic. Bach, whose range seldom exceeds direct key-relationships, is not afraid to drift from D minor to C minor, though nothing would induce him to go from D major to C major or minor.
VI.Temperament and Enharmonic Changes.—As the facts of artistic harmony increased in complexity and range, the purely acoustic principles which (as Helmholtz has shown) go so far to explain 16th-century aesthetics became more and more inadequate; and grave practical obstacles to euphonious tuning began to assert themselves. The scientific (or natural) ratios of the diatonic scale were not interfered with by art so long as no discords were “fundamental”; but when discords began to assume independence, one and the same note often became assignable on scientific grounds to two slightly different positions in pitch, or at all events to a position incompatible with even tolerable effect in performance. Thus, the chord of the diminished 7th is said to be intolerably harsh in “just intonation,” that is to say, intonation based upon the exact ratios of a normal minor scale. In practical performance the diminished 7th contains three minor 3rds and two imperfect 5ths (such as that which is present in the dominant 7th), while the peculiarly dissonant interval from which the chord takes its name is very nearly the same as a major 6th. Now it can only be said that an intonation which makes nonsense of chords of which every classical composer from the time of Corelli has made excellent sense, is a very unjust intonation indeed; and to anybody who realizes the universal relation between art and nature it is obvious that the chord of the diminished 7th must owe its naturalness to its close approximation to the natural ratios of the minor scale, while it owes its artistic possibility to the extremely minute instinctive modification by which its dissonance becomes tolerable. As a matter of fact, although we have shown here and in the article Music how artificial is the origin and nature of all but the very scantiest materials of the musical language, there is no art in which the element of practical compromise is so minute and so hard for any but trained scientific observation to perceive. If a painter could have a scale of light and shade as nearly approaching nature as the practical intonation of music approaches the acoustic facts it really involves, a visit to a picture gallery would be a severe strain on the strongest eyes, as Ruskin constantly points out. Yet music is in this respect exactly on the same footing as other arts. It constitutes no exception to the universal law that artistic ideas must be realized, not in spite of, but by means of practical necessities. However independent the treatment of discords, they assert themselves in the long run as transient. They resolve into permanent points of repose of which the basis is natural; but the transient phenomena float through the harmonic world adapting themselves, as best they can, to their environment, showing as much dependence upon the stable scheme of “just intonation” as a crowd of metaphors and abstractions in language shows a dependence upon the rules of the syllogism. As much and no more, but that is no doubt a great deal. Yet the attempt to determine the point in modern harmony where just intonation should end and the tempered scale begin, is as vexatious as the attempt to define in etymology the point at which the literal meaning of a word gives places to a metaphorical meaning. And it is as unsound scientifically as the conviction of the typical circle-squarer that he is unravelling a mystery and measuring a quantity hitherto unknown. Just intonation is a reality in so far as it emphasizes the contrast between concord and discord; but when it forbids artistic interaction between harmony and melody it is a chimera. It is sometimes said that Bach, by the example of his forty-eight preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys, first fixed the modern scale. This is true practically, but not aesthetically. By writing a series of movements in every key of which the keynote was present in the normal organ and harpsichord manuals of his and later times, he enforced the system by which all facts of modern musical harmony are represented on keyed instruments by dividing the octave into twelve equal semitones, instead of tuning a few much-used keys as accurately as possible and sacrificing the euphony of all the rest. This system ofequal temperament, with twelve equal semitones in the octave, obviously annihilates important distinctions, and in the most used keys it sours the concords and blunts the discords more than unequal temperament; but it is never harsh; and where it does not express harmonic subtleties the ear instinctively supplies the interpretation; as the observing faculty, indeed, always does wherever the resources of art indicate more than they express.
Now it frequently happens that discords or artificial chords are not merely obscure in their intonation, whether ideally or practically, but as produced in practice they are capable of two sharply distinct interpretations. And it is possible for music to take advantage of this and to approach a chord in one significance and quit it with another. Where this happens in just intonation (in so far as that represents a real musical conception) such chords will, so to speak, quiver from one meaning into the other. And even in the tempered scale the ear will interpret the change of meaning as involving a minute difference of intonation. The chord of the diminished 7th has in this way four different meanings—
and the chord of the augmented 6th, when accompanied by the fifth, may become a dominant 7th or vice versa, as in the passage already cited in the coda of the slow movement of Beethoven’sB♭Trio, Op.97. Such modulations are calledenharmonic. We have seen that all the more complex musical phenomena involve distinctions enharmonic in the sense of intervals smaller than a semitone, as, for instance, whenever the progression D E in the scale of C, which is a minor tone, is identified with the progression of D E in the scale of D, which is a major tone (differing from the former as8⁄9from9⁄10). But the special musical meaning of the word “enharmonic” is restricted to the difference between such pairs of sharps with flats or naturals as can be represented on a keyboard by the same note, this difference being the most impressive to the ear in “just intonation” and to the imagination in the tempered scale.
Not every progression of chords which is, so to speak, spelt enharmonically is an enharmonic modulation in itself. Thus a modulation from D flat to E major looks violently enharmonic on paper, as in the first movement of Beethoven’sSonata, Op.110. But E major with four sharps is merely the most convenient way of expressing F flat, a key which would need six flats and a double flat. The reality of an enharmonic modulation can be easily tested by transporting the passage a semitone. Thus, the passage just cited, put a semitone lower, becomes a perfectly diatonic modulation from C to E flat. But no transposition of the sixteen bars before the return of the main theme in the scherzo of Beethoven’sSonata in E♭,Op.31, No. 3, will get rid of the fact that the diminished 7th (G B♭ D♭ E♮), on the dominant of F minor, must have changed into G B♭ D♭ F♭ (although Beethoven does not take the trouble to alter the spelling) before it could resolve, as it does, upon the dominant of A♭. But though there is thus a distinction between real and apparent enharmonic modulations, it frequently happens that a series of modulations perfectly diatonic in themselves returns to the original key by a process which can only be called an enharmonic circle. Thus the whole series of keys now in practical use can be arranged in what is called the circle of fifths (C G D A E B F♯ [= G♭] D♭ A♭ B♭ F C, from which series we now see the meaning of what was said in the discussion of key-relationships as to the ambiguity of the relationships between keys a tritone fourth apart). Now no human memory is capable of distinguishing the difference of pitch between thekeys of C and B♯ after a wide series of modulations. The difference would be perceptible enough in immediate juxtaposition, but after some interval of time the memory will certainly accept two keys so near in pitch as identical, whether in “just intonation” or not. And hence the enharmonic circle of fifths is a conception of musical harmony by which infinity is at once rationalized and avoided, just as some modern mathematicians are trying to rationalize the infinity of space by a non-Euclidian space so curved in the fourth dimension as to return upon itself. A similar enharmonic circle progressing in major 3rds is of frequent occurrence and of very rich effect. For example, the keys of the movements of Brahms’sC Minor Symphonyare C minor, E major, A♭ major (= G♯), and C (= B♯). And the same circle occurs in the opposite direction in the first movement of hisThird Symphony, where the first subject is in F, the transition passes directly to D♭ and thence by exactly the same step to A (= B♭♭). The exposition is repeated, which of course means that in “just intonation” the first subject would begin in G♭♭ and then pass through a transition in E♭♭♭ to the second subject in C♭♭♭. As the development contains another spurious enharmonic modulation, and the recapitulation repeats in another position the first spurious enharmonic modulation of the exposition, it would follow that Brahms’s movement began in F and ended in C sextuple-flat! So much, then, for the application of bad metaphysics and circle-squaring mathematics to the art of music. Neither in mathematics nor in art is an approximation to be confused with an imperfection. Brahms’s movement begins and ends in F much more exactly than any wooden diagonal fits a wooden square.
The following series of musical illustrations show the genesis of typical harmonic resources of classical and modern music.
The following series of musical illustrations show the genesis of typical harmonic resources of classical and modern music.
Ex. 12.—Three concords (ionic, first inversion of subdominant, and dominant of A minor, a possible 16th-century cadence in the Phrygian mode).
Ex. 13.—The same chords varied by a suspension (*).
Ex. 14.—Ditto, with the further addition of a double suspension (*) and two passing notes (††).
Ex. 15.—Ditto, with a chromatic alteration of the second chord (*) and an “essential” discord (dominant 7th) at (†).
Ex. 16.—Ditto, with chromatic passing notes (**) and appoggiaturas (††).
Ex. 17.—The last two chords of Ex. 16 attacked unexpectedly, the first appoggiatura (*) prolonged till it seems to make a strange foreign chord before it resolves on the short note at ‡, while the second appoggiatura (†) is chromatic.
Ex. 18.—The same enharmonically transformed so as to become a variation of the “dominant ninth” of C minor. The G♯ at * is really A♭, and ‡ is no longer a note of resolution, but a chromatic passing-note.
