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 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) looks 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. 

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.