MUSIC. 
37S 
who, during many years, was the chief bard, and beft per¬ 
former on the telyn, an ancient Welfh harp, has quitted 
that inftrument for the pedal-harp, on account of the fu- 
perior facility with which all kinds of mufic for keyed 
inflruments can be executed with as little difficulty as on 
a piano-forte ; and it is, w'e fuppofe, in allufion to the 
pedal-harp, that Mr. Jones fays, “ in expreffion and va¬ 
riety the harp has no rival, which every one will acknow¬ 
ledge who knows how the heart is foothed by its delicate 
and fofter founds, as well as animated by its powerful and 
brilliant tones.” The triple harp feems to imply that 
there have been in Wales three feveral kinds of harps: the 
Jingle harp, with only one firing to each note; the double 
harp, with two ; and the triple harp, with three firings. 
In the ninth year of queen Elizabeth, an eifteddfod, or 
feffion of the bards and minflrels, was appointed at Caer- 
■wys, in North Wales. This was reviving an ancient cuf- 
tom in the principality; as the Welfh hiflorians andan- 
nalifts inform us, that Gruffidd ap Conan, prince of Wales, 
eftablifhed a congrefs or meeting of mailers of mufic, about 
the year noo, who underwent a public examination for 
degrees in their art, and for prizes, the chief of which was 
a filverharp with nine firings, worn by the viflor as a badge 
of honour. One of thefe prize-harps is flill preferved in 
the curious collection of Cambro-Britifh antiquities of 
the Moflyn family ; and another was in the pofleffion of 
the late Dr. Burney. 
Mifs Hutton, (Third Tour in North Wales,) writing in 
the year 1799, fays, “ The profeffion of bard is- not ex- 
tinft in N. Wales; though I believefomeotheroccupation 
is generally annexed to it, to procure a livelihood. The 
Welfh flill have bards, who compofe extempore verfes, and 
ling them to the harp ; and, as one of the mofl celebrated 
of ancient times was denominated Rhys Cock yr Eiryri, 
Rhys the Red of Snowdon, fb one of the molt noted of 
the modern is called Dafydd Du yr Amlwch, David the 
Black of Amlwch ; from their refpedlive complexions, and 
places of refidence. The bards form themfelves into dif¬ 
ferent focieties, and each elefts a prefident; who, at their 
meetings, propofes a fubjeft Every one prefent makes 
extempore verfes upon it; and a prize is awarded to him 
whofe compofition is judged to be the beft. The Welfh 
fay, that fome of thefe pieces have great merit; but that 
they lofe much on being tranflated into Englifh.” Of 
the aptitude of the Welfh for vocal mufic, fee p. 298. 
On Plate XVII. fig. 1. reprefents an ancient Welfh 
fingle harp; fig. 2. an ancient triple harp; and fig. 3. a 
modern triple harp. Fig. 4. is a bell-harp, fo called from 
its being fwung about, by thofe who play upon it, like a 
bell. It is about 21 inches long ; its firings are of brafs 
or fleel wire, fixed at one end, and flretched acrofs the 
found-board by fcrews fixed at the other end. It com¬ 
prehends fouroClaves; and the firings are flruck with the 
thumbs, the right hand playing the treble, and the left 
the bafe; and, in order to draw the founds the clearer, 
the thumbs are armed with a little wire pin. This in- 
Ilrument is in the pofleffion of Mr. Edward Jones, whofe 
work we have quoted. 
The harp was a favourite inftrument with our Saxon 
anceltors. All our hiflorians relate the romantic flory of 
Alfred reconnoitring the Daniih camp in the difguifeof a 
harper. Anlaff, and other Danifli chiefs, played Athel- 
flan the fame trick in the Saxon camp. The harp of David, 
as well as that of Alfred, mull have been of a different 
fize and conflrudlion from the triple Welfh harp to be 
portable ; particularly that of David, when he danced 
before the ark. Eufebius, indeed, calls it a lyre, and in¬ 
forms us that he carried it with him wherever he went, 
to confole him in bis affliction, and to fing to it the praifes 
of God. 
Millico, when in this country in 1774, accompanied 
himfelf in finging his elegant canzonets on a fmall harp, 
which he flung over his fhoulder like a guitar, with which, 
though of a very different form, and open like a lyre, was 
equally portable. 