Definitions.(Intended to comprise the general conceptions set forth in the above article.)1.Musical sounds, ornotes, are sensations produced by regular periodical vibrations in the air, sufficiently rapid to coalesce in a single continuous sensation, and not too rapid for the mechanism of the human ear to respond.2. Thepitchof a note is the sensation corresponding to the degree of rapidity of its vibrations; beingloworgravewhere these are slow, andhighoracutewhere they are rapid.3. Anintervalis the difference in pitch between two notes.4.Rhythmis the organization, in a musical scheme, of sounds in respect of time.5.Melodyis the organization, in a musical scheme, of rhythmic notes in respect of pitch.6.Harmonyis the organization, in a musical scheme, of simultaneous combinations of notes on principles whereby their acoustic properties interact with laws of rhythm and melody.7. Theharmonic seriesis an infinite series of notes produced by the subdivision of a vibrating body or column of air into aliquot parts, such notes being generally inaudible except in the form of the timbre which their presence in various proportions imparts to the fundamental note produced by the whole vibrating body or air-column.8. Aconcordis a combination which, both by its acoustic smoothness and by its logical origin and purpose in a musical scheme, can form a point of repose.9. Adiscordis a combination in which both its logical origin in a musical scheme and its acoustic roughness show that it cannot form a point of repose.10. Theperfect concordsandperfect intervalsare those comprised within the first four members of the harmonic series, namely, the octave, as between numbers 1 and 2 of the series (see Ex. 1 above); the 5th, as between Nos. 2 and 3; and the 4th, as between Nos. 3 and 4.11. All notes exactly one or more octaves apart are regarded as harmonically identical.12. Therootof a chord is that note from which the whole or the most important parts of the chord appear (if distributed in the right octaves) as members of the harmonic series.13. A chord is inverted when its lowest note is not its root.14. Themajor triadis a concord containing three different notes which (octaves being disregarded) are identical with the first, third and fifth members of the harmonic series (the second and fourth members being negligible as octaves).15. Theminor triadis a concord containing the same intervals as the major triad in a different order; in consequence it is artificial, as one of its notes is not derivable from the harmonic series.16.Unessential discordsare those that are treated purely as the phenomena of transition, delay or ornament, in an otherwise concordant harmony.17.Essential discordsare those which are so treated that the mind tends to regard them as definite chords possessing roots.18. Akeyis an harmonic system in which there is never any doubt as to which note or triad shall be the final note of music in that system, nor of the relations between that note or chord and the other notes or chords. (In this sense the church modes are either not keys or else they are subtle mixtures of keys.)19. This final note of a key is called itstonic.20. Themajormode is that of keys in which the tonic triad and the two other cardinal triads are major.21. Theminormode is that of keys in which the tonic triad and one other cardinal triad are minor.22. Adiatonic scaleis a series of the notes essential to one major or minor key, arranged in order of pitch and repeating itself in other octaves on reaching the limit of an octave.23.Modulationis the passing from one key to another.24.Chromaticnotes and chords are those which do not belong to the diatonic scale of the passage in which they occur, but which are not so used as to cause modulation.25.Enharmonicintervals are minute intervals which never occur in music as directly measured quantities, though they exist as differences between approximately equal ordinary intervals, diatonic or chromatic. In an enharmonic modulation, two chords differing by an enharmonic quantity are treated as identical.26.Pedalororgan pointis the sustaining of a single note in the bass (or, in the case of aninverted pedal, in an upper part) while the harmonies move independently. Unless the harmonies are sometimes foreign to the sustained note, it does not constitute a pedal. In modern music pedals take place on either the tonic or the dominant, other pedal-notes being rare and of complex meaning. Double pedals (of tonic and dominant, with tonic below) are not unusual. The device is capable of very free treatment, and has produced many very bold and rich harmonic effects in music since the earlier works of Beethoven. It probably accounts for many so-called “essential discords.”In the form ofdronesthe pedal is the only real harmonic device of ancient and primitive music. The ancient Greeks sometimesused a reiterated instrumental note as an accompanimentabovethe melody. These primitive devices, though harmonic in the true modern sense of the word, are out of the line of harmonic development, and did not help it in any definite way.27. Thefundamental bassof a harmonic passage is an imaginary bass consisting of the roots of the chords.28. Afigured bass, orcontinuo, is the bass of a composition supplied with numerals indicating the chords to be filled in by the accompanist.Thorough-bass(Ger.Generalbass) is the art of interpreting such figures.
Definitions.
(Intended to comprise the general conceptions set forth in the above article.)
1.Musical sounds, ornotes, are sensations produced by regular periodical vibrations in the air, sufficiently rapid to coalesce in a single continuous sensation, and not too rapid for the mechanism of the human ear to respond.
2. Thepitchof a note is the sensation corresponding to the degree of rapidity of its vibrations; beingloworgravewhere these are slow, andhighoracutewhere they are rapid.
3. Anintervalis the difference in pitch between two notes.
4.Rhythmis the organization, in a musical scheme, of sounds in respect of time.
5.Melodyis the organization, in a musical scheme, of rhythmic notes in respect of pitch.
6.Harmonyis the organization, in a musical scheme, of simultaneous combinations of notes on principles whereby their acoustic properties interact with laws of rhythm and melody.
7. Theharmonic seriesis an infinite series of notes produced by the subdivision of a vibrating body or column of air into aliquot parts, such notes being generally inaudible except in the form of the timbre which their presence in various proportions imparts to the fundamental note produced by the whole vibrating body or air-column.
8. Aconcordis a combination which, both by its acoustic smoothness and by its logical origin and purpose in a musical scheme, can form a point of repose.
9. Adiscordis a combination in which both its logical origin in a musical scheme and its acoustic roughness show that it cannot form a point of repose.
10. Theperfect concordsandperfect intervalsare those comprised within the first four members of the harmonic series, namely, the octave, as between numbers 1 and 2 of the series (see Ex. 1 above); the 5th, as between Nos. 2 and 3; and the 4th, as between Nos. 3 and 4.
11. All notes exactly one or more octaves apart are regarded as harmonically identical.
12. Therootof a chord is that note from which the whole or the most important parts of the chord appear (if distributed in the right octaves) as members of the harmonic series.
13. A chord is inverted when its lowest note is not its root.
14. Themajor triadis a concord containing three different notes which (octaves being disregarded) are identical with the first, third and fifth members of the harmonic series (the second and fourth members being negligible as octaves).
15. Theminor triadis a concord containing the same intervals as the major triad in a different order; in consequence it is artificial, as one of its notes is not derivable from the harmonic series.
16.Unessential discordsare those that are treated purely as the phenomena of transition, delay or ornament, in an otherwise concordant harmony.
17.Essential discordsare those which are so treated that the mind tends to regard them as definite chords possessing roots.
18. Akeyis an harmonic system in which there is never any doubt as to which note or triad shall be the final note of music in that system, nor of the relations between that note or chord and the other notes or chords. (In this sense the church modes are either not keys or else they are subtle mixtures of keys.)
19. This final note of a key is called itstonic.
20. Themajormode is that of keys in which the tonic triad and the two other cardinal triads are major.
21. Theminormode is that of keys in which the tonic triad and one other cardinal triad are minor.
22. Adiatonic scaleis a series of the notes essential to one major or minor key, arranged in order of pitch and repeating itself in other octaves on reaching the limit of an octave.
23.Modulationis the passing from one key to another.
24.Chromaticnotes and chords are those which do not belong to the diatonic scale of the passage in which they occur, but which are not so used as to cause modulation.
25.Enharmonicintervals are minute intervals which never occur in music as directly measured quantities, though they exist as differences between approximately equal ordinary intervals, diatonic or chromatic. In an enharmonic modulation, two chords differing by an enharmonic quantity are treated as identical.
26.Pedalororgan pointis the sustaining of a single note in the bass (or, in the case of aninverted pedal, in an upper part) while the harmonies move independently. Unless the harmonies are sometimes foreign to the sustained note, it does not constitute a pedal. In modern music pedals take place on either the tonic or the dominant, other pedal-notes being rare and of complex meaning. Double pedals (of tonic and dominant, with tonic below) are not unusual. The device is capable of very free treatment, and has produced many very bold and rich harmonic effects in music since the earlier works of Beethoven. It probably accounts for many so-called “essential discords.”
In the form ofdronesthe pedal is the only real harmonic device of ancient and primitive music. The ancient Greeks sometimesused a reiterated instrumental note as an accompanimentabovethe melody. These primitive devices, though harmonic in the true modern sense of the word, are out of the line of harmonic development, and did not help it in any definite way.
