And now for something completely different...
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(YouTube clicky)
Harpers: ever seen this one?
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Nanohedron
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Harpers: ever seen this one?
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician
Re: Harpers: ever seen this one?
That was very cool, thanks!
The way the soundboard curves forward would make it a lot easier to play down to the audience!
The way the soundboard curves forward would make it a lot easier to play down to the audience!
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Nanohedron
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Re: Harpers: ever seen this one?
A very unusual harp form, topsy-turvy by modern Western standards. One might presume why it eventually fell out of use: compared to the Western frame harp the design is quite an unwieldy one, being topheavy. But in fact it lasted long, flourishing for periods in various forms in various cultures, from the Elamites in the 1900s BCE, to the Islamic Near East in the 1700s CE. The harpist in the video plays the revived instrument in one of its more graceful forms as would have been found in Central Asia along the Silk Road.
I recall seeing depictions of this instrument on Persian illuminations, but had no idea that in its day it had spread so far from its Mesopotamian birthplace: mostly eastward and as far as Japan where it was called the kugo, but also as far west as the Greeks, who called it the trigonon.
I recall seeing depictions of this instrument on Persian illuminations, but had no idea that in its day it had spread so far from its Mesopotamian birthplace: mostly eastward and as far as Japan where it was called the kugo, but also as far west as the Greeks, who called it the trigonon.
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician
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ceadach
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Re: Harpers: ever seen this one?
Hey Brother,
Cool that this ancient harp has been revived in Japan!
This form of harp has been with us forever. Not only did this instrument last in the far East but it's Persian cousin was used as recently as the 17th century and is a close relation to the Burmese "saung"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saung
Cool that this ancient harp has been revived in Japan!
This form of harp has been with us forever. Not only did this instrument last in the far East but it's Persian cousin was used as recently as the 17th century and is a close relation to the Burmese "saung"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saung
"Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever has not kindness has not faith."
Muhammad
"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different."
T.S. Eliot
Muhammad
"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different."
T.S. Eliot
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Nanohedron
- Moderatorer
- Posts: 38239
- Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2002 6:00 pm
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- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Been a fluter, citternist, and uilleann piper; committed now to the way of the harp.
Oh, yeah: also a mod here, not a spammer. A matter of opinion, perhaps. - Location: Lefse country
Re: Harpers: ever seen this one?
Yeah, the Burmese were the ones to figure out which end's up. Took long enough for someone to get it. 
Apparently the kugo was a component of some forms of Gagaku music during the Nara Period. Didn't last long much beyond that, if I understand correctly. I suspect the occasional instance - or even just the possibility - of this unwieldy harp falling down and hitting one's fellow orchestra member would have quickly put the kibosh on that, what with the Japanese insistence on maintaining the dignity of formal situations. It's a theory, anyway.
I wonder if anyone in Central Asia, or west of that, is likewise reviving the instrument.
Apparently the kugo was a component of some forms of Gagaku music during the Nara Period. Didn't last long much beyond that, if I understand correctly. I suspect the occasional instance - or even just the possibility - of this unwieldy harp falling down and hitting one's fellow orchestra member would have quickly put the kibosh on that, what with the Japanese insistence on maintaining the dignity of formal situations. It's a theory, anyway.
I wonder if anyone in Central Asia, or west of that, is likewise reviving the instrument.
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician