Tristan: This is a beautiful depiction of a brass strung Irish or Scottish harp - or 'Clarsach'. The picture clearly shows the bowing of the forepillar under the tremendous tension of the brass strings. These clarsachs were traditionally played with long fingernails with a complex technique and the tradition died out by the early 1800's. There are only a few surviving clarsachs that approach this size. Most of them self-destructed and/or were burned for warmth in those cold and wet lands. The website www.wirestrungharp.com has a great deal of information about these harps. Their history is fascinating, and this painting is one of the best contemporary depictions of one. How and why one of these ended up in Christian IV's court is curious. I would love to hear what that ensemble sounded like. Cheers, ted Jordan Ohio, US -----Original Message----- From: Tristan von Neumann <tristanvonneum...@gmx.de> To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Mon, Jul 20, 2020 2:01 pm Subject: [LUTE] Weird instrument depiction in painting I just stumbled upon this painting by Reinhold Timm. It supposedly shows the musicians of Christian IV. What's the instrument on the left? It looks like a Harp seen from a very weird angle... The painting is very interesting in general, it looks almost like some 1920s Neorealism. [1]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Christian_IV%27s _musicians_by_Reinhold_Timm.jpg To get on or off this list see list information at [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
-- References 1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Christian_IV%27s_musicians_by_Reinhold_Timm.jpg 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
