The Story of the Harp

Although the Harp, mainly by reason of the introduction of the pianoforte, has not maintained its prestige in the salons of the great, yet it still holds an honoured place in the orchestra, and claims many amateur votaries. Of course there is a professorship of the harp in the principal musical conservatoires; and all the big European and American festivals requisition the instrument either for solo or concerted work. The chief object of this title is to present in a popular form the various evolutions of the harp until its final development by Erard, at the commencement of the nineteenth century, and to furnish a readable account of the leading harpists from mediæval days to our own times; as also to point out the bearing of the harp in the orchestra, and its introduction into the scores of such giants as Wagner, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, and Gounod.