The origins of the triangular frame harp are unclear. Triangular objects on the laps of seated figures appear in artwork of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, as well as other parts of north-west Europe. This page outlines some of the scholarly controversies and disagreements on this subject.
The connection of Scotland its love of stringed instruments is both ancient and recorded. An Iron Age lyre dating to circa 300 BC was discovered on the Isle of Skye making it Europes earliest surviving stringed instrument. [1] [2] The earliest descriptions of a European triangular framed harp i.e. harps with a fore pillar are found on carved 8th century Pictish stones. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Pictish harps were strung from horsehair. The instruments apparently spread south to the Anglo Saxons who commonly used gut strings and then west to the Gaels of the Highlands and to Ireland. [9] [10] [11] [12] Exactly thirteen depictions of any triangular chordophone instrument from pre-11th-century Europe exist and twelve of them come from Scotland. [13] Moreover, the earliest Irish word for a harp is in fact 'cruit', a word which strongly suggests a Pictish provenance for the instrument. [14] Only two quadrangular instruments occur within the Irish context on the west coast of Scotland and both carvings instruments date two hundred years after the Pictish carvings. [12] The first true representations of the Irish triangular harp do not appear till the late eleventh century in reliquary and the twelfth century on stone and the earliest harps used in Ireland were quadrangular lyres as ecclesiastical instruments, [7] [12] [15] One study suggests Pictish stone carvings may be copied from the Utrecht Psalter, the only other source outside Pictish Scotland to display a Triangular Chordophone instrument. [16] The Utrecht Psalter was penned between 816–835 AD. [17] While Pictish Triangular Chordophone carvings found on the Nigg Stone dates from 790–799 AD. [18] and pre-dates the document by up to thirty-five to forty years. Other Pictish sculptures predate the Utrecht Psalter, namely the harper on the Dupplin Cross c. 800 AD.
The earliest drawings of triangular-frame harps appear in the Utrecht Psalter, written and illustrated in the early 9th century from a scriptorium in Rheims. [19] Ten of the illustrations show figures holding harp-like instruments, and in six of them the forepillar is clearly shown. The Utrecht Psalter was penned between 816–835 AD. [17] and found its way to the scriptorium at Christ Church in Canterbury, England 970AD. where several copies were produced. [19] Although portraits of the biblical King David playing a stringed instrument were already a feature of European religious manuscript art, manuscripts before this time show David with a medieval lyre rather than a harp. [19]
The stone carvings attested to Ireland are all found within a Christian context and the majority of carvings depict lyres or quadrangular ecclesiastical instruments that date from the 8th to the 12th century. [9] [12] [20] However lyres are physically different instruments from triangular harps and it is unlikely the characteristic medieval harp developed from them. [21] Early Irish monastic settlements prized the use of lyres within an ecclesiastical setting [22] and the instruments depicted, come in a variety of shapes and sizes and tend to be lyres rather than characteristic triangular harps. [9] [23] Irish hymn texts of the period refer to the performance of hymns and psalms as being accompanied by a lyre and [20] such quadrangular instruments were used in religious ceremonies due to their small size from the introduction of Christianity to Ireland. [24] Gerald of Wales cites the "Cythera" Kithara of St Kevin playing by Irish abbots and bishops for chants and funeral lamentations. Such instruments were prized in Ireland well into the 12th century. [20] [25]
From an Irish perspective, three distinct forms of lyre are evident; round top lyres as seen in the crosses at Ullard shows a quadrangular instrument with no forepillar, [24] [26] and round topped lyres were common throughout northern Europe between the (5th–10th century) as can be seen in surviving examples namely the Sutton Hoo treasure hoard. [9] Curved arm lyres are depicted on the cross of scriptures at Clonmacnoise, the West Cross at Kells, and the Cross at Castle town County Offaly. Oblique lyres are depicted on the South Cross at Kells, the Crosses of Muirdach, and Monasterbonice. [9] [27] [28] [29] The carving at Monasterbonice county Louth does show a type of chloroform triangular instrument, however the stone is weathered and unclear if the figure is playing a true triangular harp, [15] and others think it strongly resembles the Ullard lyre. [24] Another study argue that many such crosses from the pre-Norman period survive in Ireland, however what is striking is that there are no triangular framed harps, [28] Some early texts make the reference coir-cethar-chuir ‘four angled music' which refers to a four sided instrument. [28] Other contemporary Irish sources of the period, namely the Cotton manuscript still depict a plucked lyre correspond to the shrine of St Maelruain Gospel, the Durrow Cross lyre and the three stringed lyre carving of judgement of Solomon at Ardmore Cathedral. [9]
The first true representations of the Irish triangular harp does not appear till the late 11th century in reliquary on the St. Moedoc shrine, [9] [12] [15] while the Gospel of St Maelruain from the same period still traditionally depicts a lyre with three strings. [9] Other articles discuss the triangular harp was first appeared in Ireland at the start of the Anglo-Norman invasion. [9] [12] [20] [24] [30] The influx of English harpers to Ireland is also recorded in the Red Book of Ormond, [9] and the Dublin Merchant roll (c1190-1265) shows a contingent of English Anglo-Norman harpers within an Irish context, playing in the Anglo-Norman tradition. [9] [31] Although, it is clear these musicians were playing a triangular English harp as seen by a sketch in the margin of the Harper Thomas Le Harpur (c1200), it is unclear if such an influx lead to a possible cross pollination between the invading Anglo-Norman and Irish harpers. [32] [33]
The knowledge and designs of harps and lyres probably arrived in ancient Europe via Grecian regions from the ancient Middle-East (see, for example, a five-thousand-year-old Sumerian lyre on display in the Mesopotamian section of the British Museum). This may have been happened as early as in the peak times of the Celtic civilization, as suggested by the lyre fragment found at the High Pasture Cave site, dated to approximately 300 BC. It is not unreasonable to draw a connection between this finding and the extended contacts that Celtic peoples, at their greatest expansion in the 4th century BC, had with southeastern Europe, where lyres and similar instruments were very diffuse (recall that Orpheus, the archetypal lyre-player in Greek mythology, was a native of Thrace, a region between Greece and Anatolia); and, even more precisely, to the migration of Celtic tribes (Galatians) to Anatolia of 278 BC.
