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 it 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, according to authoritative references of the time, was swung when played? (see here for these references). It's not simply that it was an instrument that could be swung when played, it was designed to allow for the possibility of being swung.

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.

Grasping, swinging and playing a zither instrument, even a small one, is tiring, musically limiting and technically awkward. Was the bell harp really swung when played? There is no doubt at all that a similar type of instrument, the fairy bells (see below and here), introduced in the 1870s, was swung when played; it was explicitly marketed as a novelty instrument that could imitate church bells.

But the bell harp of the 18th century is rather different. It has many more strings, a greater range of notes and more musical possibilities than the fairy bells. Yet the 18th century formal descriptions simply say that the bell harp was swung when played. On the other hand, the very few 18th century references to the bell harp outside of formal descriptions in reference books, make no mention of swinging the instrument when playing it (see here).

A surviving bell harp in Edinburgh (MIMed 1591), see below, has both a built-in stand and associated quills for playing on a table leaving both hands free to move around all the strings on each side of the instrument. The twenty-four course instrument made by John Simcock, now in the V&A (see here) is both too wide and too complicated to play while grasping and swinging and playing only with the thumbs.

One possibility is that the bell harp was swung when played for particular, bell-like special effects unique to this instrument but at other times it was played without swinging for more conventional music.

For a description and discussion of some surviving instruments see Instruments 1 and Instruments 2 . For a discussion of the people who played the bell harp and the music they may have played on it, see Players and music in the 18th century. For a discussion of the known tunings see Tunings

Descriptions of the bell harp in authoritative sources from the 19th century onwards have always included references to John Simcock. See here for an attempt to sort out the many muddles that surround Simcock. For Simcock's English harp see English harp

In the late 19th century an instrument similar to, but in many ways different from, the bell harp appeared. The fairy bells were hidden in plain sight from British organologists for most of the 20th century. See Fairy bells and Fairy bells in British newspapers 1871-1978.

For other options see the menu.

There are, so far, no known images of anyone playing the 18th century bell harp or English harp. But there are images of people playing the fairy bells. R.Cook and Co's instruments, introduced in the early 1870s included this label:

R.Cook and Co. 'fairy bells'

The Till Family and their fairy bells

Many thanks to Dr Michael Till for this photograph of his distant relatives. It is from the late 19th century and the Till family played professionally. The fairy bells was just one of the many instruments that they played. (Their main instrument was the 'rock harmonicon'). The photo shows how these instruments are held for swinging, The fairy bells instrument was swung, waved, and even rotated but the 18th century bell harp, perhaps, was simply swung like a bell.

Hipkins 1888

The bell harp is a swung zither and the illustration here, from Hipkins 1888 (see References) 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, but not others, there are 'lugs' protruding at the playing end. They are puzzling. It would not be possible to grasp these lugs like a handle and actually play the instrument because the thumb would not be free to reach the strings. Possibly they support the hands (the little finger side) so that 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. (But there are filled in holes on the wrest plank so the instrument may have originally had quadruple courses). 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 very useful to have a way of describing this unusual, and very possibly unique, stringing arrangement. I will refer to this arrangement as following the FRAS principle, Forward Reverse Ascending Scale. On all (?) other zither/psaltery/harp instruments the notes ascend in one direction, from the lowest to the highest, from the longest string (or 'course') to the shortest.

But the bell harp, following the FRAS principle, is fundamentally different. The string lengths are indeed gradually getting shorter throughout the instrument, but not in one direction. The bell harp, and the later fairy bells, have to be conceptualised as instruments with two distinct sections, the left hand side and the right hand side. Sometimes there may be more strings (courses) on one side, so the dividing line, the septum (if there is one), may not be exactly in the middle.

On an instrument with a FRAS principle stringing arrangement, notes ascend in the normal way on the left hand side and continue as far as the septum or 'middle' (which might not be the exact middle). Then, for reasons so far unknown, the upward scale continues, now on the right hand side and now from the outside towards the 'middle'.

(This is quite different from the kalimba arrangement of notes where the ascending scale jockeys back and forth between each side of the instrument).

FRAS principle instruments are easily identifiable if the strings are visible. The bell harp and the fairy bells are instruments played with lids or tops covering the strings. But, with the lid, lids or top removed, FRAS principle instruments can be identified by the positions of the two hitch pin planks. As can be seen in the Edinburgh instrument above, the left hand hitch pin plank (AB) is more distant from the wrest plank than the right hand hitch pin plank (CD). The string lengths are getting shorter (and the notes rising in pitch) from A to B to C to D. but in two directions!

As will be seen in the more detailed descriptions, although all bell harps generally follow the FRAS principle, some have small deviations. The commonest deviation is to have the longest course, not on the outside left but on the outside right of the instrument. The reasons for this are not known.

It is useful to adopt the term 'swung zither' to refer to an instrument that can be swung when played and which has 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). It is confusing and unhistorical to use 'bell harp' to refer to all such instruments.

There is, however, a problem with the term 'swung zither' because there are some zither-type instruments that follow the unique (?) FRAS principle but couldn't be swung, for example, the 24-course English harp in the V&A and some of Eli Colman's instruments. The 24-course instrument and the Colman instruments do, however, seem to be very closely related to bell harp/fairy bells-type instruments which are, or could be, swung.

The concept of a FRAS principle instrument covers both swung and non-swung instruments but it is a concocted term needing a paragraph of explanation. 'Swung zither' is self-explanatory and emphasises a unique property of bell harps and fairy bells, that generally, they are, or could be, swung.

Swung zither and FRAS principle instruments include:

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. And there are unusual and anomalous instruments which areobviouslysimilar to swung zithers. See Eli Colman's Box of Bells and Anomalous 'bell harps'

Although swung zithers are instruments that can 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 have a design which allows for the possibility of being swung when played.

While the unique (?) FRAS principle stringing arrangement is essential to the idea of the swung zither, some 18th century instruments, as mentioned above, have some small 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.

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