Cindy Shelhart - Double-Strung Harp

Hi, I’m Cynthia Shelhart. You can call me Cindy. And it’s time for some #DoubleTalk. Double-strung harp, that is!

Welcome back to our FAQ series on the double-strung harp. Last time, in Part 1 of Episode 4, we took a first look at the double-strung harp’s family tree: from late Renaissance chromatic harps, to the Welsh triple harp in the 18th century. If you missed that episode, make sure you subscribe, so that you can find out about future episodes.

This time, in Part 2, we’ll keep exploring the roots of the modern double-strung harp. This will include the 19th century Welsh triple harp’s revival, and the 20th century “big bang” that gave birth to the modern double-strung harp. Let’s get started on Part 2.

The Welsh Triple Harp: 19th Century Survival

Unfortunately, by the 19th century, the Welsh triple harp was actually, despite its earlier popularity, in danger of extinction. The pedal harp was gaining favor, and there were a shortage of harpbuilders building the old (by that time) triple harp.

Also, despite our modern conception of harps being angelic and good and pure instruments, the Methodist religious revival in Wales gave harps and harpists kind of a bad rep. Triple harps were lighter and easier to travel with; they didn’t have a heavy metal mechanism. So the harps were frequently taken to fairs and taverns, and played along with fiddles. And people used to dance to their music, and dancing was extremely anathema to the Methodists.

So these triple harps got a bad reputation. And the triple harpists felt pressure after religious conversion and pressure from the church, sometimes even to the extent that they abandoned their harps. Harps were buried in peat bogs, they were burnt, or even just left to rot—for example, underneath the harpist’s bed, never to be played again.

Fortunately, there were two main sources of keeping the Welsh triple harp tradition going in the 19th century. One very important tradition is from 2 families of the Welsh Gypsy (or Roma), the Wood and Roberts families. These families played triple harp, and brought the triple harp from the north of Wales to the south. So now the entire country had exposure to the Welsh triple harp.

And a noblewoman named Augusta Waddington Hall, whose title was Baroness (or Lady) Llanover, established Llanover House as a center for Welsh language and culture, including music. She was amazing. She was the ultimate “Welshophile.” She employed triple harpists and harpbuilders, she donated triple harps as competition prizes, and collected folk music. She was a major contributor to the survival, and later the revival, of the Welsh triple harp and its music.

The Welsh Triple Harp: 20th & 21st Century Revival

But, unfortunately, despite the best efforts of Lady Llanover and her daughter, by the early 20th century (here we go again!) the triple harp and traditional music in Wales had nearly been abandoned once again for the pedal harp and classical music. Fortunately, once again, we have a couple of exceptions that kept everything going and and kept things going to the modern day.

One great exception was a remarkable harpist and woman named Nansi Richards-Jones. She learned the triple harp and traditional music from harpist and harpbuilder Thomas Lloyd, and she grew up listening and dancing to the music of the Wood Gypsy/Roma family in Wales. As she grew in popularity, she toured Britain and America, playing both the triple harp and pedal harp on her left shoulder. She toured these countries in the early 20th century, and she held the title of Royal Harpist to the Prince of Wales from 1911 all the way until her death in 1971. Nansi inspired many next-generation triple harp players, including Dafydd and Gwyndaf Roberts of the Welsh group Ar Log (who were later inspirations to Robin Huw Bowen, who we’ll talk about in a moment), and also Llio Rhydderch, who was a student of Nansi’s.

And as I mentioned, Robin Huw Bowen not only was inspired by students of Nansi Richards, but also himself studied with a link to the Welsh Gypsy/Roma tradition. He studied with Eldra Jarman, who was the great-granddaughter of John Roberts. So, we have 2 Gypsy/Roma triple harp connections, with Nansi with the Wood family, and Robin Huw Bowen through Eldra Jarman with John Roberts. Robin Huw Bowen is probably the most well known traditional player of the Welsh triple harp today; other current triple harp performers include Elinor Bennett, Eleri Darkins, and Gareth Swindail-Parry of Wales, and American Cheryl Ann Fulton.

