Players and music in the 18th century

Unfortunately, no music, published or in manuscript, is known to have survived for the bell harp. In fact, no music is known to have ever been written for it but, of course, something might yet turn up. This absence of music is interesting in itself and taken with other pieces of evidence suggests, unsurprisingly, that bell harp players simply played popular tunes of the time, songs and dance tunes that fitted the instrument and the player. But it is also possible that the bell harp had a specialised repertoire appropriate for it.

Street musicians

One source of information about the bell harp and bell harp players comes from the archive of trials at the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court, 1674-1913.

https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

The bell harp gets a mention three times in that whole period (1674-1913) and all three times are from the 1730s: 1730, 1733 and 1737. In 1730 a bell harp was heard.

The 'prisoners', or defendants lived in a tavern. In 1733 a boy was playing a bell harp at a ‘Brandy-shop’, whatever that was. The implication is that the bell harp was a street musician’s instrument and, judging by the way the instrument was casually referred to, a very familiar object of those times. What do street musicians play? The repertoire must have been whatever would get passers by to throw some money their way, and most likely, popular tunes of that time.

These reports from the 1730s don’t tell us if other people than street musicians played the bell harp. Perhaps at this time the instrument was mostly played by street musicians or, anyway, ordinary people, and not the middle or upper classes. And if the middle and upper classes were not playing the instrument this could explain the paucity of references to the instrument from the time.

The Old Bailey references are all from the London area but there is a slightly later one from 1743 in Derby. It comes from William Hutton’s autobiography remembering his life from many years earlier. (See References). Hutton was a businessman and historian but originally from a poor background. In 1743 he was 20 years old and an apprentice. Having heard a bell harp being played and thinking that it sounded ‘seraphic’, he saved up 2s 6d to buy it. Once again it would seem that the bell harp is an instrument played by ordinary people, not the middle or upper classes.

Hutton gives no description of the bell harp, nor what music was played on it, nor if the player swung it, but he tells us that he laboured for six months and couldn’t get a tune out of it. He then tells us that he borrowed a dulcimer, made a copy of it, and learned to play it. This is a curious little story because Hutton is quite boastful of his ability to make a dulcimer out of an old case and without proper woodworking tools. If he could make a dulcimer and learn to play it, what was the problem with the bell harp that he bought? Does it hint at some special technique or tuning that Hutton was not aware of?

Middle class amateurs

Although no music for the bell harp has yet been found, some music does survive for the English harp, invented around 1760 by John Simcock. Simcock’s instrument was most probably some modified form of the earlier bell harp and it was popular for a while in the 1760s.

Thompson's Compleat Collection c1762

Thompson's Compleat Collection of Minuets is dated by the British Library as c1762. Collections like this were popular in the 18th century and the harpsichord, violin and German flute are often found on title pages. This collection is the only one to have the English harp as an option and it is likely that the publishers simply added it because they hoped it would increase sales. Nevertheless, it shows that the English harp must have been popular enough at that time for the publishers to bother.

There are 100 minuets in Thompson's Compleat Collection, in a number of keys, with many in D major and G major, but other keys are used too. The music is laid out as expected, keyboard fashion, with a treble line and a bass, occasionally with figures. Simcock's English harps have a range of two octaves and would surely have only been able to play the treble part only.

Thompson's Compleat Collection c1762

Unfortunately, nothing in the music suggests that it has been adapted in any way for the English harp. The player presumably played whatever was possible to play and perhaps adapted other pieces too. The fact that this music for the English harp was actually published, and had to be paid for, probably indicates a target audience of middle-class amateurs.

John Simcock had been in the army and, according to a label on one of his instruments (now no longer extant), he ‘instructs gentlemen in the best mode of playing that instrument[English harp]’. In his advertisements (three have survived from 1763, 1764 and 1785) he:

teaches Ladies and Gentlemen to play with great Ease and Expedition; but those who have practis'd the Harpsichord, Violin, German-flute, guitar etc may with great facility learn the English Harp without the help of a Master.

The selling point is that the instrument is not difficult to learn to play, a very old ruse for promoting a musical instrument. Once again it would seem that the likely repertoire would have been popular melodies of the time, perhaps with more emphasis on music known to a middle class audience, for example, songs popularised in the London theatres or pleasure gardens.

Even simple tunes, like minuets and country dances and songs of the time, would have had trills and playing them would have been an expected part of a performance. When swung, English harp players have just a single thumb to perform trills. The only possibility is a fast wiggle. The sticcado pastorale player, according to James Bremner's Instructions c1775, is in a similar situation. Bremner's sticcado is a wooden, xylophone-like instrument played with one hand and one 'stick' (a piece of whalebone topped with an ivory ball). To play trills, the sticcado player simply wiggles the stick (the ivory ball) between the wooden bars.

Rural life

There is another series of references to the bell harp from much later, in the 1790s. They come from The Diary of a Country Parson by James Woodforde.

A Mr William Mason of Marham in Norfolk played for the Reverend James Woodforde around Christmas time in the 1780s and 1790s. At first he played ten bells in some sort of construction of his own devising but from 1789 he played a bell harp. On a couple of occasions the Reverend noted that he paid Mr Marham 1s 6d. and in one diary entry, the Rev Woodforde refers to Mr Marham’s ‘Wire-Musick’ .

In this instance the bell harp is once again an instrument of ordinary people and not the middle or upper classes, but now of the rural poor rather than urban poor. Could the the trajectory of the bell harp in the 18th century have been something like this? At first it was a sort of novelty instrument, designed by, and for, street musicians to attract attention both by its sound and by its theatrical manner of play. And then, decades later it had a brief period of popularity for a middle class audience in Simcock's gentrified bell harp, his English harp. When that interest faded, both the older form of bell harp and Simcock's version, now available as inexpensive, second-hand instruments, had a final burst of life in rural areas. Of course this is just a guess and based on a scarcity of evidence.

Another angle is that the instrument was devised for a special purpose, something to do with bell ringing and, in particular, change-ringing. For example, Eric Halfpenny (see References) offers a suggestion as to the origin of the instrument which he admits is 'quite unsubstantiated':

I suggest also that the English custom of change-ringing may have required in its early stages some from of mnemonic upon which changes might be worked out audibly and visually, and that this is the explanation of the origin and purpose of the 'English' or 'Bell' harp. (Halfpenny 1978))

This is the final sentence of Halfpenny's article and he is ending with a flourish. The question is what does, or what could, 'some form of mnemonic upon which changes might be worked out audibly and visually' actually mean? No musical instrument can be of any assistance for the mathematics of change ringing and any musical instrument can play sequences of notes.

The connection of the swung zither instruments (bell harp, English harp, fairy bells) with bell ringing and change ringing is probably much simpler. A swung zither is an instrument that isn't a bell or collection of bells but evokes the sounds of church bells. Listeners may either sneer at this or accept its fancifulness. The bell harp, unlike other musical instruments, explicitly invites the sympathetic listener to hear the instrument as church bells ringing. The player is simply offering a little soundscape or auditory 'glimpse' of chimes and peals and changes.