The pocket-sized instruments known in English as jew’s harps (or in some periods of history trumps, and in French guimbardes), have no connection with Judaism – nor are they harps. A strip of bamboo or metal, in a frame of the same material, is twanged, and the oral cavity acts as an amplifying soundbox whose capacity can ...
The medieval harp was built on a roughly triangular frame, with the hollow soundbox held against the player’s body and the strings running from it to the top part of the triangle, positioned like the crossbar of a bicycle frame. The strings were made of various materials, including twisted sheep’s intestines, horsehair and metals such as brass ...
Between medieval and Renaissance times, the harp underwent some simple developments: it grew a little larger and the number of strings increased to 24. Other than that, it was made and played in the same way as it had been in the Middle Ages. An open triangle supported a sounding box on the side against the player’s body and ...
During the sixteenth century the harp was in danger of falling into disuse as chromatic keyboards raised composers’ expectations of what plucked strings could achieve. But in the third quarter of the century, instrument-builders began to experiment with the double harp, constructed with a second row of strings running next to the first. Arrangements of strings varied as makers ...
Most famous of all the early keyboard instruments, the harpsichord was first mentioned in 1397, and the earliest representation to have survived dates from 1425. The harpsichord rose to prominence in the sixteenth century and flourished for a while before its harmonic limitations caused its gradual displacement by the piano in the eighteenth century. The harpsichord consisted of a ...
(Märk An-twan’ Shar-pont-ya’) 1643–1704 French composer Charpentier studied in Italy during the 1660s. There he familiarized himself with the instrumental and vocal forms of Carissimi and, above all, that of the oratorio. When he returned to Paris he joined the musicians of the Duchess of Guise and in 1673 became associated with Molière’s Comédie Française. In 1687, Charpentier composed ...
The basic harpsichord mechanism of a sprung lever with a quill plectrum plucking the string a single time, remained largely unchanged since its origins. However, a small series of stops was developed, allowing the sound quality of the instrument to be varied between a brighter sound and a muted pizzicato. Because these changes were effected mechanically, by ...
By the early eighteenth century, a harp furnished with pedals had been developed in Bavaria. In this instrument, each of the foot-operated pedals directed a mechanism that could sharpen every string playing notes of the same name. Initially there were five such pedals, controlling C, D, F, G and A. By the end of the ...
The harp is clearly recognizable from its triangular shape, consisting of the resonator and neck. The strings in all harps run perpendicular to the resonator. In many cases a supporting arm, known as a forepillar, runs from the end of the neck to the resonator to help sustain the strings’ tension. Early Harps Although the earliest known use ...
In one form or another, the harpsichord ruled the domestic keyboard roost throughout Europe – and later in America – from the late-sixteenth to the early-nineteenth centuries. Apart from the organ, it was the grandest and most versatile of all keyboard instruments until the advent of the mature fortepiano in the mid- to late-eighteenth century. Rise and Fall of ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1915–73) Born in Arkansas, Rosetta Nubin was the daughter of a missionary. She had learned to play guitar by the age of six and accompanied her mother at church functions. The family moved to Chicago and Tharpe signed with Decca in 1938. She was essentially a gospel performer, but with Lucky Millinder’s Orchestra (1941–43) she ...
(Harmonica, guitar, vocals, 1924–70) Born James Moore in Lobdell, Louisiana, Harpo developed an upbeat style playing juke joints and parties before signing to Excello Records in 1955, where he was instrumental in defining the label’s ‘swamp-blues’ sound. He had a profound influence on 1960s rockers including Van Morrison, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones ...
(Guitar, bass, reeds, programming, vocals, b. 1951) Cleveland, Ohio-born Sharp is on the cutting edge, combining his experience as an improviser – he was a cornerstone of Manhattan’s 1980s downtown, avant-garde music scene – with deep tradition. Sharp’s earliest gigs were with blues bands. After 20 years of sophisticated experimentation with other styles ...
c. 1645–1704, French Marc-Antoine Charpentier, a Parisian, was on hand to step into the breach after Lully quarrelled with the French playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière (1622–73), whose works Lully had been setting to music. As a result, Charpentier wrote the music for Molière’s Le mariage forcé (‘The Forced Marriage’, 1672) and Le malade imaginaire (‘The Hypochondriac’, 1673). ...
1860–1956, French Born in 1860, Charpentier studied the violin at the Lille Conservatory and subsequently entered the Paris Conservatoire where he studied both violin and composition. Having begun composition studies with Hector Pessard, he later studied under Massenet, whose advice contributed to Charpentier’s victory in the Prix de Rome in 1887. Part of the prize involved a ...
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