27. Thefundamental bassof a harmonic passage is an imaginary bass consisting of the roots of the chords.
28. Afigured bass, orcontinuo, is the bass of a composition supplied with numerals indicating the chords to be filled in by the accompanist.Thorough-bass(Ger.Generalbass) is the art of interpreting such figures.
(D. F. T.)
1Musical intervals are reckoned numerically upwards along the degrees of the diatonic scales (described below). Intervals greater than an octave are called compound, and are referred to their simple forms,e.g.the 12th is a compound 5th.2It is at least probable that this is one of the several rather obscure reasons for the peculiar instability of the 4th in modern harmony, which is not yet satisfactorily explained.3The perfect concords are the octave, unison, 5th and 4th. Other diatonic combinations, whether concords or discords, are called imperfect.4SeePlain Song.5Until Beethoven developed the resources for a wider scheme of key-contrasts, the only keys for second subjects of sonata-movements were the dominant (when the tonic was major) and the “relative” major or dominant minor (when the tonic was minor). A wider range was possible only in the irresponsible style of D. Scarlatti.6Many theorists mistake the usual extreme emphasis on the dominant chord of the dominant key, in preparation for second subjects, for a modulation to the major supertonic, but this can deceive no one with any sense of tonality. A good practical test is to see what becomes of such passages when translated into the minor mode. Illusory modulation to the flat 7th frequently occurs as a bold method of throwing strong emphasis on to the subdominant at the outset of a movement, as in Beethoven’sSonata, Op. 31, No. 1.
1Musical intervals are reckoned numerically upwards along the degrees of the diatonic scales (described below). Intervals greater than an octave are called compound, and are referred to their simple forms,e.g.the 12th is a compound 5th.
2It is at least probable that this is one of the several rather obscure reasons for the peculiar instability of the 4th in modern harmony, which is not yet satisfactorily explained.
3The perfect concords are the octave, unison, 5th and 4th. Other diatonic combinations, whether concords or discords, are called imperfect.
4SeePlain Song.
5Until Beethoven developed the resources for a wider scheme of key-contrasts, the only keys for second subjects of sonata-movements were the dominant (when the tonic was major) and the “relative” major or dominant minor (when the tonic was minor). A wider range was possible only in the irresponsible style of D. Scarlatti.
6Many theorists mistake the usual extreme emphasis on the dominant chord of the dominant key, in preparation for second subjects, for a modulation to the major supertonic, but this can deceive no one with any sense of tonality. A good practical test is to see what becomes of such passages when translated into the minor mode. Illusory modulation to the flat 7th frequently occurs as a bold method of throwing strong emphasis on to the subdominant at the outset of a movement, as in Beethoven’sSonata, Op. 31, No. 1.
HARMOTOME,a mineral of the zeolite group, consisting of hydrous barium and aluminium silicate, H2BaAl2(SiO3)5+ 5H2O. Usually a small amount of potassium is present replacing part of the barium. The system of crystallization is monoclinic; only complex twinned crystals are known. A common and characteristic form of twinned crystal, such as is represented in the figure, consists of four intercrossing individuals twinned together according to two twin-laws; the compound group resembles a tetragonal crystal with prism and pyramid, but may be distinguished from this by the grooves along the edges of the pseudo-prism. The faces of the crystals are marked by characteristic striations, as indicated in the figure. Twinned crystals of exactly the same kind are also frequent in phillipsite (q.v.). Crystals are usually white and translucent, with a vitreous lustre. The hardness is 4½, and the specific gravity 2.5.
The name harmotome (fromἁρμός, “a joint,” andτέμνειν, “to cut”) was given by R. J. Haüy in 1801, and has a crystallographic signification. Earlier names are cross-stone (Ger.Kreuzstein), ercinite, andreasbergolite and andreolite, the two last being derived from the locality, Andreasberg in the Harz. Morvenite (from Morven in Argyllshire) is the name given to small transparent crystals formerly referred toasphillipsite.
Like other zeolites, harmotome occurs with calcite in the amygdaloidal cavities of volcanic rocks, for example, in the dolerites of Dumbartonshire, and as fine crystals in the agate-lined cavities in the melaphyre of Oberstein in Germany. It also occurs in gneiss, and sometimes in metalliferous veins. At Andreasberg in the Harz it is found in the lead and silver veins; and at Strontian in Argyllshire in lead veins, associated with brewsterite (a strontium and barium zeolite), barytes and calcite.
(L. J. S.)
HARMS, CLAUS(1778-1855), German divine, was born at Fahrstedt in Schleswig-Holstein on the 25th of May 1778, and in his youth worked in his father’s mill. At the university of Kiel he repudiated the prevailing rationalism and under the influence of Schleiermacher became a fervent Evangelical preacher, first at Lunden (1806), and then at Kiel (1816). His trenchant style made him very popular, and he did great service for his cause especially in 1817, when, on the 300th anniversary of the Reformation, he published side by side with Luther’s theses, ninety-five of his own, attacking reason as “the pope of our time” who “dismisses Christ from the altar and throws God’s word from the pulpit.” He also had some fame as a hymn-writer, and besides volumes of sermons published a good book onPastoraltheologie(1830). He resigned his pastorate on account of blindness in 1849, and died on the 1st of February 1855.
SeeAutobiography(2nd ed., Kiel, 1852); M. Baumgarten,Ein Denkmal für C. Harms(Brunswick, 1855).
SeeAutobiography(2nd ed., Kiel, 1852); M. Baumgarten,Ein Denkmal für C. Harms(Brunswick, 1855).
HARNACK, ADOLF(1851- ), German theologian, was born on the 7th of May 1851 at Dorpat, in Russia, where his father, Theodosius Harnack (1817-1889), held a professorship of pastoral theology.
Theodosius Harnack was a staunch Lutheran and a prolific writer on theological subjects; his chief field of work was practical theology, and his important book on that subject, summing up his long experience and teaching, appeared at Erlangen (1877-1878, 2 vols.). The liturgy of the Lutheran church of Russia has, since 1898, been based on hisLiturgische Formulare(1872).
The son pursued his studies at Dorpat (1869-1872) and at Leipzig, where he took his degree; and soon afterwards (1874) began lecturing as aPrivatdozent. These lectures, which dealt with such special subjects as Gnosticism and the Apocalypse, attracted considerable attention, and in 1876 he was appointed professor extraordinarius. In the same year he began the publication, in conjunction with O. L. von Gebhardt and T. Zahn, of an edition of the works of the Apostolic Fathers,Patrum apostolicorum opera, a smaller edition of which appeared in 1877. Three years later he was called to Giessen as professor ordinarius of church history. There he collaborated with Oscar Leopold von Gebhardt inTexte und Untersuchungen zur Geschithte der altchristlichen Litteratur(1882 sqq.), an irregular periodical, containing only essays in New Testament and patristic fields. In 1881 he published a work on monasticism,Das Mönchtum, seine Ideale und seine Geschichte(5th ed., 1900; English translation, 1901), and became joint-editor with Emil Schürer of theTheologische Literaturzeitung. In 1885 he published the first volume of his epoch-making work,Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte(3rd ed. in three volumes, 1894-1898; English translation in seven volumes, 1894-1899). In this work Harnack traces the rise of dogma, by which he understands the authoritative doctrinal system of the 4th century and its development down to the Reformation. He considers that in its earliest origins Christian faith and the methods of Greek thought were so closely intermingled that much that is not essential to Christianity found its way into the resultant system. Therefore Protestants are not only free, but bound, to criticize it; indeed, for a Protestant Christian, dogma cannot be said to exist. An abridgment of this appeared in 1889 with the titleGrundriss der Dogmengeschichte(3rd ed., 1898). In 1886 Harnack was called to Marburg; and in 1888, in spite of violent opposition from the conservative section of the church authorities, to Berlin. In 1890 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences. At Berlin, somewhat against his will, he was drawn into a controversy on the Apostles’ Creed, in which the party antagonisms within the Prussian Church had found expression. Harnack’s view is that the creed contains both too much and too little to be a satisfactory test for candidates for ordination, and he would prefer a briefer symbol which could be rigorously exacted from all (cf. hisDas apostolische Glaubensbekenntnis. Ein geschichtlicher Bericht nebst einem Nachworte, 1892; 27th ed., 1896). At Berlin Harnack continued his literary labours. In 1893 he published a history of early Christian literature down to Eusebius,Geschichte der altchristl. Litteratur bis Eusebius(part 2 of vol. i., 1897); and in 1900 appeared his popular lectures,Das Wesen des Christentums(5th ed., 1901; English translation,What is Christianity?1901; 3rd ed., 1904). One of his more recent historical works isDie Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten(1902; English translation in two volumes, 1904-1905). It has been followed by some very interesting and important New Testament studies (Beiträge zur Einleitung in das neue Testament, 1906 sqq.; Engl. trans.:Luke the Physician, 1907;The Sayings of Jesus, 1908). Harnack, both as lecturer and writer, was one of the most prolific and most stimulating of modern critical scholars, and trained up in his “Seminar” a whole generation of teachers, who carried his ideas and methods throughout the whole of Germany and even beyond its borders. His distinctive characteristics are his claim for absolute freedom in the study of church history and the New Testament; his distrust of speculative theology, whether orthodox or liberal; his interest in practical Christianity as a religious life and not a system of theology. Some of his addresses on social matters have been published under the heading “Essays on the Social Gospel” (1907).
