Hearpe - Old English Lyre

[Professor Woozle]

After mentioning this instrument in passing on another thread, I seem to have got the interest of several people and promised to start a dedicated thread, so here it is. Hearpe is the Old English name for the stringed instrument that thanks to the influence of Greek and Latin scholars, most people refer to as a lyre. There are a few fragmentary examples known from archaeological digs, most famously Sutton Hoo but also Taplow, and there are examples from Germany too, one from a grave in Koln and one from Oberflacht. The latter was apparently virtually intact when found, but in pre-PEG days the only way to preserve it was in alcohol. When Berlin fell to the Russians in 1945, unfortunately some of their troops found it and did what Russian soldiers normally do with neat alcohol, destroying it in the process. Attached are some scans of photocopied pages from R.L.S. Bruce-Mitford's The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial (British Museum Press, 3 Vols: 1975, 1978, 1983) which was in my University library. One thing I am currently missing is the A3 photocopy I made of the plan of the Sutton Hoo hearpe but I've got a suspicion which folder of photocopied stuff it's in, there's a partial one attached with measurements.

I found this site - http://www.michaeljking.com/index.htm#, looks like he specialises in making them and fair play to him, although the prices of some had me sounding the Yorkshire War Cry (for the benefit of non-UK members, that's "How Much!!!" rendered at earth-shattering volumes). I've long had designs on making myself a copy of the Taplow lyre, including the wonderful bird-head escutcheons, so maybe it's time I got mysef a suitably sized bit of maple and got on with it!

[Prostheta]

Very interesting background information. I just remembered Maria Franz played an instrument from this same family on a track with Christopher Juul. Two members of Heilung, a "living history" musical performance group. Same, or similar?

 

I would imagine that the cost of instrument maker's copies being expensive due to the speciality rather than complexity. As a fellow Yorkshireman, I share that same instinctual sentiment.

[Professor Woozle]

Not quite the same, given that the hearpe is plucked/strummed not bowed, but they are both from the same family. This one is more akin to the Welsh crwth. Somewhere on  Youtube there's probably the footage from Time Team of Phil Harding having a go with a hearpe - possibly the same episode where in the background of one shot, you also get to see him getting a faceful of ale when he was drinking from a horn and found out why you don't lower them quickly after taking a mouthful...

[Prostheta]

That's pretty much what I thought, if you could put what I do into words as "thinking"

Is there much discussion on the evolution of the instrument family? I presume these things were very widespread at some point with variations popping up here and there rather than a linear line of changes. I suppose that you could easily fill a whole book full of prehistoric instrument development given that music is a universal factor wherever you find humans.

[Professor Woozle]

I've not really looked into it, but I suspect there will be some good reference sources to follow up on the wikipedia page on lyres, and the sub-pages for different sorts. I might have a look on academia.org and see if there are any good papers uploaded there, in fact I may even have one already - I've got a load of papers on Dark Age archaeology from there that I never got round to reading properly, not enough hours in the day...

[Professor Woozle]

Just had a delve in the dustier recesses of my hard drive and found this one I got from Academia.org...

EARLY_LYRES_IN_CONTEXT_A_COMPARATIVE_CON.pdf

[Prostheta]

Fantastic! Thank you very much. This will be an excellent read on so many levels. It's interesting how the soundboards in recovered examples all used Oak and Maple; both hardwoods. My first instinct would be for those to be softwoods like Kuusi/Spruce. I presume that these would be more likely to dissolve in time if they were used, skewing the apparent representation of their use? I might be tempted to make one at some point in my life, in spite of me knowing that I have a vast capacity for ideas that I can't practically pursue

[henrim]

22 hours ago, Professor Woozle said:

Not quite the same, given that the hearpe is plucked/strummed not bowed, but they are both from the same family. This one is more akin to the Welsh crwth. Somewhere on  Youtube there's probably the footage from Time Team of Phil Harding having a go with a hearpe - possibly the same episode where in the background of one shot, you also get to see him getting a faceful of ale when he was drinking from a horn and found out why you don't lower them quickly after taking a mouthful...

