Stimulus: The Welsh triple harp article

The national instrument of Wales is the harp. For much of the 1700s and 1800s, the harp most people in Wales heard was not the large pedal harp of the modern orchestra. It was the triple harp, an instrument with 3 rows of strings and a sound like no other.

Fact box

Welsh name: telyn deires, meaning “harp with 3 rows”
Rows of strings: 3
How it is played: the strings are plucked with the fingers
First played: in Italy, in the early 1600s
Mechanism: no levers or pedals; every note has its own string

How the strings are arranged

Labelled description: the 3 rows, from one side of the harp to the other

Outer row (first side): tuned to a diatonic scale, the notes of an ordinary major scale.
Inner row (middle): gives the sharps and flats. The player reaches between the strings of an outer row to pluck them.
Outer row (second side): tuned to exactly the same notes as the first outer row, in unison.

With all 3 rows, the harp is chromatic: it can play every note. Because the 2 outer rows match, a player can pluck the same note on both sides, one quickly after the other. This makes a shimmering, echoing sound that a harp with only one row of strings cannot make.

From Italy to Wales

The idea of a harp with 3 rows of strings came from Italy, where the first triple harp was played in the early 1600s. Later that century the instrument reached London. Welsh harpers who worked there took it up and brought it home, first to north Wales.

By the middle of the 1700s the triple harp was so popular that people called it simply “the Welsh harp”. It was heard in grand houses and in humble cottages, in inns, at fairs and weddings, and at eisteddfodau. Welsh craftsmen built many triple harps. John Richards (1711 to 1789) was a famous harp maker of Llanrwst, and Bassett Jones (1809 to 1869) made harps in Cardiff. Bassett Jones built a triple harp for the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, now held by Amgueddfa Cymru, Museum Wales.

Keepers of the tradition

Welsh Romani families were among the most important triple harp players. The descendants of Abram Wood, a Romani man who lived in Wales in the 1700s, became famous harpers. They passed tunes and skills from parent to child.

In the 1800s, however, the pedal harp became more fashionable. It has a single row of strings, and the player presses pedals with the feet to make notes sharp or flat. By 1900, very few harpers could still play the triple harp. Then one woman made a difference. Nansi Richards (1888 to 1979), known by her bardic name Telynores Maldwyn, was a famous player who taught the old art of the triple harp to her own pupils, so it was not lost.

The triple harp today

Today, players and teachers keep the triple harp tradition going, and the Welsh Triple Harp Society, Cymdeithas y Delyn Deires, works to share it. The sound of the triple harp has travelled a long way to become part of Wales.

Glossary

diatonic: using the 7 notes of an ordinary major or minor scale, like the white notes of a piano in C major.
chromatic: using all 12 notes in an octave, including the sharps and flats, like the white and black notes of a piano.
sharp: a note one semitone (the smallest step) higher. flat: a note one semitone lower.
unison: the same note, played or sung together.
bardic name: a special name given to a Welsh poet or musician.
Romani: a people who have lived in Britain for over 400 years; some Romani families settled in Wales.