Triple harp

The triple harp is a type of multi-course harp employing three parallel rows of strings instead of the more common single row. One common version is the Welsh triple harp (Welsh: telyn deires), used today mainly among players of traditional Welsh folk music.

The triple harp originated in 16th-century Italy. To enable chromatic playing required by late-Renaissance music, a second row of strings containing the pentatonic scale (the accidentals) was added in parallel to the first row, which contained the diatonic scale. These harps were called arpa doppia or double harp and allowed for fully chromatic playing for the first time in the history of the harp. Later, a second diatonic row of strings was added on the other side of the pentatonic row of strings, creating the arpa tripla or triple harp. Double and triple harps continued to be the norm throughout the Baroque era in Italy, Spain, and France and were employed both as solo and continuo instruments.

The most famous surviving example of an Italian triple harp is the Barberini harp. The instrument was built between 1605 and 1620 for the Barberini family and was played by Marco Marazzoli. It features prominently in Giovanni Lanfranco's painting Venus plays the harp.

The triple harp appeared in the British Isles early in the 17th century. In 1629, the French harpist Jean le Flelle was appointed "musician for the harp" at the court of King Charles I. Flelle played the Italian triple harp with gut strings.

The triple harp was quickly adopted by the Welsh harpers living in London during the 17th century. It was so popular that by the beginning of the 18th century the triple harp became generally known as the "Welsh harp". Charles Evans was the first mentioned Welsh triple harpist. He was appointed harper to the court in 1660, where his official title was ‘His Majesty's harper for the Italian harp’. As late as the 1680s, Talbot was describing the triple harp as the English harp, and the Welsh harp he describes appears to be a large, diatonic gothic-style harp, with bray pins.

A description of the Welsh triple harp is given by the harpist John Parry (Bardd Alaw) (1776–1851) in the preface to the second volume of his collection, The Welsh Harper (London 1839):

The compass of the triple harp is about five octaves, or thirty-seven strings in the principal row, which is on the side played by the right hand, called the bass row. The middle row, which produces the flats and sharps, consists of thirty-four strings; and the treble, or left hand row, numbers twenty-seven strings. The outside rows are tuned in unison, and always in the diatonic scale, that is, in the regular and natural scale of tones and semitones, as a peal of eight bells is tuned.

When it is necessary to change the key, for instance, from C to G, all the F's in the outside rows are made sharp by raising them half a tone. Again, to change from C to F, every B in the outside rows is made flat, by lowering them by a semitone. When an accidental sharp or flat is required, the performer inserts a finger between two of the outer strings, and finds it in the middle row. Many experiments have been made, with a view of obviating the necessity of tuning the instrument every time a change in the key occurred. Brass rings were fixed near the comb, but those rattled and jarred. Every attempt failed until the invention of the pedal harp.