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Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 20

Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 20
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periodical Publisher
Clementi & Co., London, 1809
periodical Editor
Edward Bunting
periodical Title
Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland
volume Number
1
issue Content
19only wants two strings of two complete octaves: thatthese were purposely omitted, not from defect of taste orscience, must appear beyond contradiction, when we con-sider the second figure representing the Harp that oc-cupies the second pannel. Its forni we see differs fromthe other, and its number of strings is eighteen, beingfive more. [ See Plate III. fig. 3, of this Collection.]In a third pannel appears a third Harp of only tenstrings, but of its precise form Mr. Bruce had not takena drawing.He looked on these as the Theban Harp in use in theage of &sostric, about the tenth century before theChristian s-ra: he considered them as affording isicontestible proof, that every art necessary to the con-struction, ornament, and use of this instrument was in thehighest perfection.Old Thebes had been destroyed, but was soon afterrebuilt. It was adorned by Sesostris, some time, he thinks,between the reign of Menes and the first war of theshepherds, about 400 years before the Trojan war. Thisgives the drawings in question a prodigious antiquity.The only very ancient harp that resembles theseTheban ones is represented in hasso-relievo at Ptolemais,a city built by Ptolemy Phuladeiphus. It has fifteenstrings or two octaves; but the addition of tile twostrings occasioned (it is conjectured) the addition of afore pillar. Bruce, from whom this fact is taken, con-ceives this Harp also as of Theban Origin, as no Harpwith so many strings has, he says, ever been seen inGrecian sculpture; and the extremity of its base roundedinto a rums head.Some writers (who are otherwise sensible and candid)have pronoulICeil those figures of Harps fictions of Brucesfancy ;they have alleged the doubtfulness of paintingbeing so early known, and have supposed it impossiblethat such drawings could remain at Thebes to the pre-sent day ;tbey have noticed the want of a ,illar to sup-port tile comb of the Harp, winch coLlId not easily be con-trived to resist tile tension of the strings, even if made ofmetal, as light as it is described : and they has-c allegedtile improbability that the Greeks, with such an admirablemodel before their eyes, should hOt have renounced thelyre and adopted it. In answer to this, let it be coilsidered, that drawings are visible ill tile Tlieban sepuiclues. \Ve have the authority, not only of Bruce, but ofthree other travellers at ciifihrent periods, Pocock andNorden in 1131, 1138, and Denon ill 1198 ; two of theseare of different nations from our own. We are not jus-tified ill denying the veracity of all these travellers, iinlesinternal evidence appear of their being privy to eachothers falsehood. It is very conceivable, that a comb,especially of metal, might bear the tension of thirteen orsixteen strings without the aid of an outside pillar; buteven if it u-crc not, the painter might have omitted thatpart of its structure, in order to give the figure a greaterdegree of lightness and beauty; whether that were thecase or not, the general principles of the instrument areunimpeachable.That the Greeks did not renounce their national lyre,and adopt the Harp of Egypt, presents no difficulty.The Lacedemonians, in particular, who conceived thattheir civil polity, and still more their morals, depended somuch on preserving their music in its original simplicity,as to banish a musician for increasing their scale fourtones, would not abandon the instrument of their countryfor any other.Mr. Norden, the Danish traveller, speaks of some ofthe paintings found near Thebes, in these words; Thissort of painting has neither shade nor degradation; thefigures are incrusted like the enamel on tile dial platesof watches, with tins diffi rence, that they cannot be detached. I must own, that this incrusted matter sur passes in strength every tiling 1 have seen of this kInd; it is superior to the alfresco, or mosaic work, and hasthe advantage of lasting longer. It is surprising to seeIlOW tile gold, ultra-marine, and other colours havepreserved their lustre to the present age. How highmust the state of the arts have been at that time, whenthis description is applicable Now?Modern scepticism should, we think, vanish from themoment the French took possession of Egypt in the year11 8. (!)ii that occasion, 1)EN0N copied the figures ofHarps ill the same sepulchral grottos, and thus, in a greatdegree, corroborated the narratives of llis pieslecessors.From his travels in Egypt in company with the Frencharmy, during the campaigns of Bzwnapartc, we thid tilattile galleries containing tile drawings are cased withstucco, sculptured and painted ; and that the cielings make a rich and harmonious association of colours ; except two of the eight tombs that lie visited, whichllave been inlured by water trickling down them, all therest are still in full perfection, and the paintings as freshas when they were first executed. Tile colouring of thecielings exhibiting yellow figures OIl a blue ground, areexecuted with a taste that might decorate our mostsplendid saloons. Of four figures of Harps, one ofthem, we are told, was of four strings, one of eleven, twocontaining a multiplicity, answer to one of Bruces figures;and all of them correspond with his ill the omission of anoutside pillar. [ See four instruments delineated in Plate III.Nos. 4, 5, 6, particularly the two last.]That which most resembles the Welsh and Irish Harpsin the double curvature of the arm in Bruces does notappear in Denon. This, however, may have proceededfrom one of the travellers having visited a gallery thathad, in the hurry of the moment, escaped the other.When we find Bruces delineation correct in one case,we ought not rashly to impeach his truth in the other:that he took drawings of the instruments on the spot, issufficiently established by the diagrams of Denon. Fewit ii singular that Bruce himself started this objection, saying, that if the Harp was painted in the proportions it was made, it could scarcelybear the tension of more than thirteen strings with which it was furnished, and that it would break with the tension of the four longest if they weremade of the size and consisten e 5 and tuned to the pitch that ours are at present.
issue Number
1
page Number
20
periodical Author
Edward Bunting
issue Publication Date
1809-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Bunting - A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland