HARPAGUS 



3850 



when a portion of the bow is rein 

 forced by a hollow resonator the 

 tone is vastly improved. This 

 kind appears to have been carried 

 on the shoulder. 



It is a short step from this to an 

 instrument of the old Egyptian 

 type. 



Bow-shaped and two-sided harps 

 were limited in power by the 

 ability of their material to stand 

 the strain of the strings. It was 

 therefore an important advance 

 when a third side was added, as in 

 the next primitive form. 



No reasonable limit was now set 

 to the number or the tension of the 

 strings, allowing much greater 

 variety and power, and it only re- 

 quired the accumulated experience 

 of a few centuries of makers and 

 players to raise this type to the 

 finished modern form. 



This kind of harp is essentially 

 a diatonic instrument, set in one 

 key, and possessing only seven 

 strings in each octave, but, in the 

 eighteenth century, mechanism was 

 added to shorten some of the 

 strings at will, and thus allow 

 changes of key. The final im- 

 provement, after many partial 

 attempts, was made about 1810 by 

 Sebastian Erard, who built a 

 double-action harp of six and a 

 half octaves in the key of C flat, 

 with seven pedals to be depressed 

 halfway or entirely, raising each 

 string respectively a semitone or a 

 tone. Rods from the pedals pass 

 up inside the sound box or 

 resonator, the back of the harp, 

 and actuate little cranks which act 

 on the strings as described. 



At the close of the 19th century 

 Messrs. Pleyel brought out a new 

 form of chromatic harp, requiring 

 no pedals. It has a string for each 

 semitone in two sets representing 

 respectively the black and the 

 white keys of the pianoforte. These 

 sets cross each other slightly 

 instead of being in the same 

 plane, so that the player commands 

 either the diatonic or the chromatic 

 notes by plucking the strings at 

 different levels, while a rapid 

 chromatic scale is obtainable by 

 running a finger across the centre 

 where the sets pass each other. 

 Harp music is written on two 

 staves, like pianoforte music, and 

 at actual pitch. 



Harpaus. Median general. 

 Ordered by Astyages, king of the 

 Medes, to put to death the infant 

 Cyrus, he handed him over to a 

 shepherd, who spared his life. 

 When Astyages discovered this, he 

 killed Harpagus's son and served 

 him up before his father at a meal 

 When Cyrus grew up, Harpagus 

 encouraged him to reVolt against 

 Astyages, who was defeated and 



Harp. 



1 and 2. Bow-shaped instruments used in Ancient Egypt. 3. Modem 

 form of orchestra harp. 4. Phrygian trigon 



dethroned. Harpagus became one 

 of Cyrus's trusted generals, and 

 reduced the Greek cities of Asia 

 Minor to subjection. See Cyrus the 

 Elder. 



Harpalus. Treasurer of Alex- 

 ander the Great. Having betrayed 

 his trust, he absconded from 

 Babylon to Athens with a large 

 sum of money, with which he 

 attempted to bribe public men to 

 support him against Alexander 

 and Antipater, his regent in 

 Europe. Demosthenes was one of 

 those accused of having accepted 

 bribes. Harpalus failed, however, 

 in his object, and to avoid being 

 handed over to Antipater he fle.d 

 to Crete, where he was murdered. 



Harpalyce. In Greek mytho 

 logy, daughter of Harpalycus, a 

 Thracian king. Famous for her 

 swiftness of foot and skill in manly 

 exercises, after her father's death 

 she lived in the forests, supporting 

 herself by robbery and plunder. 

 She was at last caught by some 

 shepherds in a net and put to 

 death Pron. Harpali-see. 



Harpenden. Urban dist. and 

 village of Hertfordshire, England. 

 It is 25 m. N.W. of London on the 

 Mid. and G.N. Rlys. At Rotham- 

 sted, near by, in 1843, Sir J. 

 Bennet Lawes (q.v.) started an 

 agricultural experiment station, and 

 his name is commemorated in the 

 Lawes Testimonia I La boratory . At 

 Harpenden also are the S. George's 

 co-educational school, and Dr. 

 Stephenson's Home for Waifs and 

 Strays. The 12th century church 

 was, with the exception of the 

 tower, rebuilt in 1802, and contains 



some interesting glass and brasses' 

 A Celtic cross on Church Green 

 was unveiled, Oct., 1920, in memory 

 of the 164 Harpenden men who fell 

 in the Great War. A race meeting 

 is held annually. Pop. 6,172. 



Harper, Sin GEORGE MONTAGUE 

 (1865-1922). British soldier. Born 

 Jan. 11, 1865, he entered the Royal 

 Engineers in 1884 He served in 

 the'S. African War, 1899-1900, was 

 employed in mobilisation duties at 

 army head- 

 quarters, 

 1902-3, and 

 during the 

 next three 

 years was 

 D. A. Q, M. G. 

 (M o b i 1 i s a- 

 t i o n), and 

 D.A.A.G. Staff 

 College. From 

 1911-14 he 

 was on the 



general staff at the War Office. In 

 the early months of the Great War 

 he was on the general staff, be- 

 coming a brigade commander in 

 1915. Later he commanded the 

 51st division, being promoted 

 major-general in 1916. He com- 

 manded the 4th corps in 1918, and 

 was appointed G.O.C. Southern 

 Command in March, 1919. Knight- 

 ed in 1918, Harper was killed in a 

 motor accident, Dec. 15, 1922. 



Harper and Brothers. Ameri- 

 can firm of publishers with a 

 branch in London. In 1812 James 

 Harper (1795-1869), son of Joseph 

 Harper, a farmer of Newton, Long 

 Island, with his brother John 

 (1797-1875), started a printing 





Sir (ieorge Harper, 

 British soldier 