The modern Irifli harp is a fingle inftrument, ftrung 
with metal firings of brafs wire, nine in number, and cal¬ 
culated for mere melody, or a treble part. Cardan’s 
tunes had no bafs to them originally, as we have been in¬ 
formed by a native of Ireland, and a good judge of mufic, 
who had often feen and heard old Corolan perform. It 
was only after his deceafe, in 1738, that his tunes were 
collefted and fet for the harpfichord, violin, and German 
flute, with a bafs, Dublin, folio, by his fon, who publifhed 
them in London by fubfcription, in 1747. 
Galilei, the father of the great mathematician Galileo, 
fays that the Italians, who were in pofleffion of the harp 
before tire time of Dante, had it from Ireland. 
According to Mr. Walker, in his “ Hiftorical Account 
of the Irifh Bards,” the Irifh have four different fpecies 
of harp : 1. The clar-J'ch, or clar /each, commonly deno¬ 
minated the Irifli harp. 2. The heirnine, a fpecies of dul¬ 
cimer. 3. The cionucruit, of ten firings, a kind of guitar. 
4. The greamthine emit, the erwth of the Welfh. Whe¬ 
ther the Welfh had their mufic from Ireland, according 
to Giraldus Cambrenfis, or the Irifh had theirs from the 
Cambro-Britons, we fliall not attempt to determine; but 
fliall leave St. David and St. Patrick, and their champions 
Jones and Walker, patriotically to difpute the point. 
We can obtain no fatisfaClory account of the time when, 
and on what occaiion, the harp was aflumed in the arms 
of Ireland. The learned Mr. O’Halleran fays, it was by 
order of Henry II. and Mr. Ledwich by that of Henry VIII. 
(Walker’s Irifli Bards;) but neither of thefe gentlemen 
affigns a reafon for it, or gives any authority for his affer- 
tions. Fig. 5. on the preceding Plate reprefents the an¬ 
cient harp of Brian Boromh, preferved in the univerfity 
of Dublin. Its height is 32 inches. 
Before the invention of pedals, the whole range of 
founds in the double and treble harps on the continent 
had been reduced to the diatonic fcale, with a fingle firing 
to each note’, the femitones being produced by brafs rings 
with the left hand, at the top of the inftrument, which 
were both difficult to get at and difagreeable to hear, 
from the noife which, by a fudden motion of the hand, 
they occafioned. 
It was fome time after this expedient was put in pradlice, 
before the fecret of producing the half-notes by pedals 
was difeovered. This method, which has rendered it a 
female inftrument, was invented at Bruflels about the 
year 1757, by M. Simon, who flill refided in that city in 
1772. It is an ingenious and ufeful contrivance, in 
more refpe&s than one; for, by reducing the number of 
firings, the tone of thofe that remain is improved : as it is 
W’ell known that, the lefs an inftrument is loaded, the more 
freely it vibrates. It was in the year 1772 that Dr. Burney 
firft heard the pedal-harp at Paris and Bruflels, where the 
inftrument was conftrudted of an elegant form, and beau¬ 
tifully ornamented. Its tone was fweet, diftindl, and 
capable of the moft minute fhades of piano, and the moll 
touching expreffions. Among all the mufical inflruments 
in ufe, there is no one more becoming to a female figure. 
We fhall not attempt to inftruft our readers how to 
apply thefe pedals to the harp, or to explain their opera¬ 
tion : the mechanifm is too complicated to be taught by 
verbal inflrudlion. We have only to obferve, that the 
harp, like the organ and piano, has by degrees had its com- 
pafs extended, fo that at prefent its fcale is the fame as 
that of the grand piano with additional keys. The femi- 
tones are produced by means of the pedals: and it is com¬ 
monly tuned in Eb with three flats ; but Erard’s new 
patent harps'are tuned in Db with feven flats, having 
two motions of the pedal to each note, making it firft 
natural and then fharp. 
The JEolian harp is rather a toy than a mufical inftru¬ 
ment; yet it produces an agreeable harmony, merely by 
the aftion of the wind ; and hence the name. It is thus 
conilruifted. Let a box be made of deal, as thin as pofli 
ble, of a length anfwering to the width of the window in 
which it is to be placed; five or fix inches deep and feven 
or 
