* HARP PLAYING A DELIGHTFUL ACCOMPLISHMENT Its Great Sweetness Recognized by Best Composers, adapted to Home Use. By H. H. Kenzeit The origin of the harp is lost in the mists of antiquity, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Welsh, Irieh and many another have had a share in ith evolution and history, and though in the course of this development it has varied in form and construction, its essentials have always been thé same while its use has been universal. It 'was somewhat defective in its ancient form, for you will notice that the Egyptian harp of the sketch is without the upright pillar, so we do not know how it was turned. It was furnished with 4, 7, 10 or 20 strings, in some cases even more. Though we may look to Egypt for the ori- gin of the harp, it probably existed in some primitive form before the Egyptians possessed it; however, this may be, their frescoes 4,000 years old or more, show the harp and refathers the harp was a favor- | trument, z 1e. very earliest harps were, for | jth most part, no doubt, played hori- fzont and 'borne upon the shoul- | he player; only later was the r shape assumed, and the! theight reased. Some of these old {time uj ht harps were 6 feet in height ar supplied with 10 to 13 strings, but as there was no pillar to the strain in front, the were of gut, the pitch and on f ite ir I ir take strings tension low The ha considered to be the finest among instruments of the .piz- gicots elass; all well-equipped orches- tras' being provided with it, It is equally esteemed for home service, but though having many = votaries, will never dethrone the piano. Many cojipostss of the first rank have recofnized the harp's great sweetness and versatility which they have turned to good account. Beo- loz, for' instance, has united the horn and harp in such a way in "Childe Harold," as to perfectly im- itate the tones of a bell. In the "Dance Maccabre" of St. Saens, the harps strike the hour of twelve and the skeletons appear, while an in- comparable melody has been woven by Wagner out of six harps massed manner of playing, which differs lit- tle from our own. The Hebrew Harp was a small tri- angular shaped instrument---a kind of Lyre, played with a plectrum; while the Irish harp, famed in song and story, was fashioned after the Egyptian pattern, having a compass together in his "Das Reingold." While bearing in itself the ele- ments of many varieties, in common with' most musical instruments, the modern harp is the invention of Se- bastian Evard, whe in 1810, devised is double acting arrangement which gives to each note its! chromatic in- tervals, above and below, shdrp and of 30 notes. Among our Anglo-Sax- or NA i ra rt AP NEN and arpeggios from forte ean thus be produced at will. pegs holding the lower end of strings; the upper ends of which are wound round tuning pins the wrist plank which forms .the up- per part narrow the deal, their duty consists in driv- ing the zound-bbard into modes and the base to the curved neck connects it to the pillar at the top. The strings which pass flat: making it an = almost perfect musical instrument. It bas a compass of 614 octaves, is tuned to the diatonic scale of C flat, while its music is written as for the piano--a double stave with treble and tass cleffs The term "double action" may be thus briefly explained: By a single pressure on each of the harp's seven pedals, 'all the degrees of the scale are raised a semij-tone, the harp then A second sharp; stands in the key of C. pressure then raises it to C there being a pedal to each degree of she scale should an "faccident" be required the pedal of such note is touched, raising or lowering every note- of the same tone, as the case may be, Most lovely effects in chord to piano The wood used in the harp is chiefly sycamore, but the sound-box is of deal, The dimensions of = this box and body increase downward. Along the centre of the sound-bex Is glued a strip of beech or other hardwood in which is inserted the the piercing neck. The sound- underneath by two the grain of of the is ribbed hare crossing board figures of vilsration, The slanting sound-box rises from whieh from the ht ert an ee " THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG, TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1919. - neck of the sound-bex are arranged in diatoric tuned in flats, those in C flat are colored red, those in F flat in blue, Sg as to be more easily recognized 'by the player. The performer holds the slanting Sound:box next te him, and as the strings are close together his hands can stretch a 10th upon the harp as easily as in the octaye on the piano. It is well to remember that the strings must never be plucked sharp- ly but with a sweeping motion, thus producing a stately effect. scale Using Our Leisure. With the tendency of thé day to shorten working hour#, the problem of how to make the best use of the leisure time becomes more involved. So often one hears it said, eight hours to work, eight hours to sleep and eight hours to play. How to utilize the time for work and sleep is pretty well decided for us. the play time is our own. If it is to be uséd rightly, then we must be taught from childhood itd' proper use. . There are few questions in the so- cial life of to-day that need more thought than this ome of how the people should spend their recreation hours. Whatever else finds place in a reasonable programme for the lejs- ure periods, surely music merits a very large place. There is no other human agency that will benefit peo- ple physically, mentally, morally and spiritually to as great an extent as music. It rests the body, muscles, nerves amd-atl. It rests the brain. It creates thoughts of the higher A Al AN i "Victor Amber 4 ola = Handledrand Sold by i V ictrolas" an Phonog , Jewel ¢ IN YOUR HOME A No. 9 Victrola at J01.00, just yy oy ceived at Coates $174.00 OF A VICTROLA y lhe two popu- lar musical in- || struments wi smoothness and | . tone qualities and large variety .. of records, high . class and popu- lar pieces. . ¢ oF "Edison Edison Amberola Phono- th graphs at $62.00 and "$102.00. ers ah Jat least in the Presbyterian congre- But things of life. It emriches the spirit. If we had far more music in our schools, far more music among the children in our homes, if people gen- erally gave themselves over more to music in the home and in concerts, the problem' of seeing to it that the people spend their leisure in the best possible way would be much less of a problem. 