HARP, a musical stringed instrument, much esteemed by the ancients. in Egypt, the figure of the harp is found delineated from the earliest ages in many different forms. some of them very simple, and others with great taste and ornament; some played on while standing, others while kneeling. The Celtic bards held the harp in the greatest honor. In the Highlands of Scotland the instrument has disapppeared, but it is still in use in Wales, and to some extent it lingers in Ireland, where, from its former preva lence, it is adopted as a national symbol. The old Franks and Germans punished those severely who injured a harpist in the hand. The harp was used as an accompaniment to the psalms sung by the early congregations of Christians. There are three kinds of harps now known—the ordinary Italian harp, which is strung with two rows of N% ire strings, separated by a doublp sounding-board; this kind is now little used, being very imperfect. The double harp, or, as it is also called, David's harp, is a more usef instrument, and in the form of a triangle, with a sounding-board and gut-strings; it is always tuned in the principal key of the music, while the strings are altered to snit any modulations out of the key, by pressure of the thumb, or turning the tuning-pins pf certain notes. These defects led gradually to the invention of the pedal harp, which hes seven
pedals, by which each note of the diatonic scale, in all the different octaves, can be made a semitone higher. The compass of the pedal harp is from contra F to D of the sixth octave above. In order to have then fiat, it must be tuned in the key of E flat. The music for the harp is written in the bass and treble clef, the same as pianoforte music. A celebrated harpist, liochbrucker, in DonattwOrth, invented the pedals in 1720; others say they were invented by J. Paul Vetter, in Nuremberg, in 1730, who at least added the piano and forte pedal. After numerous attempts at furtherimprove ments, the harp at length reached a degree of perfection by the invention of the double action pedal harp by Erard in Paris, which scarcely leaves anything. more to be desired. By means of Erard's invention, each string can be sharpened twice, each time a semi tone; so that the C string may be C flat, its full length, C natural by the first movement of the pedal, and C sharp by the next movement. The double-action harp is tuned with all the pedals half-down, and in the key of C natural.