The Bell Harp and the English Harp

The bell harp, an obscure musical instrument of the eighteenth century, is still as mysterious today as it ever was. Very little has been written about it and much of that is inaccurate, unreliable or muddled. (See here for more details).

Why, in the early years of the eighteenth century in Britain, would anyone want to devise a form of zither that was typically swung when played? It's not simply that it is an instrument that could be swung when played, it is designed to be swung, not as an option, but presumably for some unusual effect.

Who invented this instrument and for what purpose? Who played the bell harp? What music did they play on it? Why does the bell harp have its very unusual, and probably unique, stringing arrangement? These are reasonable questions but hardly anyone asks them, let alone offers any satisfactory answers.

Hipkins 1888

The bell harp is a swung zither and the illustration here is probably the most familiar image of one, although this particular instrument is probably more accurately described as an English harp). The sides are 21 inches (about 54cms) in length.It has a central 'septum' with fourteen courses of quadruple strings, seven courses for the left hand and seven for the right hand. Other surviving instruments are slightly different. The thumbs, with plectrums attached, strike the strings.The instrument has its lids on, ready to be played. The player grasps the instrument with both hands at the playing end. On this instrument there are 'lugs' protruding at the playing end to support the hands (the little finger side) and the thumbs are ready to reach over to play the strings. Now, standing with the instrument facing outwards, the player swings the instrument while playing.This image comes from A.J. Hipkins' Musical Instruments Historic, Rare and Unique, published in 1888 (see References).

This next instrument (1591 MIMed and Glen Collection) is in Edinburgh (thanks to the University of Edinburgh for allowing me to take this photograph). The outline of the body does actually resemble the shape of a bell. The length down the middle is 59 cms and it is longer than other surviving bell harps (or English harps). This instrument has 16 triple courses, eight on each side of the septum. The thin wires are made of brass and steel. Maximum string length is 39 cms and the shortest, c11.8 cms.

Edinburgh 1591 MIMed and Glen Collection

Edinburgh MIMed 1591

With its lid removed it is possible to see the curious string arrangement. On the left-hand side, everything is as expected. The longest course is on the outside left and the hitch pin plank, AB, is angled to meet the septum so that the string lengths get progressively shorter towards the middle of the instrument. But the hitch pin plank on the right-hand side, CD, is angled the opposite way. The string lengths are getting progressively shorter from position A to position D but at first left-right and then right-left.From left to right across the playing area of the instrument the courses are:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 septum 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 with 1 as the lowest pitch and 16 as the highest.

It is useful to adopt the term 'swung zither' to refer to instruments that are designed to be swung and which have this unusual left-right and then right-left ascending scale. It makes it possible to distinguish between related, but different, instruments all belonging to the swung zither family (or class).

The bell harp appeared in England in the early 18th century (see bell harp in the 18th century)
John Simcock announced his invention of the English harp in 1760. The English harp must have been some sort of modification or 'improvement' of the bell harp.
Much later, around 1870, another instrument, the fairy bells, was introduced. It is a longer instrument with fewer and single strings. Initially it was marketed as a novelty that could create the sound of bells.
There may be other family members too. For example, F.W. Galpin claimed that a similar instrument to the bell harp, the schelle-zither, was played in Germany in the 18th century. Unfortunately there seems to be no evidence to support this idea.

Although swung zither instruments are designed to be swung it must always have been an option to play them in more conventional ways. The instrument above (Edinburgh 1591) has a stand for setting the instrument on a table and it has ornamental quills that could not feasibly be attached to the thumbs for playing and swinging. The stand may be a later addition, but someone, at some stage, preferred to sit and play this instrument. Nevertheless, instruments like this are designed to be swung when played.

While the unique (?) left-right then right-left ascending scale principle is essential to the idea of the swung zither, several surviving instruments from the 18th century have strange deviations from this (see Tunings).

There is a German term, schwungzither, which could be used to describe these sorts of instruments but it would be odd to adopt a German word for an instrument that seems characteristically British. The word schwungzither appears to have been devised to describe British instruments, not native German ones.