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, including standing or sitting and in orchestras or concerts. Its most common form is triangular in shape and made of wood. Some have multiple rows of strings and pedal attachments.
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from early medieval texts and Pictish stones. Their Latin name, Picti, appears in written records from the 3rd to the 10th century. Early medieval sources report the existence of a distinct Pictish language, which today is believed to have been an Insular Celtic language, closely related to the Brittonic spoken by the Britons who lived to the south.
A high cross or standing cross is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval tradition in Ireland and Britain of raising large sculpted stone crosses, usually outdoors. These probably developed from earlier traditions using wood, perhaps with metalwork attachments, and earlier pagan Celtic memorial stones; the Pictish stones of Scotland may also have influenced the form. The earliest surviving examples seem to come from the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, which had been converted to Christianity by Irish missionaries; it remains unclear whether the form first developed in Ireland or Britain.
Scotland is internationally known for its traditional music, which remained vibrant throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music. In spite of emigration and a well-developed connection to music imported from the rest of Europe and the United States, the music of Scotland has kept many of its traditional aspects; indeed, it has itself influenced many forms of music.
Celtic art is associated with the peoples known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period, as well as the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and stylistic similarities with speakers of Celtic languages.
The citole was a string musical instrument, closely associated with the medieval fiddles and commonly used from 1200–1350. It was known by other names in various languages: cedra, cetera, cetola, cetula, cistola, citola, citula, citera, chytara, cistole, cithar, cuitole, cythera, cythol, cytiole, cytolys, gytolle, sitole, sytholle, sytole, and zitol. Like the modern guitar, it was manipulated at the neck to get different notes, and picked or strummed with a plectrum. Although it was largely out of use by the late 14th century, the Italians "re-introduced it in modified form" in the 16th century as the cetra, and it may have influenced the development of the guitar as well. It was also a pioneering instrument in England, introducing the populace to necked, plucked instruments, giving people the concepts needed to quickly switch to the newly arriving lutes and gitterns. Two possible descendant instrument are the Portuguese guitar and the Corsican Cetera, both types of cittern.
The Dupplin Cross is a carved, monumental Pictish stone, which dates from around 800 AD. It was first recorded by Thomas Pennant in 1769, on a hillside in Strathearn, a little to the north of Forteviot and Dunning. In 2002 it was placed in the care of Historic Scotland, and was placed for preservation under the 11th/12th-century tower of St Serf's Church, Dunning.
The Celtic harp is a triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe. It is known as cláirseach in Irish, clàrsach in Scottish Gaelic, telenn in Breton and telyn in Welsh. In Ireland and Scotland, it was a wire-strung instrument requiring great skill and long practice to play, and was associated with the Gaelic ruling class. It appears on Irish and British coins, the coat of arms of the Republic of Ireland, Montserrat, the United Kingdom and Canada as well as the flag of Montserrat.
The Nigg Stone is an incomplete Class II Pictish cross-slab, perhaps dating to the end of the 8th century.
Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, was produced in the post-Roman era of the British Isles. The term derives from insula, the Latin term for "island"; in this period Britain and Ireland shared a largely common style different from that of the rest of Europe. Art historians usually group insular art as part of the Migration Period art movement as well as Early Medieval Western art, and it is the combination of these two traditions that gives the style its special character.