Crwth (sounds like one of those internet abbreviations, or rather looks, I have no idea how that is pronounced) is closely related to Swedish Talharpa and Finnish Jouhikko. At least they are all played with a bow and feature drone strings. Although crwth seems like a more sophisticated instrument than the Scandinavian ones.  

[Professor Woozle]

It's pronounced "Krooth", and they are perhaps the final development of the lyre family with some unusual features, such as a void in the centre of the neck under the fingerboard.

[Prostheta]

16 hours ago, Professor Woozle said:

....unusual features, such as a void in the centre of the neck under the fingerboard.

Hmm. What purpose did that serve, or what design pressure caused that to be introduced? It doesn't seem immediately obvious as to why.

[Professor Woozle]

The suggestion on this link from wikipedia is that it was an extra soundbox - https://web.archive.org/web/20131230234441/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/crwth

I'm guessing  the modern  crwth makers will have been experimenting to see what difference it makes to the sound, but the fact that three of the surviving originals have this does point to it being a deliberate and established practice?

[Prostheta]

That's a logical extension. I like the puzzle aspect of putting together a clearer picture on the why and wherefores of all sorts of things. For my own part, I enjoy reading into how modern instruments were made, and a little of the pressures and solutions behind those reasons. Detective work such as this helps stave off that "aging mind blindness" that we all seem to get from time to time. A hollow behind a fingerboard isn't something that I've seen in modern instruments so far, which leads me to think that in the absence of a practical reasoning then it could well be blind copying. I'd say that established practice is equal parts superstition/tradition and reasoned design....if instruments were made by master-apprentice or families of makers, aspects could easily be handed down without questioning the basis behind this or that. Of itself, that's a fascinating thing to see when laid out.

Feasibly - having idly thought about this - it could be weight reduction or even to introduce stability. Disruption of growth rings in a workpiece reduces warping from moisture/dryness. Removing material from the top of the instrument makes it less ungainly, but not massively so. We may never know unless those hypotheses are tested.

[Professor Woozle]

Been musing on the spare bits of oak in the garage, and the spare machine heads and P90 in the parts box, which is rapidly coalescing into "why don't you make yourself an electric one?"

I guess some reinforcement will be needed on the arms, and maybe make it a semi-acoustic to cut down on weight, but I won't know that it doesn't work until I've tried!

[Prostheta]

It's a worthwhile experiment, that's for certain. As electric instruments based on acoustic ones go, it's worth considering whether the original acoustic elements reinforce the character of the sound enough that they need to be included explicitly. Exactly the difference between an acoustic guitar with a magnetic pickup and a solidbody. The acoustic aspects of the body affect the way the strings vibrate, and how the magnetic pickup reproduces that....a solid lump of wood without that vital acoustic component of the instrument as a system feeding into the strings might lack vital a acoustic character in the tone also. Muse on.

[curtisa]

I'm a little late to this prehistoric party (aren't we all ) but I'm fascinated to see what territory this wanders through. My only knowledge of the Welsh crwth is via a long-forgotten book that was given to me by a family friend, 'The Art and Times of the Guitar' by Frederic V. Grunfeld. It only briefly mentions the crwth as being a descendant of the Greek cithara (kithara?), the name of which has an obvious etymological basis for the relatively modern word 'guitar '.

Completely unrelated side note - your avatar reminds me a lot of Tim Hunkin. As a kid with more than a passing interest in how stuff worked his 'Secret Life Of Machines' TV series was mandatory viewing at home growing up in the late 80s.

Carry on!

[Professor Woozle]

My avatar is a caricature done by a former work colleague, although I don't wear glasses - I guess he thought it added to the general mad professor look.

I've dug out the oak bits I was looking for, I think it's American white oak that has suffered a bit of woodworm damage and I'd previously treated with boron-based insecticide. Should  be enough there to cut the damaged bits off, now need to level some edges and glue up.

