on 24/10/2000 2:29 pm, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Regarding the "backwards playing" of the bagpipes
> This is absolutely fascinating for this harper. There is a huge debate as to
> whether all the ancient harpers played on the left shoulders, so that the
> left hand played the treble and the right hand played the bass.
Do any of you all have any thoughts about harpers?
> (I have seen pictures of the ancient harpers with the harp on their right
> shoulder, but have been told that those are all from printing the photograph
> of the picture in reverse, and thus a mistake).
>
> I look forward to seeing some opinions on this coming from somewhere outside
> of my harper connections! (But you're welcome to jump in, Sue!)
>
Any reproduction made from an engraving over 40 years ago may be reversed,
because of the common use by printers of a material called reflex film. This
was laid ON TOP of a page, and the light shone through the back of it; its
sensitivity is such that with the right exposure, you copy what is
underneath it. I have done this back in the late 1960s when learning about
photo materials from old books, which treated this as routine. Because of
various aspects of the printing process, it wasn't unusual for plates
(halftones or line) to end up being made mirror imaged.
BUT one of the best clues is that both myself and my wife instintively
picked up the small harp and placed in on the left shoulder, playing with
the right hand. The old engravings or carvings sometimes show the left hand
in use, but equally often show the left hand holding the harp frame. It's
quite easy to stand up and play a harp of the size shown in this manner, and
some of the old engraving also show this - though just as many show a
larger, heavier harp used sitting down and in some cases I would say the
harp is not 'shown' in contact with either shoulder, it looks almost centred
and held slightly away from the body.
However, when playing the harp in this position with both hands, I find my
right hand would play the treable and my left the bass, with the harp on my
left shoulder, though both can reach any of the strings. My wife appears to
do this too. I've tried it on the right shoulder and to make the right hand
playu the treble in this position seems an awkward and cramped position.
Assuming a harp of modest size and weight that could be carried easily as a
personal instrument, and used standing up if need be, the left hand shoulder
position seems 'natural' and comfortable for a right-handed player -
especially if that player has also played other instruments plucked with the
right hand. The oldest carvings and pictures seem to confirm this, but you
really can not be sure of the reversal aspect. You also have to remember
that all woodcuts, copperplates and lithographs were hand-tooled as mirror
images and that sometimes the maker of a small printing block would simply
copy the original drawing without bothering to mirror it.
Before the advent of photography, many field artists used two forms of
tracing camera - obscura and lucida - which employed only one mirror. This
projects a right-way-up image, but the scene is flipped left to right. Good
artists like Canaletto would make sketches with the 'artist's camera' and
then transfer these to a correctly orientated final painting with accurate
perspective and scale. But we can't be sure that artist's camera sketches of
stones, carvings or paintings are always correctly reversed when later
copied, engraving or cut, and printed.
Each case would need checking against the original, if still in existence,
to prove anything!
David
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