Musical Instruments, Vol. 2: English and Irish Instruments (Classic Reprint) - Tapa dura

Excerpt from Musical Instruments, Vol. 2: English and Irish Instruments

Musical instruments, which ere'now Obsolete and regarded as mere curiosities, were of some importance in their day. On them our grand mothers, great-grandmothers, and other ancestresses still more remote, played the simple melodies of the period in which they lived, and so rendered their lives and homes more cheerful.

Many years ago the writer heard at least one of a series of lectures upon Old Music and Musical Instruments by the late Sir Robert P. Stewart.1 There were then persons living who could play upon most of those that came under Observation, so, from the wire-strung Irish Harp (a reproduction of the ancient Harp in Trinity College, Dublin), down to the instruments in use at the commencement of the nineteenth century, almost all were again heard in public. No such lectures could now be given; even the wire-strung Irish Harp, for which some of the most enchanting melodies of any land were composed, is now unheard. The blind harper, the lowly representative of minstrels, the cherished guests of many mansions, has passed away, and there is now not a Single performer to be found.

The revival of obsolete instruments may not be required, but it is certainly desirable that clear, distinct, and correct information regarding them should be procurable.

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