HARP ILLUSTRATED: CRISTIANO GIUSEPPE LIDARTI BY NATHANIEL DANCE-HOLLAND

Composer Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti (1730 - 1793), is shown posing with a beautiful blue harp along with painter Giovanni Battista Tempesti of Volterra, Italy (1729–1804). Both men lived and worked in Pisa and in Rome, primarily.  Born in Vienna of Italian descent, Lidarti, best known for his oratorio, "Esther", composed a huge body of work using Hebraic text specifically for the large flourishing Jewish community in Amsterdam.

Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1st Baronet, RA (born: 1735) was a successful and notable English portrait painter who studied with Francis Hayman and Angelica Kauffman, as well as various ateliers all over Italy.  One of the founding members of the Royal Academy, in 1790, Dance-Holland gave up a stunning career as a painter to become Member of Parliament in Sussex. He continued in politics until his death in 1811.

This painting is from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Click image to enlarge, then click to enlarge again.

HARP ILLUSTRATED: SARAH CURRAN BY WILLIAM BEECHEY (c.1805).

Sarah Curran (1782-1808), the youngest daughter of John Philpot Curran, an eminent Irish lawyer, was the great love of Irish nationalist Robert Emmet. 

Curran met Robert through her brother Richard, a fellow student of Emmet's at Trinity College in Dublin. Sarah's father considered Robert unsuitable, and their courtship was conducted through letters and clandestine meetings.When her father discovered that Sarah was secretly engaged to Emmet, he disowned her and then treated her so harshly that she had to take refuge with friends in Cork, where, in 1805, married Robert Sturgeon. The two had a child which died in infancy. Sarah died of consumption in 1808. She is buried in County Cork. 

Born in Burford, Oxfordshire, 1753, William Beechey was appointed portrait painter to Queen Charlotte in 1793 and knighted in 1798 in recognition of his most ambitious painting, the huge Review of the Horse Guard with King George III and the Prince of Wales. Beechey painted not only the portraits of the royal family, but of nearly all the most famous or fashionable people of the time. Beechey died in London, 1839.

BENJAMIN BAGBY PERFORMING BEOWULF ON 7TH C. GERMAN HARP REPLICA

The 6-string harp used by Benjamin Bagby for his re-created telling of the poem "Beowulf"was built by Rainer Thurau of Wiesbaden, Germany. It is based on the remains of an instrument excavated from a 7th century Alemannic nobleman's grave in Oberflacht, just south of Stuttgart.

Links:
Benjamin Bagby
Rainer Thurau
About Beowulf
Beowulf poem (modern English translation)

AUGUSTA SAVAGE'S 1939 NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR SCULPTURE, "THE HARP"

  
Photo above, of Augusta Savage (center) detailing parts of her sculpture, "The Harp". From the archives of the New York Public Library, Catalog Call # MssCol 223

Augusta Savage (b. Augusta Christine Fells) was a sculptor and teacher associated with The 306 Group of artists during the Harlem Renaissance. Named after the art studio at 306 West 141st Street, this place saw the likes of black artists such as Charles Alston, Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence.

Savage was commissioned to create a sculpture for the 1939 New York World's Fair. This massive work, exhibited in the Court of Contemporary Arts, was entitled "The Harp" and was influenced by James Weldon Johnson's song, "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

The sculpture depicted a group of twelve stylized black singers in graduated heights symbolizing the strings of a harp. The sounding board was formed by the hand and arm of God, and a kneeling man holding music represented the foot pedal. No funds were available to cast "The Harp", nor were there any facilities to store it. After the fair closed in 1940, "The Harp" was demolished, as were many other works of art created for the fair.

In her 2017 OP-ED piece for the New York Times, film documentarian, Aviva Kemper advocates that Savage's "The Harp" should be rightfully restored as a work of art "wrongfully destroyed". 

"It should be recreated and displayed in New York City" she suggests, "Or better yet, how about placing a second replica of “The Harp” in front of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington for all to see?"

LOST APRIL

Clip from The Bishop’s Wife: Lost April 

Released in 1948

Director: Henry Koster

Based on a story by Robert Nathan
Cary Grant's "hands" performed by harpist Mr. Gail Laughton.

Dudley (Cary Grant),who has not informed anyone but the bishop (David Niven) that he's an angel, plays a song composed for the usually frosty Mrs. Hamilton (Gladys Cooper) on the harp (music by Emil  Newman & Herbert Spence, lyrics by Edward Delange). 

Lyrics:
Lost April, where did you go
Like the winter snow, I saw you vanish.
Lost April, so soft and warm
A memory not even time can banish.
Lost April that taught me this,
A single kiss could lead to heaven.
But April had numbered days
So when they passed, love couldn't last.
I lost love and you, and April too...

