The Oregon daily journal., May 24, 1908, Page 36, Image 36

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- PICTURE that is charming, a
' mldy that is divine.
A woman bends over her
harp', 'her slender white fingers softly
caress the tremulous strings and, as
'the heart of the instrument throbs its
i -Jove triumphant in deliciously liquid notes,
t the eyes of the woman lighten, her face
-glows. She is lost in melody, and the lady
, and her harp become a poem, a literal em
'bodiment of music.
. . .Painters have placed the picture in col
.. ors on canvas and poets have rhapsodized
' , aboutTiVintfseT,.: ;lnati-yohiveiun
' Sappho leaning blissfully over her lyre, ajtd
in history you have read of the ardent de
motion of Mary Queen of Scots to this rare
-. music: For years the picture was almost lost, )
the music seldom heard, for woman Had
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nearly forgotten her ancient melody, and
the harp, most graceful of instruments, was
deserted.
But recently the harp has been return
' ing to favor; many women have taken up
. once more the graceful instrument with
1 enthusiasm - . ,'
ject of personal affection. ; And one can realize
i this when ;told Low the harp responds ad. quickly
to the peraonal touch-that it interprets and ex-
( presses unuttered emotions of the player's bouI."
' " Another wcll-'known woman player said
that she believed the reason of the harp's being
described by the poets as a sorrowful instru
ment was due to a real sorrow felt by the lovely
thing when, years ago, it foresaw its doom. In
the day of Moore, the use of the' harp had so
declined that he sang of it: :
-
V Slhr,' Md Harp, thus sing- to m;
. . . Alike our doom la cast; -Both
lost to all but memory
- We live but In the post.
And you remember the plaintive line
My harp took up tha mournful strain that from a
lost world well.
. -
Also that never-forgotten
.Harp that once through Tara's halla
The aoul of mualo shed.
Now hangs as mute on Tara's wallr
" -. As If that soul were fled.
But hajpily the harp awakes again be
neath the touch of woman's frail white hands.
And joy swells from the strings, and the' great
scores of Meyerbeer, Gounod, Berlioz, Iiazt and
Wagner are incomplete without it
Asked how long it would take a woman to
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ITHIN the last several years the
harp has . become very popular
among women," recently, declared
; : Miss. Dorothy Johnstone,,, widely
. known as one of . the leading harpists in this
k country. "The instrument has won favor par-
, ticularly in the .West. , . '
"The harp, as an instrument of melody, is
I wonderful. Besides, a woman looks well at the
I barp; in fact,- is more graceful at it than at any.
. ' other instrument In learning , the harp . there -.is
not the drudgery that accompanies learning
!to play some other instrument. One's interest
jis maintained so in learning that it is a pleas
; ure a great pleasure.
"In many homes, children are learning 4he
j harp, quite a number of society women have
, taken. it. up, and it is taught in most convent
v ; schools. Women are beginning to realize the
jbeauty of the music and the artistic possibili
ties of the instrument. And appearance at an
J instrument certainly is an important considera
tion with most women."
There are in use in this country, according '
to an authority, between 800 and 1000 " harps.
, This is tremendous gain in , popularity, con
sidering the number in vogue, not many, years
, ago. Now almost every large city in the coun-
try boasts " of one or more celebrated woman
harpist,
Among the best known are Madame Clara
. Murray , and Miss Helena Stone, of Chicago;
. Miss Maud Morgan' and Miss Avice Boxall, of
New York city; Madame Margaret Wunderle,
of Pittsburg; Madame Inez Carusi, of San
Francisco; Miss Harriette Straw, of Boston;
Hadame Lovejoy, of Granc! Eapids, Mich.; Miss
Anita Cluss. of Washington, D. C, and Madame
Dufnche, of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
city. - . . ' . .t.
Among society women the harp is receiving '
attention long its due, especially among society
. ? leaders in .New York city. -
To the romantic- and what one of us is
without romance ? the harp must appeal as the
one instrument: above all others fitted '.to
women. ; It is the instrument of kings and poets.
Its paEt is invested with the glory of romance.
i It charmed the ear in the days of King David,
Milesius and , Mary ( Queen of Scots. . . In . its
primitive forms it was known to the peoples of
the very ancient world. . . ,; ,. : t
The early harps, however, were much unlike
the modern instrument, and it is because of the
inarvclous perfection of the modern form that
it lias been gaining in popularity within the last
few year". ' ......
, A brilliant triumph of mechanical skill is
the harp of todav. - Constructed, on
of interchangeable parts, it is possible to substi
tute injured sections easily; with the pedal rod
inside a special .tube, the unpleasant rattling of
old harps has', been 'obviated, while an enlarged
sounding board increases the volume of tone.
