MUSI C. 
3843 s and the values of them, according to the ufual 
mode of temperament, as follows : C 3600 ; C* 3445 ; 
D 3220 ; E^ 3009; E 28S0 ; F 2691 ; F* 2576 ; G 2407 ; 
G* 2304 5 A 2153 ; Bb 2012 ; B 1926. This is accord¬ 
ing to what is termed the equal or mean-tone tempera¬ 
ment, Dr. Crotch approves that method of tuning, and 
it is mod commonly in life. Other modes, however, 
have been l'uggefted, as calculated to bring the inflru- 
ment nearer to the defired mathematical perfection ; and 
thelateearl Stanhope (the extent of whofe contributions to 
all the mechanical arts is generally known) has explained 
a new mode of tuning: the principal,feature of which con- 
filts in its taking two intervals in the fcale, without re¬ 
ference, in the ufual manner, to the foundation or key¬ 
note. For inftance, after having tuned the other notes 
on the inftrument by perfeft intervals, his lordfhip re¬ 
commends that Ah or G^ fhould be tuned exaftly half¬ 
way between Eand C, forming, with tliofe notes, what he 
terms two bi-equal thirds ; and that the interval be¬ 
tween G and its E double oClave fhould be divided into 
three equal portions, called tri-equal quints : thofe por¬ 
tions to be occupied by D and A. The eft’eft of this ar¬ 
rangement is to make the two bi-equal thirds fomething 
fharper than perfeft thirds, fo that one perfect third and 
two bi-equal thirds (hall form a perfeCt oCtave, and the 
tri-equal fifths rather flatter than perfect fifths. Ourmu- 
fical readers know that, if an oCtave be made by tuning 
the thirds fucceffively, the upper note will be too fiat; and 
that, if feven oftaves be made by tuning the fifths in fuc- 
ceffion perfectly, the highefl note will be too (harp. The 
difference in the latter cafe is technically called the great 
wolf ] and in the former a little wolf. We underhand, how¬ 
ever, from an ingenious artift, that, on an experiment of 
the Stanhope mode of tuning, it was not found fo agree¬ 
able as the ordinary mode ; from which we may infer, that 
it is not eligible to take the relative values of the notes 
arbitrarily, even in the fmalleft degree. It alfo feems to 
follow, that it is unfafe, on this fubjeft, to truft to any 
other guide than the ear. 
After all that has been faid on tuning, it does not ap¬ 
pear to us that any fatisfaftory refult has been produced, 
except that the defefts exifting on keyed inftruments can 
never be completely removed ; and, although for f’ome 
particular occafions the new improvements may be found 
ufeful, or it may even be defirable that fpecial modes of 
tuning fhould be adopted, yet the inftruments ordinarily 
in ufe, and the common mode of tuning, will be amply 
fufficient and moft advifable for general purpofes. Thofe, 
however, who wifh to tune according to lord Stanhope’s 
method, will find ample directions in his lordfhip’s pam¬ 
phlet, and in the New Monthly Magazine, vol. iii. p. 453. 
and vol. iv. p. 56. 
The Harp. —The harp, generally fpeaking, is an inftru¬ 
ment of a triangular figure, ft rung with catgut, and placed 
upright between the legs of the perfon who plays it. 
Papias, and Du Cange after him, will have the harp 
to have taken its name from the Arpi, a people of Italy, 
who were fuppofed the fir ft that invented it; and from 
whom they fay it was borrowed by other nations. Me¬ 
nage, &c. derive the word from the Latin liarpa, and 
that from the German harp, or harp. Others bring it 
from the Latin carpo , becaufe touched or thrummed with 
the fingers. Dr. Hickes derives it from liarpa, of liearpa, 
which fignify the fame thing 5 the fir ft in the language of 
the Cimbri, the fecond in that of the Anglo-Saxons. 
The Englifh prieft who wrote the life of St. Dunftan, and 
who lived with him in the tenth century, fays, cap. ii. 
u Sumpfit fecum ex more citharam fuam, quam paterna 
lingua hearpam vocamus which intimates the word to 
be Anglo-Saxon. 
This inftrument is ftruck with the finger and thumb of 
both hands. Its mufic is much like that of the fpinet, all 
its firings going from femitone to femitone; whence fbme 
call it an inverted fpinet. 