HARNESS(from O. Fr.harneisorharnois; the ultimate origin is obscure; the Celtic origin which connects it with the Welshhaiarn, iron, has phonetic and other difficulties; the French is the origin of the Span.arnes, and Ger.Harnisch), probably, inorigin, gear, tackle, equipment in general, but early applied particularly to the body armour of a soldier, including the trappings of the horse; now the general term for the gear of an animal used for draft purposes, traces, collar, bridle, girth, breeching, &c. It is usually not applied to the saddle or bridle of a riding animal. The word, in its original meaning of tackle or working apparatus, is still found in weaving, for the mechanism which shifts the warp-threads to form the “shed,” and in bell-hanging, for the apparatus by which a large bell is hung. TheNew English Dictionaryquotes an early use of the word for the lines, rod and hooks of an angler (Fysshing with an Angle,c.1450).
HARO, CLAMEUR DE,the ancient Norman custom of “crying for justice,” still surviving in the Channel Islands. The wronged party must on his knees and before witnesses cry: “Haro! Haro! Haro! à l’aide, mon prince, on me fait tort.” This appeal has to be respected, and the alleged trespass or tort must cease till the matter has been thrashed out in the courts. The “cry” thus acts as an interim injunction, and no inhabitant of the Channel Islands would think of resisting it. The custom is undoubtedly very ancient, dating from times when there were no courts and no justice except such as was meted out by princes personally. The popular derivation for the name is that which explains “Haro” as an abbreviation of “Ha! Rollo,” a direct appeal to Rollo, first duke of Normandy. It is far more probable that haro is simply an exclamation to call attention (O.H.G.hero,hara, “here”!). Indeed it is clear that the “cry for justice” was in no sense an institution of Rollo, but was a method of appeal recognized in many countries. It is said to be identical with the “Legatro of the Bavarians and the Thuringians,” and the first mention of it in France is to be found in the “Grand coutumier de Normandie.” A similar custom, only observed in criminal charges, was recognized by the Saxon laws under the name of “Clamor Violentiae.” Thus there is reason to think that William the Conqueror on his arrival in England found the “cry” fully established as far as criminal matters were concerned. Later the “cry” was made applicable to civil wrongs, and, when the administration of justice became systematized, disappeared altogether in criminal cases. It naturally tended to become obsolete as the administration of justice became systematized, but it was long retained in north-western France in cases of disputed possession, and was not actually repealed until the close of the 18th century. A survival of the English form of haro is possibly to be found in the “Ara,” a cry at fairs when “settling time” arrived.
HAROLD I.(d. 1040), surnamed Harefoot, the illegitimate son of Canute, king of England, and Ælfgifu of Northampton. On the death of his father in 1035, he claimed the crown of England in opposition to Canute’s legitimate son, Hardicanute. His claims were supported by Leofric, earl of Mercia, and the north; those of Hardicanute by his mother, Queen Emma, Godwine, earl of the West-Saxons and the south. Eventually Harold was temporarily elected regent, pending a final settlement on Hardicanute’s return from Denmark. Hardicanute, however, tarried, and meanwhile Harold’s party increased rapidly. In 1037 he was definitely elected king, and banished Emma from the kingdom. The only events of his brief reign are ineffectual inroads of the Welsh and Scots. Hardicanute was preparing to invade England in support of his claims when Harold died at Oxford on the 10th of March 1040.
HAROLD II.(c.1022-1066), king of the English, the second son of Earl Godwine, was born about 1022. While still very young (before 1045) he was appointed to the earldom of the East-Angles. He shared his father’s outlawry and banishment in 1051; but while Godwine went to Flanders, Harold with his brother Leofwine took refuge in Ireland. In 1052 Harold and Leofwine returned. Having plundered in the west of England, they joined their father, and were with him at the assembly which decreed the restoration of the whole family. Harold was now restored to his earldom of the East-Angles, and on his father’s death in 1053 he succeeded him in the greater earldom of the West-Saxons. He was now the chief man in the kingdom, and when the older earls Leofric and Siward died his power increased yet more, and the latter part of Edward’s reign was virtually the reign of Harold. In 1055 he drove back the Welsh, who had burned Hereford. In 1063 came the great Welsh war, in which Harold, with the help of his brother Tostig, crushed the power of Gruffyd, who was killed by his own people. But in spite of his power and his prowess, Harold was the minister of the king rather than his personal favourite. This latter position rather belonged to Tostig, who on the death of Siward in 1055 received the earldom of Northumberland. Here, however, his harshness soon provoked enmity, and in 1065 the Northumbrians revolted against him, choosing Morkere in his place. Harold acted as mediator between the king and the insurgents, and at length agreed to the choice of Morkere, and the banishment of his brother. At the beginning of 1066 Edward died, with his last breath recommending Harold as his successor. He was accordingly elected at once and crowned. The men of Northumberland at first refused to acknowledge him, but Harold won them over. The rest of his brief reign was taken up with preparations against the attacks which threatened him on both sides at once. William challenged the crown, alleging both a bequest of Edward in bis favour and a personal engagement which Harold had contracted towards him—probably in 1064; and prepared for the invasion of England. Meanwhile Tostig was trying all means to bring about his own restoration. He first attacked the Isle of Wight, then Lindesey, but was compelled to take shelter in Scotland. From May to September the king kept the coast with a great force by sea and land, but at last provisions failed and the land army was dispersed. Harold then came to London, ready to meet whichever enemy came first. By this time Tostig had engaged Harold Hardrada of Norway to invade England. Together they sailed up the Humber, defeated Edwin and Morkere, and received the submission of York. Harold hurried northwards; and on the 25th of September he came on the Northmen at Stamford Bridge and won a complete victory, in which Tostig and Harold Hardrada were slain. But two days later William landed at Pevensey. Harold marched southward as fast as possible. He gathered his army in London from all southern and eastern England, but Edwin and Morkere kept back the forces of the north. The king then marched into Sussex and engaged the Normans on the hill of Senlac near Battle (see Hastings). After a fight which lasted from morning till evening, the Normans had the victory, and Harold and his two brothers lay dead on the field (14th of October 1066).
HARP(Fr.harpe; Ger.Harfe; Ital.arpa), a member of the class of stringed instruments of which the strings are twanged or vibrated by the fingers. The harp is an instrument of beautiful proportions, approximating to a triangular form, the strings diminishing in length as they ascend in pitch. The mechanism is concealed within the different parts of which the instrument is composed, (1) the pedestal or pedal-box, on which rest (2) the vertical pillar, and (3) the inclined convex body in which the soundboard is fixed, (4) the curved neck, with (5) the comb concealing the mechanism for stopping the strings, supported by the pillar and the body.