But, just as important: you can’t have triple harp players if you don’t have triple harps to play. And one harpbuilder in particular was extremely important in this revival; he was a gentleman named John Weston Thomas. He was a master harpmaker who singlehandedly resurrected harpmaking in Wales in the mid 1960s, including the Welsh triple harp. He taught himself to build harps from museum instruments and looking at old illustrations, because at the time, he was the only harpbuilder left in Wales, and one of only 3 in all of Britain. His innovative perpendicular design made triple harps more stable and long-lasting for the next generation. He was awarded the BEM (the British Empire Medal) for harpmaking by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year Honours in 1983.

The Double-Strung Harp in Wales

And here we finally meet our instrument, the modern double-strung harp. In 1989, a collaboration between Welsh-Australian harpist and singer Gwenda Davies, and the harpbuilder John Weston Thomas, started them discussing in late 1988 or early 1989 about a Welsh traditional double-strung harp, with levers on both sides. Because Davies was a singer, she wanted a harp where she could easily change keys with preset levers, instead of having to retune the strings, like the older triple harps and older historical harps required. Also, as a Welsh harpist, she wanted the new harp to keep the same 2 unison rows of the Welsh triple harp.

The resulting harp in 1989 was called the “Gwenda” by John Weston Thomas. He had fulfilled both her wishes, for the two unison diatonic rows and full levers on both sides. Davies played it in Wales before bringing it home to San Francisco, California in the early 1990s. And now she lives and teaches and performs in her native Australia. Thomas unfortunately made only one other Gwenda double harp before his death in December 1992. But he did go on to inspire and train a number of apprentices to keep the triple harp tradition going.

In a letter I received from Gwenda Davies in 2005, she says: “The personal enjoyment I gained from playing the Gwenda harp is mainly related to the increased complexity of sound textures, especially when improvising or accompanying my singing. It works particularly well on the Welsh triple harp techniques of doubling.”

Double-Strung Harps in North America

Not long after Thomas’s build of the Gwenda double harp, in 1992, the first North American double-strung harps were built by two harpist and luthier teams in North America: harpist Laurie Riley, and luthier Steve Triplett of Triplett Harps in California; and harpist Elizabeth (Liz) Cifani, and luthier Gary Stone, of Here, Inc., now known as Stoney End Harps, in Minnesota.

Fun fact here: I actually introduced Laurie Riley to Liz Cifani. Liz was my teacher at that time; I introduced them at the 1990 conference of the International Society of Folk Harpers and Craftsmen in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at Augsburg College. And coincidentally, Riley and Cifani—you know it—shared an interest in Welsh harp music, (It’s all starting to come together!)

After the conference, a phone conversation between the two of them inspired both players to design instruments that could play Welsh triple harp repertoire, without retuning or using a third chromatic row of strings. Laurie Riley turned to Triplett Harps, and Liz Cifani contacted Here, Inc., and by the summer of 1992, these collaborations had produced the first modern double-strung harps built in North America. In 1993, both these harpists released the first recordings to include double-strung harp, alongside their other harps: Cifani’s solo CD Bella Stella, and Riley’s duo CD with Michael McBean, Double Image.

While Riley and Triplett, and Cifani and Stone, were not the first to invent the modern double-strung harp, they were certainly the first to launch this new instrument in North America. And today, Stoney End Harps, Gary Stone’s company, is the world’s oldest continuous builder of double-strung harps.

The Double-Strung Harp: My Connection

Finally, I’d like to share my own connection with this story, in the double-strung harp family tree. My double-strung harp adventure began in graduate school at The Pennsylvania State University. This is where I studied harp, and directed the Early Music Ensemble. And, among other things, I played Baroque continuo on an arpa doppia built by Tim Hobrough.

Later, after grad school, I returned to my native Midwest, and I worked for a time for harpbuilders Lyon & Healy in Chicago. And that’s when I met and studied lever harp with Liz Cifani. In the summer of 1992, when she got that first double-strung harp from Gary Stone, hers was made of cherry wood; this was Gary Stone’s very first double, and this is the model now known as the “Lorraine.” When I saw that harp, I immediately placed an order for my own double-strung harp,

Gary built the next harp, his second double-strung harp, for me. This one was made of walnut wood, and I received it in September 1992 at the Fox River Valley Folk Festival in Geneva, Illinois. And, later that year, this harp inspired me to write my composition Walnut Welcome, which is one of the first compositions written for solo double-strung harp.