2 Humor In Church Music. In the days when the church mu- sic was in the hands of precentors, gations, it was the custom to give out one line of the ce at a time. One Scotch ee Rr hos the line from the seventy-first Psalm "To many I a wonder am." This caused a titter to go over the whole congregation. It partly unnerved the surprised gentleman; but he made another attempt and announce- ed the line a second time. Again there was general laughter. The minister, taking in the situation at a glance, Jeaned over the pulpit and' said to ths percentor: "You are a wonder, Thomas, you've gof your wig on wrong way about. Another stofy is told of two jud- ges, in the early days of this coun- try, who were on their way from one eircuit to another. En route they had to stop at a small town over Sunday: They arrived at church for the morn- ing service unexpectedly to the peo- ple. The minister hurriedly looked up something appropriate to sing. Scanning the index of the hymn book he noticed '*Speak, O ye Judges of the Earth." He announced this hymn, thinking to do honor to the distinguished guests, but the words were as follows: « ? Speak, O ye judges of the earth, |" If just your sentence be; Or must not innocence appeal To Heaven from your decree? \ Your wicked- hearts and judgments are Alike by malice swayed; Your gripping hands, by weighty bribes, To violence betrayed. The thoughts that flashed through {the judges' minds are not recorded. Make It Interesting | The study of music from the very beginning, should be made intereat- |ing and thorough. Even the child can be made to play with expression in his own #Atmosphere and by de- jBrees the study will become a source of real pleasure and inspiration to him. The really good teacher must 'have a positive technical plan to teach. It will .not do any good to eed the pupils on old, worn out doc- 'trines. What we need is teachers _ all over the country who know the , foundation principles of technic ac- jrording to approved methods and can teachjthem. Then there will be 'nd need of 'beginning over again' {because the foundation was badly laid, should such a student enter the classes of an artist teacher. Popularizing Good Music in Russia. It seems that even poor disorgan- (ized Russia had lined up with other great nations in an endeavor to give thé masses every opportunity to pro- gress musically, Maria Moravsky gives a glimpse into this movement lin an article in Pearson's Magazine in the course of which this writer says: f "A few years ago some of our en- thusiastic young mysicians started a campaign in Russia to introduce seri- ous music to the ordinary, every- day people. i "They organized small street bands with solists, who sang and played the music created by our best com- posers. They would have their im- provised concerts in thie courtyards {almost every Russian house has a big courtyard) and the audience con- sisted mostly of Servants, children, janitors, salesmen and so on. Instead of the ragtime and the popular sen- timental love songs they play Tsc- haikowsky, Raehmaninoff, even Moussorgsky and Scriabin. They played the foreign composers - too: Chopin, Orieg, and--don't be fright- ened---Wagner. Programmes were ivaried ' and the results--splendid. The audiences, the poorly educated, plain audiences, liked them better than the music from movies, which is as light in Russia as everywhere. ---- | Only Two Divisions. To the average person there are "just two kinds of music, the kind he likes and the kind he does not like. | There are individuals and organiza-! j tons working to stimulate interest on British music. Others are ad- 'yoc¢ating the use of more French or Russian or Halian or Spanish or Am- erican music. These efforts have their place.. The champions of the { music of the various nations have a j useful mission to. perform. i But in the long run the quality of the individual composition or the public's fancy for it will determine its use. No music deserves recog- nition simply because it is the work of a citizen of a certain nation. the admonition, all the publicity, all the coaxing in the world is not going to popularize music that has not | 'within itself the power to win popu- larity. > It 8 tamil} wants a record of "The " | Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah for their phonograph they care mot whether that oratorio - Is 'French or Italian or fn or Cze- 5 . It is the Hallelujah anf fi PAGE FIFTEEN Gerhard Heintzman ~ Pianos and Phonographs | Music. benefits every -member of the family. If you would brighten the at- mosphere of your home, if you would lighten your wife's burdens, 'if you would bring pleasure and relaxation to the entire household, put music in your homie. " This is Canada's music week. All over Canada thoughts are directed to music. Make this a musi- cal Eastertide in a true sense of the word. E3gee HT : i bi & E