"...I have seen some references to harp iconography and can picture
the king david carving....It has been suggested that artists used the
triangular harp in their art because they were unfamiliar with the lyre."
This may be off the wall, but has anyone else noticed a lack of
pictures of angels with harps on Christmas cards? With angels being so
popular, I saw lots of cards with angels playing flutes, guitars, lutes,
mandolins, drums (well, a sort of bodhran frame drum, it looked like),
even portable organs (I forget the correct name--Becky? MIke?),
trumpets, but NO HARPS. This was annoying, since it was by then too late
to send off to Sylvia for some of hers. Grrrrrr!
BTW, did anyone else see a travleogue on PBS yesterday afternoon on
Wales? There was a harper in it, filmed from below in front to the left,
so one saw him through the harpstrings. Whitish hair, cleanshaven.
Naturally, since they were interested in the travel aspect, they didn't
talk to him or identify him or the music he played. It was a repeat,
part of a series, but I can't recall the name of the guy who hosts it.
In talking about the musical tradition of Wales, they spent most of the
time on the men's choirs, including a bit in a cave, where many of the
miners used to--and still do--practiced for competitions. Oh, and the
host played piano in a B&B, as I have seen him do on other shows in
other countries. To my untutored ear, he sounds pretty good, but I
wanted more on harps, especially double- and/or triple-strung, which I
have never seen.
--Barra