Harp Music in the Nineteenth Century makes available a wealth of information on a vital period in the development of the harp and its music. In the early nineteenth century, Erard perfected the double-action mechanism, which allowed the harp to be played in all keys. Virtuosos and composers of the period were quick to exploit the lush harmonic modulations and new tone colors now possible. Book jacket.

During the nineteenth century child musicians could be seen performing in the streets of cities across Europe and North America. Although they came from a number of countries, Italians were most associated with street music. In The Little Slaves of the Harp John Zucchi tells the story of the thousands of Italian children who were indentured to padrone and then uprooted from their villages in central and southern Italy and taken to Paris, London, and New York to perform as barrel-organists, harpists, violinists, fifers, pipers, and animal exhibitors.

A compelling account of the vibrant musical tradition of Sacred Harp singing, Traveling Home describes how song brings together Americans of widely divergent religious and political beliefs. Named after the most popular of the nineteenth-century shape-note tunebooks - which employed an innovative notation system to teach singers to read music - Sacred Harp singing has been part of rural Southern life for over 150 years. In the wake of the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, this participatory musical tradition attracted new singers from all over America. All-day "singings" from The Sacred Harp now take place across the country, creating a diverse and far-flung musical community. Blending historical scholarship with wide-ranging fieldwork, Kiri Miller presents an engagingly written study of this important music movement.

At the end of the eighteenth century, after the French Revolution, the centre of pedal-harp making moved from Paris to London. There, building on the work of its Bavarian originators and Parisian developers, mainly immigrant makers elevated the instrument to new musical, technical, and decorative heights, and placed it in the hands and salons of the British upper classes and aristocracy. Until recently, the story of harp making in England has been dominated by the Erard family who built about 7,000 of an estimated 22,000 harps made in London during the nineteenth century; some 20 other makers have been all but forgotten. This book, the story of harp making in late-Georgian England, assesses the role and consumption of the harp in society whilst describing its decorative and technical development. Forgotten makers and their innovations are identified. Through the lens of newly discovered documents and the reinterpretation of others, Jacob Erat's manufactories are reconstructed. His working methods, illustrative of those used in the wider industry, are rediscovered, and employees and suppliers are revealed anew.

This unique book of 14 lever harp arrangements includes excerpts of some of the most famous French works by Debussy and Ravel, including Clair de lune, the Girl with the Flaxen Hair, and Pavane. the book features classical excerpts but there are five folk tunes and a medieval melody. the level of difficulty ranges from advanced beginner to advanced intermediate.This is a collection of some of the most beautiful French melodies and is a perfect addition to almost every harpist's repertoire. the arrangements all have fingering and dynamics. the keys range from two sharps to one flat, but a full set of levers is needed for several of the more advanced classical excerpts. Eight of the pieces require no lever changes and five of the classical melodies require multiple lever changes.