(1) Thepedestalorpedal-boxforms the base of the harp and contains seven pedals both in single and double action harps, the difference being that in the single action the pedals are only capable of raising the strings one semitone by means of a drop into a notch, whereas with the double action the pedals, after a first drop, can by a further drop into a second and lower notch shorten the string a second semitone, whereby each string is made to serve in turn for flat, natural and sharp. The harp is normally in the key of C flat major, and each of the seven pedals acts upon one of the notes of this diatonic scale throughout the compass. The choice of this method of tuning was imposed by the construction of the harp with double action. The pedals remain in the notches until released by the foot, when the pedal returns to its normal position through the action of a spiral spring, which may be seen under each of the pedals by turning the harp up.(2) Thevertical pillaris a kind of tunnel in which are placed the seven rods worked by the pedals, which set in motion the mechanism situated in the neck of the instrument. Although the pillar apparentlyrests on the pedestal, it is really supported by a brass shoulder firmly screwed to the beam which forms the lowest part of the body, a connexion which remains undisturbed when the pedal box and its cover are removed.(3) Thebodyorsound-chestof the harp is in shape like the longitudinal section of a cone. It was formerly composed of staves joined together as in the lute and mandoline. Erard was the first to make it in two pieces of wood, generally sycamore, with the addition of a flat soundboard of Swiss pine. The body is strengthened on the inside, in order to resist the tension of the strings, by means of ribs; there are five soundholes in the back, which in the older models were furnished with swell shutters opened at will by the swell pedal, the fourth from the left worked by the left foot. As the increase of sound obtained by means of the swell was infinitesimal, the device has now been discarded. The harp is strung by knotting the end of the string and passing it through its hole in the centre of the soundboard, where it is kept in position by means of a grooved peg which grips the string.(4) Theneckconsists of a curved piece of wood resting on the body at the treble end of the instrument and joining the pillar at the bass end. In the neck are set the tuning pins round which are wound the strings.(5) Thecombis the name given to two brass plates or covers which fit over both sides of the neck, concealing part of the mechanism for shortening the strings and raising their pitch a semitone when actuated by the pedals. On the front plate of the comb, to the left of the player, is a row of brass bridges against which the strings rest below the tuning pins, and which determine the vibrating length of the string reckoned from the peg in the soundboard. Below the bridges are two rows of brass disks, known as forks, connected by steel levers; each disk is equipped with two studs for grasping the string and shortening it. The mechanism is ingenious. When a pedal is depressed to the first notch, the corresponding lower disk turns a little way on a mandrel keeping the studs clear of the string. The upper disk, set in motion by the steel levers connecting the disks, revolves simultaneously till the string is caught by the two studs which thus form a new bridge, shortening the vibrating length of the string by just the length necessary to raise the pitch a semitone. If the same pedal be depressed to the second notch, another movement causes the lower disk to revolve again till the string is a second time seized and shortened, the upper disk remaining stationary. The hidden mechanism meanwhile has gone through a series of movements; the pedal is really a lever set upon a spring, and when depressed it draws down the connecting rod in the pillar which sets in motion chains governing the mandrels of the disks.The harp usually has forty-six strings, of gut in the middle and upper registers, and of covered steel wire in the bass; the C strings are red and the F strings blue. The compass thus has a range of 6½ octaves from. The double stave is used as for the pianoforte. The single action harp used to be tuned to the key of E♭ major.The modern harp with double action is the only instrument with fixed tones, not determined by the ear or touch of the performer, which has separate notes for naturals, sharps and flats, giving it an enharmonic compass. On the harp the appreciable interval between D♯ and E♭ can be played. The harp in its normal condition is tuned to C♭ major; it rests with the performer to transpose it at will in a few seconds into any other key by means of the pedals. Each of the pedals influences one note of the scale throughout the compass, beginning at the left with D, C, and B worked by the left foot. Missing the fourth or forte pedal, and continuing towards the right we get the E, F, G and A pedals worked by the right foot. By lowering the D pedal into the first notch the D♭ becomes D♮, and into the second notch D♯, and so on for all the pedals. If, for example, a piece be written in the key of E major, the harp is transposed into that key by depressing the E, A, and B pedals to the first notch, and those for F, G, C and D to the second or sharp notch and so on through all the keys. Accidentals and modulations are readily played by means of the pedals, provided the transitions be not too rapid. The harp is the instrument upon which transposition presents the least difficulty, for the fingering is the same for all keys. The strings are twanged with the thumbs and the first three fingers.The quality of tone does not vary much in the different registers, but it has the greatest brilliancy in keys with many flats, for the strings are then open and not shortened by the forks. Various effects can be obtained on the harp: (1) by harmonics, (2) by damping, (3) by guitar tones, (4) by the glissando. (1) Harmonics are produced by resting the ball of the hand on the middle of the string and setting it in vibration by the thumb or the first two fingers of the same hand, whereby a mysterious and beautiful tone is obtained. Two or three harmonics can be played together with the left hand, and by using both hands at once as many as four are possible. (2) Damping is effected by laying the palm against the string in the bass and the back of the finger in the treble. (3) Guitar or pizzicato notes are obtained by twanging the strings sharply at the lower end near the soundboard with the nails. (4) The glissando effect is produced, as on the pianoforte, by sliding the thumb or finger along the strings in quick succession; this does not necessarily give the diatonic scale, for by means of the pedals the harp can be tuned beforehand to chords. It is possible to play on the harp all kinds of diatonic and arpeggio passages, but no chromatic, except in very slow tempo, on account of the time required by the mechanism of the pedals; and chords of three or four notes in each hand, shakes, turns, successions of double notes can be easily acquired. The same note can also be repeated slowly or quickly, the next string being tuned to a duplicate note, and the two strings plucked alternately in order to give the string time to vibrate.Pleyel’s chromatic harp, patented in 1894 and improved in 1903 by Gustave Lyon, manager of the firm of Pleyel, Wolff & Co., is an instrument practically without mechanism which has already won great favour in France and Belgium, notably in the orchestra. It has been constructed on the familiar lines of the pianoforte. Henry Pape, a piano manufacturer, had in 1845 conceived the idea of a chromatic harp of which the strings crossed in the centre as in the piano, and a report on the construction was published at the time; the instrument, however, was not considered successful, and was relegated to oblivion until Mr Lyon revised the matter and brought out a successful and practical instrument. The advantages claimed for this harp are the abandonment of the whole pedal mechanism, a metal framing which insures the strings keeping in tune as long as those of a piano, and an easily acquired technique. The chromatic harp consists of (1) a pedestal on castors, (2) a steel pillar without internal mechanism, (3) a wide neck containing two brass wrest-planks in which are fixed two rows of tuning pins, and (4) a soundchest in which is firmly riveted the steel plate to which the strings are fastened, and the soundboard pierced with eyelet holes through which the strings are drawn to the string plate. There is a string for every chromatic semitone of the scale of C major, the white strings representing the white keys of the piano keyboard, and the black strings corresponding to the black keys. The tuning pins for the black strings are set in the left side of the neck in alternate groups of twos and threes, and those for the white in the right side in alternate groups of threes and fours. The strings cross half-way between neck and soundboard, this being the point where they are plucked; the left hand finds the black notes above, and the right hand below the crossing. There is besides in the neck a set of twelve tuning buttons, each one of which on being pressed gives out one note of the chromatic scale tuned to the pitch of the diapason normal. It is obvious that the répertoire for this harp is very extensive, including many compositions written for the piano, which however cannot be played with any legato effects, these being still impossible on this chromatic harp.History.—While the instrument is of great antiquity, it is yet from northern Europe that the modern harp and its name are derived. The Greeks and Romans preferred to it the lyre in its different varieties, and a Latin writer, Venantius Fortunatus,1describes it in the 7th century of our era as an instrument of the barbarians—“Romanusque lyra, plaudat tibi barbarus harpa.” This is believed to be the earliest mention of the name, which is clearly Teutonic,—O.H.Ger.harapha, A.