'The Harp in Middle-earth', Norbert Maier
 

Norbert Maier's 'The Harp in Middle-earth' is another of my favourite articles in Music; beacuse I liked how Mr. Maier, in dealing with this instrument, and rightly emphasising its importance in Tolkien's story of Middle-earth, built on and gave more detail to the mentions of it in other articles in Music, in particular those by Steven Linden and Heidi Steimel.

I also have a personal curiosity, being Irish, whose country has the harp as its national symbol, and having seen the 'Brian Boru Harp' in Trinity College Dublin.:)

I don't have the kind of knowledge to properly comment on the author's attempt to reproduce the harps that might have been used in Middle-earth; but I could not but admire his attempt to answer these questions:

Of what materials are they made? How large were the harps and which shape did they have for the various peoples of the Elves, Humans, Hobbits, and Dwarves? Above all I am interested in the question: How did the harps sound? (p. 108)

I also admired the beautiful drawings he used to illustrate his attempted answers. :eek:

I found of particular interest the author's attempt to find the possible Elvish words, in High-elven and Sindarian, for 'harp', and his explanation for why Tolkien mentioned the harp most above all instruments, both of which I feel are well worth reading. (pp. 108-109)

Harp the herald elves do play
 

I second Faramir's praise for this chapter. I think it's great strength lies in Norbert Maier's ability to convey his great love of the harp through a thoughtful and well-considered study of Tolkien's references and languages. It enriches his thoughts on Tolkien and thus ours as well.

I think particularly the lines Maier quotes from Beowulf are applicable to the argument: "the joyous sound of the singing wood". Who of us does not recognise the importance of wood--forests and trees--in Tolkien. And how wonderful that the trees have further life and meaning in the form of a musical instrument.

Maier's argument that we--Tolkien's modern readers--have an acoustic memory of the harp because it is an instrument known to us, and which we bring to any of the text's mentions of that instrument's music, is quite intriguing, especially for those who are interested in Tolkien's attempts to reach his audience in ways that the more 'regular' modernist writers did not.

If I have one little quibble it is that I wish he could have explained briefly the difference between the harp and the lyre, which he notes is incorrectly placed in Galadriel's hands by one illustrator. While a guild member such as himself will obviously know and understand the difference, many readers of Tolkien probably don't and I think that little bit of clarification for the fans who are the audience of this book would have been helpful and would not have detracted from his explanation of why Tolkien chose the harp.

We can today savour the authentic sounds of baroque music because skilled people have reconstructed instruments from that period using the correct designs, materials and techniques and so reproduced their authentic sound as realistically as is possible. Thanks to these efforts we can today savour the music of that period as it was meant to sound rather than some adaptation using 20th and 21st Century instruments. Maybe one day some sufficiently skilled instrument makers can try to resolve some of these questions concerning Middle-earth and maybe even put together an orchestra with such instruments?

Where can you read or buy this?

Follow the link in the signature of the person above you :) Or look at this post. And welcome to the 'Downs!

Where to get a copy
 

Welcome to the Downs, El-Tazrín!:)

Music in Middle-earth is published by Walking Tree Publishers:

http://www.walking-tree.org/

In terms of buying a copy, they have a link:

http://www.walking-tree.org/buying.php

You can either buy it from them directly, or through others.

Ok thankyou :D

I am deeply amused that a SPAM-bot decided to bring this thread up, because I actually read this essay for the first time today, during an off-hour this morning when I was attempting to escape from homework (a ploy that worked, incidentally). However, much like the immediately preceding article (by our very own Esty), I really hadn't planned on adding anything to this thread, because... well... I don't really have much to say about the subject other than "a good article: it was interesting topically, and I enjoyed reading it," and I've always held to the maxim that if one doesn't have anything to add to a topic on the forum, one should hold his peace.

However, the fates seem to be prompting me otherwise, and as it would be most discourteous of me to subject the Downs to further SPAM-attacks on this thread, I should probably take their hint. So:

Norbert Maier's article was well put together, and I found it an engaging read and an interesting topic.

To expand on that a little, I found it intriguing to note how widespread the harp is in Middle-earth. My default thought would have been to consider that it was mainly an Elvish instrument, with some Mannish (aka Westernessian) borrowings, and I would have been lucky to have named a mention of it apart from the rude one belonging to Bëor's people, and maybe the House of the Harp in BoLT II. In this respect, I appreciated the extent to which Maier had found traces of the harp throughout Middle-earth, and it's importance in the cultures therein.

I would agree with Bêthberry, however, in thinking it would have been nice to have an explanation on the distinction between the harp and lyre, since I too belong to the vast lay majority that does not appreciate the distinction--and I feel like going into this might have furthered an understanding of what a harp in Middle-earth would be likely to be, by eliminating another thing it is not.

Also, I found that this essay really complemented Esty's survey piece on musical instruments generally, by focusing on the preeminent member of that genus in finer detail.