' ' The extreme ' liability of the harp to de
rangement was long a factor that weighed
against its use. And in this connection it is in
teresting to note that the most highly perfected
"harps are made in the United States; in fact,
nearly all the harps of the national and royal
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learn to -play-a harp, a well-known -teacher ;re-
plied: ; ' - ;
. "A lifetime."
By that 'she meant that one could spend a
lifetime , perfecting one's self, and finding new
charm and power in the instrument. -
With proper study,' a young person should
instrument on the shoulder. The pupil is taught
how to use the hands and feet and body, and next '
the finger motions, which sustain the accompani- ,
ment, and those of the thumb, t v . . !
Two of the best-known teachers in the East i
are Miss Johnstone, of "Philadelphia, and Miss. '
Maud Morgan of New -York city. Mias John-''
stone has earned widespread fame as a soloist,.
and has often appeared with the Philadelphia
Orchestra. She began her career about nine j
years airo. and, under the instruction of the best
teachers in Europe, accomplished a wonderful
proficiency. She has played m the leading rrot-
estant Eniscorjal churches in New York, and is I
the harpist at the Church of St.-Xuka and the
Epiphany, in Philadelphia.
Miss Morgan at her harp recalls the Grecian
poetess at her lyre. She has, been extremely
nntiva m.-: Irvinff ;tn nnrmlAviua flirt inairtimnnt.
and years ago attracted "notice by public harp
matinees, when she illustrated the history and
change of the harp during different periods by j
playing selections from those ancient days. She!
appeared with Ole Bull when, she was 11 years j
of age. At present she is harpist at Qraco i
Church, in New York. 1 ; i
" Madame Wunderle does remarkable work in'
the, Pittsburg Orchestra, and . Miss Straw, of '
Boston, has many meritorious compositions to'
her credit. ! One. of the most notable harpists in!
the world is Mile Ada Sassoli, of Paris, who has
traveled the United States ;with Madam Melba.j
A story-goes that, while Hermes this was,
one day long, long ago -a high priest of Osiris,
was wandering along the; Nile, he saw a curious I
object lying, in the dust-a half-baked tortoise J
shellspanned by dried " ligaments. Carelessly j
picking it up) he ' touched j the ligaments, and j
thereon a pleasing sound smote; the- air. Struck j
by the tone, the high priest experimented until
ho developed the lyre, iwhich afterward evolved I -into
the -harp. ;,,'.' ., . !
In the pictures carved on the stone tombs of
jgypt one can see ine narp piayers, wiin tne in-
be able to do solo work within four or five years -:( a.trumentitoii : their shouUers. The".Egyptian j
after taking up the study,'? she continued. "The 'L harp was strung with catgut and differed slightly
harp is 1 more expensive to keep than a piano. from; the ;Assyriatf harp. Whenameses III
It will needatringing three or four. times a year, ruled over the Mizraim the harp, which then had
at a cost of $16 each time. A person should take ni twenty-eight ' strings ;wa played only , by the
two lessons a week, and nractice several hours a 5: priepts and nobles.v Gradually it fell mto disuse;
day. " Lessons' cost $3 to 5 each.: ' Harps range f but the-alert .Phenioians, seeing the possibili-,
ties lor ravisning meioay, auopieu ii, anti cue ui
their descendants, ? King "Milesras, carried it to!
.Ireland 1200 ', years before Christ. At first
Tthe Irish' harp was crude, vossessing only eleven I
-
; Si Tings ; It. was uevt-iujnu . iu nu man uuicut ui
orchestras abroad are purchased in this coun
try. i , ,
"There
is no ' instrument which a woman
can learn to love so intensely as this," declared
a well-known harpist. "It beconjes , a friend
one's dearest friend. " It really becomes an ob
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in price from about $400 to more than $1000.
. "Many persons who can afford a piano can
not afford a harp. 'Among the women who can
afford it it is being taken up enthusiastically.'
Why, where there were hardly 'a ' dozen players
in New York-twenty years ago, there are now
possibly 150 to 200 society women alone who are
. quite proficient." .
, -. A teacher says that the 'first thing for a
pupil i to learn the proper attitude -the artis
;tic, gracefulvattitude. It is necessary for a pu
pil to learn to sit perfectly upright and lean the
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thirty-two strings. To the.Druida is du the in-
vention of the pillar, afterward adopted uni-;
;versally. '..':''"--''
; : Three rows of strings were introduced into t
"the Welsh harp about 520A. D., but the modern
instrument had .its beginning' -.when Sebastian !
. Erard perfected 'the 'pedal .harp in 1810. ; -