-S.hearpe, Old Norseharpa. The modern Fr.harperetains the aspirate; in the Spanish and Italianarpait is dropped.Fig. 1.The earliest delineations of the harp in Egypt give no indication that it had not existed long before. There are, indeed, representations in Egyptian paintings of stringed instruments of a bow-form having affinities with both primitive harp andnefer(a kind of oval guitar) that support the idea of the invention of the harp from the tense string of the warrior’s or hunter’s bow. This primitive-looking instrument, callednanga, had a boat-shaped sound-chest with a parchment or skin soundboard, down the centre of which one end of the string was fastened to a strip of wood, whilst the other was wound round pegs in the upper part of the bow. The nanga was played horizontally, being borne upon the performer’s shoulder.2Between it and the grand vertical harps in the frescos of the time of Rameses III., more than 3000 years old, discovered by the traveller Bruce3(fig. 1), there are varieties that permit us to bind the whole,from the simplest bow-form to the almost triangular harp, into one family (see fig. 2).Fig. 2.The Egyptian harp had no front pillar, and as it was strung with catgut the tension and pitch must necessarily have been low. The harps above-mentioned depicted in the tomb at Thebes, assumed from the players to be more than 6 ft. high, have not many strings, the one having ten, the other thirteen. What the accordance of these strings was it would be hard to recover. We must be content with the knowledge that the old Egyptians possessed harps in principle like our own, the largest having pedestals upon which they bestowed a wealth of decoration, as if to show how much they prized them.The ancient Assyrians had harps like those of Egypt in being without a front pillar, but differing from them in having the sound-body uppermost, in which we find the early use of soundholes; while the lower portion was a bar to which the strings were tied and by means of which the tuning was apparently effected.4What the Hebrew harp was, whether it followed the Egyptian or the Assyrian, we do not know. That King David played upon the harp as commonly depicted is rather a modern idea. Medieval artists frequently gave King David the psaltery, a horizontal stringed instrument from which has gradually developed the modern piano. The Hebrew “kinnor” may have been a kind of trigonon, a triangular stringed instrument between a small harp and a psaltery, sounded by a plectrum, or more probably, as advocated by Dr Stainer in his essay on the music of the Bible, a kind of lyre.The earliest records that we possess of the Celtic race, whether Gaelic or Cymric, give the harp a prominent place and harpists peculiar veneration and distinction. The names for the harp are, however, quite different from the Teutonic. The Irish “clairseach,” the Highland Scottish “clarsach,” the Welsh, Cornish, Breton “telyn,” “telein,” “télen,” show no etymological kinship to the other European names. The first syllable in clairseach or clarsach is derived from the Gaelic “clar,” a board or table (soundboard), while the first syllable of telyn is distinctly Old Welsh, and has a tensile meaning; thus resonance supplies the one idea, tension the other.Fig. 3.Irish (Dalway) Harp.Fig. 4.Welsh Triple Harp.The literature of these Celtic harps may be most directly found in Bunting’sAncient Music of Ireland(Dublin, 1840), Gunn’sHistorical Enquiry respecting the Performance on the Harp in the Highlands of Scotland(Edinburgh, 1807), and E. Jones’sMusical and Poetical Memoirs of the Welsh Bards(London, 1784). The treatises of Walker, Dalyell, and others may also be consulted; but in all these authorities due care must be taken of the bias of patriotism, and the delusive aim to reconstruct much that we must be content to receive as only vaguely indicated in records and old monuments. There is, however, one early Irish monument about which there can be no mistake, the harp upon a cross belonging to the ancient church of Ullard near Kilkenny, the date of which cannot be later than 830; the sculpture is rude, but the instrument is clearly shown by the drawing in Bunting’s work to have no front pillar. This remarkable structural likeness to the old harps of Egypt and Assyria may be accidental, but permits the plausible hypothesis of Eastern descent. The oldest specimen of the beautiful form by which the Irish harp is now recognized, with gracefully curved front pillar and sweep of neck (the latter known as the harmonic curve), is the famous harp in Trinity College, Dublin, the possession of which has been attributed to King Brian Boiroimhe. From this mythic ownership Dr Petrie (see essay in Bunting) has delivered it; but he can only deduce the age from the ornamentation and heraldry, which fix its date in the 14th century or a little later. There is a cast of it in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The next oldest is in the Highlands of Scotland, theClarsach Lumanach, or Lamont’s Clarschoe, belonging, with another of later date, to the old Perthshire family of Robertson of Lude. Both are described in detail by Gunn. This Lamont harp was taken by a lady of that family from Argyleshire about 1460, on her marriage into the family of Lude. It had about thirty strings tuned singly, but the scale was sometimes doubled in pairs of unisons like lutes and other contemporary instruments. The Dalway harp in Ireland (fig. 3) inscribed “Ego sum Regina Cithararum,” and dated 1621, appears to have had pairs of strings in the centre only. These were of brass wire, and played with the pointed finger-nails. The Italian contemporary “Arpa Doppia” was entirely upon the duplex principle, but with gut strings played by the fleshy ends of the fingers. When E. Bunting met at Belfast in 1792 as many Irish harpers as could be at that late date assembled, he found the compass of their harps to comprisethirty notes which were tuned diatonically in the key of G, under certain circumstances transposable to C and rarely to D, the scales being the major of these keys. The harp first appeared in the coat of arms of Ireland in the reign of Henry VIII.; and some years after in a map of 1567 preserved in a volume of state papers, we find it truly drawn according to the outlines of the national Irish instrument.5References to the Highlands of Scotland are of necessity included with Ireland; and in both we find another name erroneously applied by lexicographers to the harp, viz. “cruit.” Bunting particularly mentions the “cinnard cruit” (harp with a high head) and the “crom cruit” (the curved harp). In the Ossianic MSS. of the Dean of Lismore (1512) the word “crwt” occurs several times, and in Neill M’Alpine’sGaelic Dictionary(1832), which gives the dialect of Islay, closely related to that of Ulster, the word “cruit” is rendered “harp.” The confusion doubtless arose from the fact that from the 11th century cithara is glossedhearpanin Anglo-Saxon MSS., a word which, likecitharisarein medieval Latin, referred to plucking or twanging of strings in contradistinction to those instruments vibrated by means of the bow. In Irish of the 8th and 9th centuries (Zeuss) cithara is always glossed by “crot.” The modern Welsh “crwth” is not a harp but a “rotta” (seeCrowd). An old Welsh harp, not triple strung, exists, which bears a great resemblance to the Irish harp in neck, soundboard and soundholes. But this does not imply derivation of the harp of Wales from that of Ireland or the reverse. There is really no good historical evidence, and there may have been a common or distinct origin on which ethnology only can throw light.6The Welsh like the Irish harp was often an hereditary instrument to be preserved with great care and veneration, and used by the bards of the family, who were alike the poet-musicians and historians. A slave was not allowed to touch a harp, and it was exempted by the Welsh laws from seizure for debt. The old Welsh harp appears to have been at one time strung with horse-hair, and by the Eisteddfod laws the pupil spent his noviciate of three years in the practice of a harp with that stringing. The comparatively modern Welsh triple harp (fig. 4) is always strung with gut. It has a rising neck as before stated, and three rows of strings,—the outer rows tuned diatonic, the centre one chromatic for the sharps and flats. Jones gives it 98 strings and a compass of 5 octaves and one note, from violoncello C. As in all Celtic harps, the left is the treble hand, and in the triple harps there are 27 strings on that side, the right or bass hand having 37, and the middle or chromatic row 34.The first pattern of the modern harp is discovered in German and Anglo-Saxon illuminated MSS. as far back as the 9th century.7A diatonic instrument, it must have been common throughout Europe, as Orcagna, Fra Angelico, and other famous Italian painters depict it over and over again in their masterpieces. No accidental semitones were possible with this instrument, unless the strings were shortened by the player’s fingers. This lasted until the 17th century, when a Tirolese maker adapted hooks8(perhaps suggested by the fretted or bonded clavichord) that, screwed into the neck, could be turned downwards to fix the desired semitone at pleasure. At last, somewhere about 1720, Hochbrucker, a Bavarian, invented pedals that, acting through the pedestal of the instrument, governed by mechanism the stopping, and thus left the player’s hands free, an indisputable advantage; and it became possible at once to play in no lessthan eight major scales. By a sequence of improvements, in which two Frenchmen named Cousineau took an important part, the various defects inherent in Hochbrucker’s plan became ameliorated. The pedals were doubled, and, the tuning of the instrument being changed from the key of E♭ to C♭, it became possible to play in fifteen keys, thus exceeding the power of the keyboard instruments, over which the harp has another important advantage in the simplicity of the fingering, which is the same for every key.Fig. 5.Modern ErardHarp.It is to Sebastian Erard we owe the perfecting of the pedal harp (fig. 5), a triumph he gained in Paris by unremitting studies begun when he adopted a “fork” mechanism in 1786 and ended in 1810 when he had attained complete success with the double action pedal mechanism already described above. Erard’s merit was not confined to this improvement only; he modified the structure of the comb that conceals the mechanism, and constructed the sound-body of the instrument upon a modern principle more advantageous to the tone.Notwithstanding these improvements and the great beauty of tone the harp possesses, the domestic use of it in modern times has almost disappeared. The great cost of a good harp, and the trouble to many amateurs of tuning, may have led to the supplanting of the harp by the more convenient and useful pianoforte. With this comes naturally a diminution in the number of solo-players on the instrument. Were it not for the increasing use of the harp in the orchestra, the colour of its tone having attracted the masters of instrumentation, so that the great scores of Meyerbeer and Gounod, of Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner are not complete without it, we should perhaps know little more of the harp than of the dulcimer, in spite of the efforts of distinguished virtuosi whose devotion to their instrument maintains its technique on an equality with that of any other, even the most in public favour. The first record of the use of harps in the orchestra occurs in the account of theBallet comique de la royneperformed at the château de Moutiers on the occasion of the marriage of Mary of Lorraine with the duc de Joyeuse in 1581, when harps formed part of theconcert de musique.See in addition to the works already referred to, Engel’sMusical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum(1874); and the articles “Harp,” in Rees’sCyclopaedia, written by Dr Burney, in Stainer and Barrett’sDictionary of Musical Terms(1876), and in Grove’sDictionary of Music and Musicians. On the origins of the instrument seeProceedings of British Association(1904) (address of president of anthropological section).
(1) Thepedestalorpedal-boxforms the base of the harp and contains seven pedals both in single and double action harps, the difference being that in the single action the pedals are only capable of raising the strings one semitone by means of a drop into a notch, whereas with the double action the pedals, after a first drop, can by a further drop into a second and lower notch shorten the string a second semitone, whereby each string is made to serve in turn for flat, natural and sharp. The harp is normally in the key of C flat major, and each of the seven pedals acts upon one of the notes of this diatonic scale throughout the compass. The choice of this method of tuning was imposed by the construction of the harp with double action. The pedals remain in the notches until released by the foot, when the pedal returns to its normal position through the action of a spiral spring, which may be seen under each of the pedals by turning the harp up.