[Professor Woozle]

Roughly sawed the bits at the weekend for the electric hearpe experiment, here they are along with an acoustic hearpe I bought off ebay several years ago, which I keep meaning to sand off and refinish, and also make a new bridge and tailpiece, not to mention take those silly flowers off

I'd planed the edges and tried gluing up yesterday but it went a bit wrong, I think I managed to put  slight chamfers on so the pieces were pushing outwards when clamped. I'm thinking of knocking up a router sled and levelling them off on all sides with that, then re-planing and trying again. I'm also thinking of trying to steam-bend a bit of a curve into the offcut that's going to be the peg arm.

 

[Prostheta]

Steam bending a piece with that sort of cross-section and short length will be a task. That said, something being difficult is a terrible reason to not do it! 

What sort of steam box/pipe setup do you use?

[Professor Woozle]

I haven't got as far as building a steaming box/pipe yet, I'll have a look online for possible options and see what looks the best fit to my available materials. Also thinking about how best to make  a bending jig, a fly press would be the ideal thing to apply the pressure but I don't have one. I do however have a spare anvil that could be used as a weight...

[Prostheta]

I doubt that you'll need the same beam steaming box as was used when this ship was built down the road from me!

https://ihana.fi/?lang=en-gb&langmenu=1

Likely the simplest and most available option would be PVC drain piping and adaptors, or even piped within sheeting. I shouldn't need to remind you of the safety issues in steam that can end up pressurised, however I would be irresponsible for not pointing out the obvious  It may be possible to steam this in a microwave, but that is something I don't have working knowledge of, only anecdotal info. I'd imagine that you wouldn't get the same amount of control or time in steam in a microwave.

[Professor Woozle]

I'd probably kill our elderly microwave if I tried to steam a piece of timber in it, but I wonder if I could do a long slow steaming in the oven? I'm sure there'll be something I can do using the junk in my garage!

[Prostheta]

Again, no direct experience on this one. Steam is simply a buffer for heat when it comes to bending wood. Same as why food doesn't exceed the boiling point of water when cooking water-heavy food, the same applies to bending wood. It controls direct application of heat by dissipating it as steam escapes. Boiling wood is possible also, but I've not tried anything as large or thick as this piece, only binding. Evening heating to the core of the workpiece must be done fully so as not to create some sort of heat gradient which would interfere with - or prevent - a stable bend.

Generally I would think that you'd need to be bending a larger piece of timber in order to achieve the torque to take it into the shape needed. Something like this would need to be maybe half a metre in length? That seems right on the borderline of what I would imagine is easy to handle. A good strong pair of clamping cauls in the shape of the destination bend seems a given.

I say "do it", but with the full knowledge that it may fail, and have a backup plan. It's a great opportunity to absorb the process hands-on (wearing heatproof gloves, anyway).

[Professor Woozle]

The backup plan is keep my eyes open for an ash limb with suitable curve - there's a lot of ash trees having to come down round here thanks to ash dieback, which means lots of wood to be scavenged, and I reckon with ash being a naturally pretty dry wood I could get away with minimal seasoning for an experimental build like this.
As for the steaming, the offcut piece is about half a metre in length and a fairly gentle curve would be sufficient. I may spark together some steel formers for the job...

[Prostheta]

That's a better idea, especially as this is how they would have been made originally. I can't remember the tannic acid content of Ash, but bear in mind that the acidic nature of most glues against steel in clamps or forms will likely blacken the wood.

[Professor Woozle]

Plan 'B' is now looking likely to become plan 'A' having looked over some ash limbs I scavenged a few months back  and seen a bit with a suitable curve - go for the old-school ship builder's approach and let the tree form the shape you need! I might get some thin slices off straight pieces and put stripes in the body too.

This is giving me more ideas, I'll look out for a crotch bit - one-piece flying 'V' body, anyone?