whilst I take your point about wanting to end the conversation, I cannot
leave this withoput further comment
>what i have learned is that "left shoulder harp" was solid until the advent
>of the "piano" which reversed the treble and bass......obviously, anyone
>coming from the "piano tradition" has a major adjustment to play on the left
>shoulder. this has nothing to do with "handedness" as you imply.....are
>there any other opinions??
Christofori is credited with the invention of the piano in the late 17th C.
Before that, there were many other keyboard instruments in use and these
were all played and strung in the same fasion. We know that the Romans had
organs and the clavichord was firmly esconced by the 14th C.
Of the many variants of the frame harp that were played around Europe from
the 9th century onwards, only the low headed clarseach is claimed to have
been played with the left hand (what I term a left handed harp) in the
treble and then only for a period of around 4 hundred years. There is a
simple logic to this if you look at the 3 surviving truly historic
instruments (QM. Trin. and Lamont) in that whilst they are strung on the
left, there is very little room in the treble for the right hand to get
under the neck.
The Welsh triples that were designed to play with Left treble are strung on
the right hand side of the neck and have their longest row on the right for
the bass hand. Which way round they were played was down to which way you
were taught and the instrument you learned on.
The right in the treble was fixed on the neo-celtic harp (as opposed to the
wirestung clarseach) by the addition of levers... you need the harp on the
right shoulder in order to see which lever you are changing (unless you
have some form of super co-ordination) but the design was carrying on from
the 17th C. hook harps which were always played that way.
The pre-pedal harp is far more widespread than the celtic nations and even
then, it was only a small group of players who were working that way round.
As I said,Ireland had it's fair share of Right in the treble players (All
of the performers at the Belfast convention I believe) and this was
standard, certainly before the fortepiano became a widely used instrument.
It is equally historically accurate to play a wire strung either way round
and the practice of playing is completely independent of the keyboard
technique.
Please do not feel that you have to respond to this if you would rather let
things drop but I could not let your piano statement go unchallenged.
Mike Parker.
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