The cythara is a wide group of stringed instruments of medieval and Renaissance Europe, including not only the lyre and harp but also necked, string instruments. In fact, unless a medieval document gives an indication that it meant a necked instrument, then it likely was referring to a lyre. It was also spelled cithara or kithara and was Latin for the Greek lyre. However, lacking names for some stringed instruments from the medieval period, these have been referred to as fiddles and citharas/cytharas, both by medieval people and by modern researchers. The instruments are important as being ancestors to or influential in the development of a wide variety of European instruments, including fiddles, vielles, violas, citoles and guitars. Although not proven to be completely separate from the line of lute-family instruments that dominated Europe, arguments have been made that they represent a European-based tradition of instrument building, which was for a time separate from the lute-family instruments.
Scotland was divided into a series of kingdoms in the early Middle Ages, i.e. between the end of Roman authority in southern and central Britain from around 400 CE and the rise of the kingdom of Alba in 900 CE. Of these, the four most important to emerge were the Picts, the Gaels of Dál Riata, the Britons of Alt Clut, and the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia. After the arrival of the Vikings in the late 8th century, Scandinavian rulers and colonies were established on the islands and along parts of the coasts. In the 9th century, the House of Alpin combined the lands of the Scots and Picts to form a single kingdom which constituted the basis of the kingdom of Scotland.
When bagpipes arrived in England is unknown, there is some evidence to suggest Anglo-Saxon times, however the oldest confirmed proof of the existence of bagpipes anywhere in the world comes from three separate sources in the 13th century. Two of them English; the Tenison Marginalie Psalter from Westminster and an entry into the accounts books of Edward the I of England recording the purchase of a set of bagpipes. The third from the Cantigas Del Santa Maria published in Spain. From the 14th century onwards, bagpipes start to appear in the historical records of European countries, however half the mentions come from England suggesting Bagpipes were more common in England.
St Orland's Stone is a Class II Pictish Cross-Slab at Cossans, near Kirriemuir and Forfar, Angus, Scotland
Art in Medieval Scotland includes all forms of artistic production within the modern borders of Scotland, between the fifth century and the adoption of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. In the early Middle Ages, there were distinct material cultures evident in the different federations and kingdoms within what is now Scotland. Pictish art was the only uniquely Scottish Medieval style; it can be seen in the extensive survival of carved stones, particularly in the north and east of the country, which hold a variety of recurring images and patterns. It can also be seen in elaborate metal work that largely survives in buried hoards. Irish-Scots art from the kingdom of Dál Riata suggests that it was one of the places, as a crossroads between cultures, where the Insular style developed.
The Christianisation of Scotland was the process by which Christianity spread in what is now Scotland, which took place principally between the fifth and tenth centuries.
Music in Medieval Scotland includes all forms of musical production in what is now Scotland between the fifth century and the adoption of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. The sources for Scottish Medieval music are extremely limited. There are no major musical manuscripts for Scotland from before the twelfth century. There are occasional indications that there was a flourishing musical culture. Instruments included the cithara, tympanum, and chorus. Visual representations and written sources demonstrate the existence of harps in the Early Middle Ages and bagpipes and pipe organs in the Late Middle Ages. As in Ireland, there were probably filidh in Scotland, who acted as poets, musicians and historians. After this "de-gallicisation" of the Scottish court in the twelfth century, a less highly regarded order of bards took over the functions of the filidh and they would continue to act in a similar role in the Scottish Highlands and Islands into the eighteenth century.
Sculpture in Scotland includes all visual arts operating in three dimensions in the borders of modern Scotland. Durable sculptural processes traditionally include carving and modelling, in stone, metal, clay, wood and other materials. In the modern era these were joined by assembly by welding, modelling, moulding and casting. Some installation art can also be considered to be sculpture. The earliest surviving sculptures from Scotland are standing stones and circles from around 3000 BCE. The oldest portable visual art are carved-stone petrospheres and the Westray Wife is the earliest representation of a human face found in Scotland. From the Bronze Age there are extensive examples of rock art, including cup and ring marks and elaborate carved stone battle-axes. By the early Iron Age Scotland had been penetrated by the wider European La Tène culture, and a few examples of decoration survive from Scotland. There are also decorated torcs, scabbards, armlets and war trumpets. The Romans began military expeditions into what is now Scotland from about 71 CE, leaving a direct sculptural legacy of distance slabs, altars and other sculptures.
The Anglo Saxon Lyre is a large plucked and strummed lyre that was played in England in the early Medieval Era. The oldest lyre find in England dating to before 450ad and the most recent in the 10th century. It is also depicted in several illustrations and mentioned in Anglo-Saxon literature and poetry. Despite this, all knowledge of the instrument was forgotten until the archaeological excavation at Sutton Hoo in the 1930s revealed the remnants of a lyre. The Museum of London Archaeology describes the Anglo-Saxon Lyre as the most important stringed instrument in the ancient world.
The medieval harp refers to various types of harps played throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. The defining features are a three-sided frame and strings made of wire or gut. The instrument was most popular in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales as well as Scandinavia. Most information about the medieval harp comes from art and poetry of the era, though some original instruments survive and are available to view in museums. Performers play modern reconstructions of medieval harps today. The instrument is the predecessor to the concert grand pedal harp.
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