While I didn’t invent or design one of the first double-strung harps, I’m proud to be a pioneer double-strung harp performer, teacher and composer. In addition to that first harp by Gary Stone, I’ve played double-strung harps by Dusty Strings, Rees Harps, Argent Fox Music, and other builders. I’ve released 2 of the first all-double-strung harp solo CDs, written a best-selling double-strung harp method book, and launched a new series of double-strung harp arrangements. And at the time of filming this video, I’m getting ready to celebrate my 30th anniversary with the double-strung harp in 2022. And I’ll be sharing more with you soon about that celebration.

Wrapping Up

So, I hope you’ve enjoyed climbing the double-strung harp family tree, and learning more about the history and the evolution of the modern double-strung harp—about its historical multi-row harp ancestors, its Welsh triple harp cousins, and the “big bang” of the double-strung harp in Britain and North America in the 20th century.

If you liked what you heard today, please make sure you’re subscribed, so you can be notified of future episodes. And if you want to be the first for more double-strung Double Talk, please sign up at my website, CindyShelhart.com, and sign up for my mailing list.

Next time, on Episode 5, we’re going to visit Inspiration Station…we’re going to find out which music you can play on double-strung harp. See you next time!

Hi, I’m Cynthia Shelhart. You can call me Cindy. And it’s time for some #DoubleTalk. Double-strung harp, that is!

Last time, in Episode 3 of our double-strung harp FAQ series, we talked about how to choose the best double-strung harp for you—whether it’s your first one, or your next one. If you missed that episode, make sure to subscribe, so you can be notified for upcoming episodes.

And if you see me looking down today, I’ve got a ton of notes for you, because we have a lot in store on Episode 4. This time, we’re going to climb the family tree of the double-strung harp! We’ll explore the roots of the modern double-strung harp, which is a hybrid of historical & traditional multi-row harps and modern lever harps. And we’ll take a look at how it evolved to play chromatic music, key changes, and polyphony, while creating the double-strung harps that we’re familiar with. 

Late Renaissance Chromatic Harps: Spain & Italy

So, let’s take a walk back in history. We know that there were probably some medieval double-strung harps; these were tuned in unison, probably to play early polyphony (more than one voice at a time), overlapping in the same range. But, by the late Renaissance, music had become more chromatic—with accidentals, and playing in different keys—and chromatic harps came along to help solve those challenges for evolving music. 

Chromatic harps came first from Spain to Italy. These harps were cross-strung, meaning that the strings crossed each other like a letter X. There were two rows: one of them was diatonic, like the white keys of a keyboard instrument, and the other was for the flats and sharps, like the black keys on a keyboard instrument. 

The Italian instrument ended up being a little different. Because their harps’ soundboards and sound boxes were built more narrowly, these needed to have parallel strings, rather than the cross-stringing of the Spanish chromatic harps. These harps in Italy had 2, or even 3 rows (again, with parallel stringing because of the narrower soundbox), and they were called the arpa doppia. The name “arpa doppia” comes from the doubled number of strings—even if it’s not exactly doubled, it means “extra number of strings.” The outer row of the arpa doppia was a diatonic row, again, like the white keys on a keyboard instrument, and the inner row was chromatic. And they traded places in the middle, so that either hand would always play a diatonic row on the outside, and reach in from either side into the inner chromatic row. 

The 17th Century Italian Triple Harp

By the time music had evolved into what we now call the beginning of the Baroque era, around the year 1600, the arpa doppia had evolved also, into a larger Italian triple harp. There were still 2 parallel, diatonic, unison rows, with a chromatic center row. The center row was at first an incomplete middle row. It was used in the middle register of the harp, where the harpist would use that area of the harp for playing continuo harmony chords. Later, the middle row, the chromatic row, extended to more areas of the harp; more higher and lower strings were added to the third inner row.

And to play accidentals, the harpist needed to reach into the middle row from either side, similar to the earlier arpa doppia. Now, there were no sharping levers on these harps. So if a new key was needed, the harpist would have to retune all the strings as needed in the 2 outer rows. 

The larger Italian triples were used primarily as bass or continuo instruments, playing harmony, and they played low on the strings. These were extremely tall instruments, and the player would sit lower than the height of the harp, and play low on the strings near the soundboard, to bring out the resonant bass of this larger instrument. But later on, harpists, especially skilled harpists, were also used for playing more higher-range, solo passages. The most famous from this time is the solo in the aria, “Possente spirto” in Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo (1607).