In Strutt’s “ Saxon Antiquities,” vol. i. we have re- 
Vol. XVI. No. in9. 
377 
prefentations of antique harps, one wifli nine firings, and 
another with eleven, copied from illuminated MSS. in the 
Britifh Mufeum ; and a lyre of four firings of the middle 
ages, " beaten with a fmall inftrument for that purpole 
meaning a pleflrum. The early medical inftruments of all 
countries, like thofe of Greece and Rome, are of fmall 
compafs : 
Tibia non, et nunc, orichalco jnnCla tubteque 
ALmula ; fed tenuis, fimplexque foramine vacuo 
Afpirare. 
Fortunatus, (lib. vii. carm 8.) calls the harp an sn- 
flrument of the barbarians : 
Romanufque lyra, plaudat tibi harharus harpa, 
Grascus Achilliacha, crotta Britanna canat. 
The crotta is the erwth Latinized, in all probability an 
original Britifh or Welfh inftrument, as it is never men¬ 
tioned in any claflical author. 
In days of chivalry, the harp paffed for the moft noble 
and majellic of inftruments ; and on this account the ro¬ 
mancers place it in the hands of their greateft heroes, as 
the ancient Greek bards did the lyre. This inftrument 
was in fuch general favour, that an old poet has made it 
the fubjeCi of a poem called “ Le Diet de la Harpe ; The 
Ditty, or Poem, upon the Harp and praifes it as an 
inftrument too good to be profaned in taverns or places of 
debauchery, faying, that it fhould be ufed by knights, 
el'quires, clerks, perfons of rank, and ladies with plump 
and beautiful hands; and that its courteous and gentle 
founds fhould be heard only by the elegant and good. 
The Welfli harp feems of very high antiquity in our 
ifland under the Druidical government. Before the in- 
vafion of Julius Csefar, the Britons had mufic ; and the 
bards, like the levites among the Hebrews, were the fa* 
cred muficians ; and we have the authority of venerable 
Bede, for focial and doineftic finging to the harp in the 
Saxon language, upon this illand, at the beginning of the 
eighth century: though he himfelf wrote in Latin, the 
only language of the church and the learned then, and 
for many ages afterwards. 
The “ Mufical Relics of the Welfli Bards, by Mr. Ed¬ 
ward Jones, Welfli Bard to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales,” 
published in 1784, is a curious and entertaining work; 
and, being written by a native of Wales, and an eminent 
performer on the harp, we fhall extraft: from it Mr. Jones’s 
account of the mufical inftruments of his country. “ The 
mufical inftruments, anciently ufed in Wales, are as dif¬ 
ferent from thofe of other nations as their mufic and poe¬ 
try. Thefe inftruments are five in number: the telyn, or 
harp ; the crivth ; the pibgorn , or pipe 5 the tabwrdd, or 
tabret; and the corn buelin , cornet, or bugle-horn. We 
find that the telyn, or Welfli harp, was always peculiar to 
our bards; though, probably, there was no difference be¬ 
twixt the harp, when in its ancient primitive form, and 
the Grecian lyre; for Diodorus Siculus records, that the 
Celtic bards played on inftruments like lyres : opyoivuv raig 
oualuiv. In the time of the Welfli princes, an here¬ 
ditary harp was preferved with great care and veneration, 
in the houfehold of every prince and lord, to be bellowed 
fucceffively on the bards of the family ; and thefe were as 
indifpenfible among the poffeffions of a gentleman as a 
coat of arms. 
“ The triple, or modern Welfh harp, has three rows of 
firings ; the two outfide rows are unifon ; the middle row 
the flats and fliarps. Its compafs extends to five oftaves. 
Some of its prefent appendages were probably the addi¬ 
tion of the latter centuries. This celebrated inftrument 
has been recently improved by the invention of pedals, 
which change it, without frefti tuning, into all the different 
keys, and have rendered it much lefs complicated and in¬ 
convenient by reducing it to a Angle row of firings.” 
This may, probably, not only improve the inftruments 
in the principality, but the ityle of mufic and talle of the 
country, which feem to have been totally confined to na¬ 
tional tunes and vulgar variations. Mr. Jones himfelf, 
5 D who, 