(2) Thevertical pillaris a kind of tunnel in which are placed the seven rods worked by the pedals, which set in motion the mechanism situated in the neck of the instrument. Although the pillar apparentlyrests on the pedestal, it is really supported by a brass shoulder firmly screwed to the beam which forms the lowest part of the body, a connexion which remains undisturbed when the pedal box and its cover are removed.
(3) Thebodyorsound-chestof the harp is in shape like the longitudinal section of a cone. It was formerly composed of staves joined together as in the lute and mandoline. Erard was the first to make it in two pieces of wood, generally sycamore, with the addition of a flat soundboard of Swiss pine. The body is strengthened on the inside, in order to resist the tension of the strings, by means of ribs; there are five soundholes in the back, which in the older models were furnished with swell shutters opened at will by the swell pedal, the fourth from the left worked by the left foot. As the increase of sound obtained by means of the swell was infinitesimal, the device has now been discarded. The harp is strung by knotting the end of the string and passing it through its hole in the centre of the soundboard, where it is kept in position by means of a grooved peg which grips the string.
(4) Theneckconsists of a curved piece of wood resting on the body at the treble end of the instrument and joining the pillar at the bass end. In the neck are set the tuning pins round which are wound the strings.
(5) Thecombis the name given to two brass plates or covers which fit over both sides of the neck, concealing part of the mechanism for shortening the strings and raising their pitch a semitone when actuated by the pedals. On the front plate of the comb, to the left of the player, is a row of brass bridges against which the strings rest below the tuning pins, and which determine the vibrating length of the string reckoned from the peg in the soundboard. Below the bridges are two rows of brass disks, known as forks, connected by steel levers; each disk is equipped with two studs for grasping the string and shortening it. The mechanism is ingenious. When a pedal is depressed to the first notch, the corresponding lower disk turns a little way on a mandrel keeping the studs clear of the string. The upper disk, set in motion by the steel levers connecting the disks, revolves simultaneously till the string is caught by the two studs which thus form a new bridge, shortening the vibrating length of the string by just the length necessary to raise the pitch a semitone. If the same pedal be depressed to the second notch, another movement causes the lower disk to revolve again till the string is a second time seized and shortened, the upper disk remaining stationary. The hidden mechanism meanwhile has gone through a series of movements; the pedal is really a lever set upon a spring, and when depressed it draws down the connecting rod in the pillar which sets in motion chains governing the mandrels of the disks.
The harp usually has forty-six strings, of gut in the middle and upper registers, and of covered steel wire in the bass; the C strings are red and the F strings blue. The compass thus has a range of 6½ octaves from. The double stave is used as for the pianoforte. The single action harp used to be tuned to the key of E♭ major.
The modern harp with double action is the only instrument with fixed tones, not determined by the ear or touch of the performer, which has separate notes for naturals, sharps and flats, giving it an enharmonic compass. On the harp the appreciable interval between D♯ and E♭ can be played. The harp in its normal condition is tuned to C♭ major; it rests with the performer to transpose it at will in a few seconds into any other key by means of the pedals. Each of the pedals influences one note of the scale throughout the compass, beginning at the left with D, C, and B worked by the left foot. Missing the fourth or forte pedal, and continuing towards the right we get the E, F, G and A pedals worked by the right foot. By lowering the D pedal into the first notch the D♭ becomes D♮, and into the second notch D♯, and so on for all the pedals. If, for example, a piece be written in the key of E major, the harp is transposed into that key by depressing the E, A, and B pedals to the first notch, and those for F, G, C and D to the second or sharp notch and so on through all the keys. Accidentals and modulations are readily played by means of the pedals, provided the transitions be not too rapid. The harp is the instrument upon which transposition presents the least difficulty, for the fingering is the same for all keys. The strings are twanged with the thumbs and the first three fingers.
The quality of tone does not vary much in the different registers, but it has the greatest brilliancy in keys with many flats, for the strings are then open and not shortened by the forks. Various effects can be obtained on the harp: (1) by harmonics, (2) by damping, (3) by guitar tones, (4) by the glissando. (1) Harmonics are produced by resting the ball of the hand on the middle of the string and setting it in vibration by the thumb or the first two fingers of the same hand, whereby a mysterious and beautiful tone is obtained. Two or three harmonics can be played together with the left hand, and by using both hands at once as many as four are possible. (2) Damping is effected by laying the palm against the string in the bass and the back of the finger in the treble. (3) Guitar or pizzicato notes are obtained by twanging the strings sharply at the lower end near the soundboard with the nails. (4) The glissando effect is produced, as on the pianoforte, by sliding the thumb or finger along the strings in quick succession; this does not necessarily give the diatonic scale, for by means of the pedals the harp can be tuned beforehand to chords. It is possible to play on the harp all kinds of diatonic and arpeggio passages, but no chromatic, except in very slow tempo, on account of the time required by the mechanism of the pedals; and chords of three or four notes in each hand, shakes, turns, successions of double notes can be easily acquired. The same note can also be repeated slowly or quickly, the next string being tuned to a duplicate note, and the two strings plucked alternately in order to give the string time to vibrate.
Pleyel’s chromatic harp, patented in 1894 and improved in 1903 by Gustave Lyon, manager of the firm of Pleyel, Wolff & Co., is an instrument practically without mechanism which has already won great favour in France and Belgium, notably in the orchestra. It has been constructed on the familiar lines of the pianoforte. Henry Pape, a piano manufacturer, had in 1845 conceived the idea of a chromatic harp of which the strings crossed in the centre as in the piano, and a report on the construction was published at the time; the instrument, however, was not considered successful, and was relegated to oblivion until Mr Lyon revised the matter and brought out a successful and practical instrument. The advantages claimed for this harp are the abandonment of the whole pedal mechanism, a metal framing which insures the strings keeping in tune as long as those of a piano, and an easily acquired technique. The chromatic harp consists of (1) a pedestal on castors, (2) a steel pillar without internal mechanism, (3) a wide neck containing two brass wrest-planks in which are fixed two rows of tuning pins, and (4) a soundchest in which is firmly riveted the steel plate to which the strings are fastened, and the soundboard pierced with eyelet holes through which the strings are drawn to the string plate. There is a string for every chromatic semitone of the scale of C major, the white strings representing the white keys of the piano keyboard, and the black strings corresponding to the black keys. The tuning pins for the black strings are set in the left side of the neck in alternate groups of twos and threes, and those for the white in the right side in alternate groups of threes and fours. The strings cross half-way between neck and soundboard, this being the point where they are plucked; the left hand finds the black notes above, and the right hand below the crossing. There is besides in the neck a set of twelve tuning buttons, each one of which on being pressed gives out one note of the chromatic scale tuned to the pitch of the diapason normal. It is obvious that the répertoire for this harp is very extensive, including many compositions written for the piano, which however cannot be played with any legato effects, these being still impossible on this chromatic harp.
History.—While the instrument is of great antiquity, it is yet from northern Europe that the modern harp and its name are derived. The Greeks and Romans preferred to it the lyre in its different varieties, and a Latin writer, Venantius Fortunatus,1describes it in the 7th century of our era as an instrument of the barbarians—“Romanusque lyra, plaudat tibi barbarus harpa.” This is believed to be the earliest mention of the name, which is clearly Teutonic,—O.H.Ger.harapha, A.-S.hearpe, Old Norseharpa. The modern Fr.harperetains the aspirate; in the Spanish and Italianarpait is dropped.
The earliest delineations of the harp in Egypt give no indication that it had not existed long before. There are, indeed, representations in Egyptian paintings of stringed instruments of a bow-form having affinities with both primitive harp andnefer(a kind of oval guitar) that support the idea of the invention of the harp from the tense string of the warrior’s or hunter’s bow. This primitive-looking instrument, callednanga, had a boat-shaped sound-chest with a parchment or skin soundboard, down the centre of which one end of the string was fastened to a strip of wood, whilst the other was wound round pegs in the upper part of the bow. The nanga was played horizontally, being borne upon the performer’s shoulder.2Between it and the grand vertical harps in the frescos of the time of Rameses III., more than 3000 years old, discovered by the traveller Bruce3(fig. 1), there are varieties that permit us to bind the whole,from the simplest bow-form to the almost triangular harp, into one family (see fig. 2).
The Egyptian harp had no front pillar, and as it was strung with catgut the tension and pitch must necessarily have been low. The harps above-mentioned depicted in the tomb at Thebes, assumed from the players to be more than 6 ft. high, have not many strings, the one having ten, the other thirteen. What the accordance of these strings was it would be hard to recover. We must be content with the knowledge that the old Egyptians possessed harps in principle like our own, the largest having pedestals upon which they bestowed a wealth of decoration, as if to show how much they prized them.