17th Century Italian Triple Harps in France & England

The larger Italian triple harps soon made their way across continental Europe, especially to France, and then traveled to England. In 1625, a French triple harpist named Jean le Flelle came to London. He was in the large retinue of Princess Henrietta Maria, who came from France to become the Queen Consort of King Charles I of England. She liked to spend money, and she was a patroness of the arts. So, she brought Jean le Flelle along with her. And a few years after she became queen, le Flelle himself became a court musician. This was in 1629.

One of his fellow court musicians was the composer and musician, William Lawes. If you’ve ever heard of his Harp Consorts, which were composed for violin, viol, theorbo, and harp, these were probably composed for le Flelle’s ensemble at court. They were composed for this large Italian triple, and this was right around the time that le Flelle joined the party, so they were probably composed for le Flelle and his ensemble in the court of Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. 

The 17th & 18th Century Welsh Connection

When le Flelle came to London and came to court, there were already other harpists and harpbuilders active in London. They came especially from Wales, which already had a historical connection with the harp. Older harps from Wales were single-row harps. And, unlike the continental harp, Welsh harps (the single-row harps) were played on the left shoulder, so that the left hand played the higher treble strings, and the right hand played bass strings. 

King Henry VIII annexed the country of Wales in 1536. So the traditional moneyed patrons, the gentry of Wales, who would normally be the patrons of these (Welsh) harpists, and by extension, harpbuilders—these folks all went to London where the king was, where their new government was, and where all the action was. And Welsh harpists and their harpbuilders followed their traditional patrons to London.

When they came to London, le Flelle’s new triple harp at court was the latest thing, the latest fashion in music, and it was quickly adopted by these Welsh harpists and their builders at that time. It was the new thing, the new fashion, and they wanted to be a part of it.

In 1660, Charles Evans was the first known Welsh player of the Italian triple to become part of the court musicians. He was appointed to the court of Charles II, following the Restoration, after the English Civil War. 

By the 18th century, the triple harp had become redesigned—and really, transformed, having more strings in its chromatic row. The shoulder of the harp (near the shoulder of the player) on larger Italian harps was much, much higher, and the harpist sat down low. The new, transformed harps, the triple harps in the 18th century, were changed so that they were lower at the shoulder, and much easier for the harpist to reach the upper-range strings. So they would be able to play more virtuosic passages in the treble range of the harp. The design of the harp was almost flip-flopped, in a way; the shoulder became lower, and the bass strings, the long bass strings, had a tall, high “head.”

This harp became so popular among the Welsh, and later in Wales, that it became known as the Welsh triple harp, despite its Italian origins. Like the earlier Welsh single-row harps, these new Welsh triple harps were also played on the left shoulder, using the left hand for the treble row and the right hand for the bass strings. This new Welsh triple harp was more popular in northern Wales, at first; in southern Wales, they kept playing the older, single-row Welsh harp until the 19th century.

This (the Welsh triple) is the harp that is known to be the ancestor of the most characteristic sound of the Welsh triple harp, and later with a double-strung harp. This is, of course, what’s called “the unisons,” later called “doubling” (or my term, echoing), and this was used in arrangements of Welsh airs with variations. This is where the strings of the two outer rows, the diatonic rows, were tuned the same, and they echoed or “doubled” each other back and forth; they were referred to as “the unisons.”

In 1736. Handel’s famous Concerto in B-flat for harp, was premiered by Welsh triple harpist, William Powell. This was not premiered on a pedal harp, although it’s played a lot on pedal harps today. It was premiered on a triple harp. And later, it was frequently performed by the most famous of the 18th century Welsh triple harp players, John Parry.

Wrapping Up

So, wrapping up for today, that’s a first look at the historical roots of the modern double-strung harp—from the late Renaissance Spanish chromatic harps, to the 18th century Welsh triple harp. Next time, in Part 2, we’ll continue on with the Welsh triple harp and its 19th century revival, and move ahead to the 20th century “big bang”: the beginnings of the modern double-strung harp. 

If you liked what you heard today, please make sure that you’re subscribed, so that you can be notified about future episodes. And if you want to be one of the absolute first to get some more Double Talk, head on over to my website, CindyShelhart.com, and sign up for my mailing list. 

And again, next time, make sure you tune in for Part 2 of the double-strung harp’s family tree. See you next time!