LYON & HEALY NEW PRICE LIST

LYON & HEALY PRICE LIST 

EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2013

Read it! There's a number of changes. 

REMEMBER TO UPDATE YOUR INSURANCE POLICY 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image Above: National Library Week Original Literacy and Reading Poster ca 1960's

ROYAL STRINGS ATTACHED; HANNAH STONE AT BOW BRAND STRING FACTORY, KING'S LYNN

Royal Harpist Hannah Stone visits the Bow Brand factory in King's Lynn, where they make the strings for her harp - Hannah in the string drying room. (Picture: Matthew Usher).


...Carolyn Clarke, managing director of Bow Brand, said the company was established in 1902 and was the only factory of its kind in the UK.

“We were here when this was just fields and they used to drive the cattle up the A10 to the cattle market,” she said. “I guess they thought: ‘We’ll just build a factory and steam the intestines here’.”

During the two world wars, Bow Brand made sutures for stitching wounds – those made of gut dissolve gradually as the injury heals.

Mrs Clarke said the company, which employs 25, was having its busiest ever year.

Excerpt from article written by Chris Bishop, July 26, 2013

There will be a price increase on Lyon & Healy harps effective September 1st, 2013. Prices will increase by 3 - 7 %. The increase will effect lever and pedal models.

If you are interested in a Lyon & Healy harp, or have a student interested in purchasing, we suggest taking advantage of the current lower prices (and the Chicago CG harp sale!) before September, 2013. 

HILA has the new price list effective September 1st. If you have any questions regarding the price of a new harp, or anything at all, please ask!  


Image from  French coat manufacturer, Blizzand, entitled "Red Coat" by  Gruau, c. 1965

HARP ILLUSTRATED: FLORENCE GRISWOLD WITH J PITT LEWIS & CO PEDAL HARP

 Alphonse Jongers (1872-1945)
The Harpist, 1903
Oil on canvas. Gift of the Lyme Art Association

During the first two decades of the 20th century, the village of Old Lyme, Connecticut, was the setting for one of the largest and most significant art colonies in America. Centered in the boardinghouse of Miss Florence Griswold, the colony attracted many leading artists -- Henry Ward Ranger, Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf and others, who were in the vanguard of the Tonalist and Impressionist movements in America. Its identity as an artists’ colony held fast and grew in reputation. The constant behind this was the central figure of Florence Griswold (1850-1937), affectionately referred to as “Miss Florence”.

Click here to learn more about Miss Florence and the Old Lyme Art Colony.

Click here to learn about the painting of Miss Florence and her harp by Alphonse Jongers.

OLIVETTE MILLER AND WURLITZER GG STARKE AT CAFE SOCIETY

Harpist Olivette Miller at New York's Café Society, Downtown with (l-r) Cliff Jackson, Gene Sedric and Josh White circa March 1947.

Photographer William P. Gottlieb (1917-) for Down Beat Magazine.

Rights Info: Mr. Gottlieb has dedicated his works to the public domain, but rights of privacy and publicity may apply. Repository: (negative) Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Washington D.C. 20540 USA. 

Olivette Miller was the daughter of vaudevillian Flournoy Eakins Miller (1887-1971), and niece of producer Irvin Colloden Miller (1884-1975). She was married to dancer Freddy Gordon in the 1940s, divorced then married comedian Bert Gibson in the 1950s, and was called Olivette Miller Darby in the 1970s, but later went by Olivette Miller-Briggs, when she was married to tap dancer Bunny Briggs (b. 1922). It is sourced that Olivette passed away in Inglewood, CA. sometime in January, 2010.

Coalition of Harpists of African Descent

GUEST POST BY STEVE MOSS : BUYING USED

We are please to welcome again harp technician and guest author Steve Moss of The Harp Herald who presents a series of informative articles to our blog about harp care. In today's article, Steve gives an abridged version of buying used. Thank you, Steve!

You may have noticed that harps cost a lot of money. You check the prices of new pedal harps and then you pick your jaw up off the floor. At this point, you may ask yourself "I wonder if I can find a good used harp?"  

The answer, of course, is "maybe." It depends on luck, timing, the number of resources you consult with, and mostly, luck again. While there are definitely some good buys out there, you’ll need to do some detective work, get to know the market and educate yourself on what to look for when you look at an instrument to determine whether it's a gem or should be sent to the junk heap. 

In my perfect world, only experienced harpists would get into the used harp market. People who have been around harps for a while are more able to assess a given instrument’s sound and may also know better how to assess whether it has reached the point where major repairs are going to be necessary. 

In reality though, it is very often beginners who look to save some money and get into harp playing on an affordable instrument. This is a perfectly logical idea, but unfortunately I’ve seen a few occasions when beginners bought a harp because the price was right, only to find that it was in need of major structural repairs, which ended up adding thousands of dollars to the purchase price. 

DOROTHY ASHBY: SWEET!