Stringing

Nineteen Gaelic harps survive substantially complete (illustrated list), but apparently not one remains strung as last played. Some are lacking strings completely, like the Queen Mary harp, while others have been cosmetically restrung fairly recently, like the Trinity College harp.

In only one case does there seem to be an actual survival of a string in situ on an instrument: Bob Evans found a tiny fragment of 0.7mm diameter red brass wire stuck to the 10th tuning pin (from the bass) of the Balinderry harp fittings. It was analysed and found to be a "simple alloy of copper and zinc with probably no more than 10% zinc". This corresponds closely to "red brass" as used on the basses of historical harpsichords.

Separate spools of brass wire have occasionally been discovered by archaeologists. Those which have been analysed usually prove to be red or yellow brass. However it is virtually impossible to be certain that a spool of wire found in the ground was originally intended for stringing a Gaelic harp.

The way in which the wire was coiled may give clues as to its intended use. A piece of brass wire found at Fast Castle, Berwickshire was 71cm long and 0.4mm gauge, and was carefully wound into a loose loop, as if to deliberately avoid kinks or bends. These features are consistent with it being music wire, but also with many other uses.

A coil of brass wire recovered from St. Aldates, Oxford, was found near to part-made tuning pins at a site recorded historically as an instrument-makers workshop, but the wire could equally well have been for psalteries as harps as both types of pin were discovered there.

A fragment of bronze wire (containing tin instead of zinc) was discovered at Castle Sween, Argyll. A single tuning pin was found on the same excavation but this is not evidence that the wire was intended for stringing a harp. Indeed none of these archaeological wire fragments can be proved to be music wire at all.

References

Simon Chadwick