y associated with the kithara and is sometimes hard to distinguish in ancient art. The instrument was similar to the kithara in respect to the tuning mechanisms and with the way it was held, although the lyre was smaller and lighter. Because the lyre was not as physically strong as the kithara, the pitch of the strings could not have been wound as tight, resulting in a lower sounding instrument.The best known of the historical Celtic harps was the Clairseach, a brass-wire strung Irish harp played in highland Scotland. Having roughly 22 strings, the Clairseach was an improvement on the ancient small harp or lyre, around 1100 A.D. The extra strings, added in the treble, were needed not for playing melody, but in order to play Divisions. Called Cors and Ports or “streams and openings”, harp divisions were runnings or methodical variations based on a melodic ground. Today, divisions survive on the highland pipes. Historical Celtic harpers played melody with the right hand below the left, resulting in the melody being played on the lower pitch strings. The left thumb played a high monotone drone.The harp became particularly popular with the Irish from the 9th century. They adopted the small instrument still in use, called the Irish harp, as a national symbol. The larger instrument was well known on the Continent by the 12th century. It was during the 15th century that the harp came to be made in three parts, as it is today: sound box, neck, and pillar. The strings are stretched between the sound box and the neck, and the tuning pegs are fastened into the neck. Chromatic harps appeared in the late 16th century, and had a string for each tone of the chromatic scale. This was not as practical as the diatonic harp, made in the late 17th century in the Tyrol and equipped with hooks capable of altering the pitch of any string by a semitone. A pedal mechanism that shortened the strings was devised around 1720 in Germany. ...