The ancient Assyrians had harps like those of Egypt in being without a front pillar, but differing from them in having the sound-body uppermost, in which we find the early use of soundholes; while the lower portion was a bar to which the strings were tied and by means of which the tuning was apparently effected.4What the Hebrew harp was, whether it followed the Egyptian or the Assyrian, we do not know. That King David played upon the harp as commonly depicted is rather a modern idea. Medieval artists frequently gave King David the psaltery, a horizontal stringed instrument from which has gradually developed the modern piano. The Hebrew “kinnor” may have been a kind of trigonon, a triangular stringed instrument between a small harp and a psaltery, sounded by a plectrum, or more probably, as advocated by Dr Stainer in his essay on the music of the Bible, a kind of lyre.
The earliest records that we possess of the Celtic race, whether Gaelic or Cymric, give the harp a prominent place and harpists peculiar veneration and distinction. The names for the harp are, however, quite different from the Teutonic. The Irish “clairseach,” the Highland Scottish “clarsach,” the Welsh, Cornish, Breton “telyn,” “telein,” “télen,” show no etymological kinship to the other European names. The first syllable in clairseach or clarsach is derived from the Gaelic “clar,” a board or table (soundboard), while the first syllable of telyn is distinctly Old Welsh, and has a tensile meaning; thus resonance supplies the one idea, tension the other.
The literature of these Celtic harps may be most directly found in Bunting’sAncient Music of Ireland(Dublin, 1840), Gunn’sHistorical Enquiry respecting the Performance on the Harp in the Highlands of Scotland(Edinburgh, 1807), and E. Jones’sMusical and Poetical Memoirs of the Welsh Bards(London, 1784). The treatises of Walker, Dalyell, and others may also be consulted; but in all these authorities due care must be taken of the bias of patriotism, and the delusive aim to reconstruct much that we must be content to receive as only vaguely indicated in records and old monuments. There is, however, one early Irish monument about which there can be no mistake, the harp upon a cross belonging to the ancient church of Ullard near Kilkenny, the date of which cannot be later than 830; the sculpture is rude, but the instrument is clearly shown by the drawing in Bunting’s work to have no front pillar. This remarkable structural likeness to the old harps of Egypt and Assyria may be accidental, but permits the plausible hypothesis of Eastern descent. The oldest specimen of the beautiful form by which the Irish harp is now recognized, with gracefully curved front pillar and sweep of neck (the latter known as the harmonic curve), is the famous harp in Trinity College, Dublin, the possession of which has been attributed to King Brian Boiroimhe. From this mythic ownership Dr Petrie (see essay in Bunting) has delivered it; but he can only deduce the age from the ornamentation and heraldry, which fix its date in the 14th century or a little later. There is a cast of it in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The next oldest is in the Highlands of Scotland, theClarsach Lumanach, or Lamont’s Clarschoe, belonging, with another of later date, to the old Perthshire family of Robertson of Lude. Both are described in detail by Gunn. This Lamont harp was taken by a lady of that family from Argyleshire about 1460, on her marriage into the family of Lude. It had about thirty strings tuned singly, but the scale was sometimes doubled in pairs of unisons like lutes and other contemporary instruments. The Dalway harp in Ireland (fig. 3) inscribed “Ego sum Regina Cithararum,” and dated 1621, appears to have had pairs of strings in the centre only. These were of brass wire, and played with the pointed finger-nails. The Italian contemporary “Arpa Doppia” was entirely upon the duplex principle, but with gut strings played by the fleshy ends of the fingers. When E. Bunting met at Belfast in 1792 as many Irish harpers as could be at that late date assembled, he found the compass of their harps to comprisethirty notes which were tuned diatonically in the key of G, under certain circumstances transposable to C and rarely to D, the scales being the major of these keys. The harp first appeared in the coat of arms of Ireland in the reign of Henry VIII.; and some years after in a map of 1567 preserved in a volume of state papers, we find it truly drawn according to the outlines of the national Irish instrument.5References to the Highlands of Scotland are of necessity included with Ireland; and in both we find another name erroneously applied by lexicographers to the harp, viz. “cruit.” Bunting particularly mentions the “cinnard cruit” (harp with a high head) and the “crom cruit” (the curved harp). In the Ossianic MSS. of the Dean of Lismore (1512) the word “crwt” occurs several times, and in Neill M’Alpine’sGaelic Dictionary(1832), which gives the dialect of Islay, closely related to that of Ulster, the word “cruit” is rendered “harp.” The confusion doubtless arose from the fact that from the 11th century cithara is glossedhearpanin Anglo-Saxon MSS., a word which, likecitharisarein medieval Latin, referred to plucking or twanging of strings in contradistinction to those instruments vibrated by means of the bow. In Irish of the 8th and 9th centuries (Zeuss) cithara is always glossed by “crot.” The modern Welsh “crwth” is not a harp but a “rotta” (seeCrowd). An old Welsh harp, not triple strung, exists, which bears a great resemblance to the Irish harp in neck, soundboard and soundholes. But this does not imply derivation of the harp of Wales from that of Ireland or the reverse. There is really no good historical evidence, and there may have been a common or distinct origin on which ethnology only can throw light.6The Welsh like the Irish harp was often an hereditary instrument to be preserved with great care and veneration, and used by the bards of the family, who were alike the poet-musicians and historians. A slave was not allowed to touch a harp, and it was exempted by the Welsh laws from seizure for debt. The old Welsh harp appears to have been at one time strung with horse-hair, and by the Eisteddfod laws the pupil spent his noviciate of three years in the practice of a harp with that stringing. The comparatively modern Welsh triple harp (fig. 4) is always strung with gut. It has a rising neck as before stated, and three rows of strings,—the outer rows tuned diatonic, the centre one chromatic for the sharps and flats. Jones gives it 98 strings and a compass of 5 octaves and one note, from violoncello C. As in all Celtic harps, the left is the treble hand, and in the triple harps there are 27 strings on that side, the right or bass hand having 37, and the middle or chromatic row 34.
The first pattern of the modern harp is discovered in German and Anglo-Saxon illuminated MSS. as far back as the 9th century.7A diatonic instrument, it must have been common throughout Europe, as Orcagna, Fra Angelico, and other famous Italian painters depict it over and over again in their masterpieces. No accidental semitones were possible with this instrument, unless the strings were shortened by the player’s fingers. This lasted until the 17th century, when a Tirolese maker adapted hooks8(perhaps suggested by the fretted or bonded clavichord) that, screwed into the neck, could be turned downwards to fix the desired semitone at pleasure. At last, somewhere about 1720, Hochbrucker, a Bavarian, invented pedals that, acting through the pedestal of the instrument, governed by mechanism the stopping, and thus left the player’s hands free, an indisputable advantage; and it became possible at once to play in no lessthan eight major scales. By a sequence of improvements, in which two Frenchmen named Cousineau took an important part, the various defects inherent in Hochbrucker’s plan became ameliorated. The pedals were doubled, and, the tuning of the instrument being changed from the key of E♭ to C♭, it became possible to play in fifteen keys, thus exceeding the power of the keyboard instruments, over which the harp has another important advantage in the simplicity of the fingering, which is the same for every key.
It is to Sebastian Erard we owe the perfecting of the pedal harp (fig. 5), a triumph he gained in Paris by unremitting studies begun when he adopted a “fork” mechanism in 1786 and ended in 1810 when he had attained complete success with the double action pedal mechanism already described above. Erard’s merit was not confined to this improvement only; he modified the structure of the comb that conceals the mechanism, and constructed the sound-body of the instrument upon a modern principle more advantageous to the tone.
Notwithstanding these improvements and the great beauty of tone the harp possesses, the domestic use of it in modern times has almost disappeared. The great cost of a good harp, and the trouble to many amateurs of tuning, may have led to the supplanting of the harp by the more convenient and useful pianoforte. With this comes naturally a diminution in the number of solo-players on the instrument. Were it not for the increasing use of the harp in the orchestra, the colour of its tone having attracted the masters of instrumentation, so that the great scores of Meyerbeer and Gounod, of Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner are not complete without it, we should perhaps know little more of the harp than of the dulcimer, in spite of the efforts of distinguished virtuosi whose devotion to their instrument maintains its technique on an equality with that of any other, even the most in public favour. The first record of the use of harps in the orchestra occurs in the account of theBallet comique de la royneperformed at the château de Moutiers on the occasion of the marriage of Mary of Lorraine with the duc de Joyeuse in 1581, when harps formed part of theconcert de musique.
See in addition to the works already referred to, Engel’sMusical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum(1874); and the articles “Harp,” in Rees’sCyclopaedia, written by Dr Burney, in Stainer and Barrett’sDictionary of Musical Terms(1876), and in Grove’sDictionary of Music and Musicians. On the origins of the instrument seeProceedings of British Association(1904) (address of president of anthropological section).