How to draw a musical instrument, a harp, with a pencil step by step. Musical instruments in painting (harp

Stringed musical instrument. It is believed that the beauty of one's appearance she surpasses all her neighbors in the orchestra. Its graceful outlines hide the shape of a triangle, and the metal frame is decorated with carvings. Strings (47-48) of different lengths and thicknesses are pulled onto the frame, which form a transparent mesh. At the beginning of the 19th century, the ancient harp was improved by the famous piano maker Erard. He found a way to quickly change the length of the strings and thereby the pitch of the harp.

The virtuoso capabilities of the harp are quite unique: it perfectly manages wide chords, passages of arpeggias, glissando - sliding the hand along all the strings tuned to some chord, harmonics.

Origin

One of the oldest musical instruments of mankind. It came from a bow with a stretched string, which sounded melodiously when fired. Later, the sound of the bowstring began to be used as a signal. The man who first pulled three or four strings onto a bow, which, due to their unequal length, produced sounds of different pitches, became the creator of the first harp. Even in Egyptian frescoes from the 15th century BC, harps still resemble a bow. And these harps are not the most ancient: archaeologists found the oldest during excavations of the Sumerian city of Ur in Mesopotamia - it was made four and a half thousand years ago, in the 26th century BC.

In ancient times in the East, Greece and Rome, the harp remained one of the most common and favorite instruments. It was often used to accompany singing or playing other instruments. The harp appeared early and in medieval Europe: here Ireland was famous for the special art of playing it, where folk singers - bards - sang their sagas to its accompaniment.

Device

It has the shape of a triangle, which consists of: firstly, a resonant box body approximately 1 meter long, expanding downwards; its previous shape was quadrangular, but the current one is rounded on one side; it is equipped with a flat soundboard, usually made of maple wood, in the middle of which, along the length of the body, is attached a narrow and thin strip of hard wood, in which holes are punched for piercing the gut strings; secondly, from the upper part (in the form of a large neck), snake-like curved, attached to the top of the body, forming an acute angle with it; pegs are attached to this part to strengthen the strings and tune them; thirdly, from a front beam shaped like a column, the purpose of which is to resist the force produced by the strings stretched between the fingerboard and the resonant body.

Since the harp already had a significant sound volume (five octaves) in the past, and the room for the strings of the full chromatic scale is not enough, the strings in the harp are stretched only to produce the sounds of the diatonic scale. On a harp without a pedal, you can only play one scale. For chromatic raises in former times, the strings had to be shortened by pressing the fingers against the fingerboard; later this pressing began to be done with the help of hooks driven by hand. Such harps turned out to be extremely inconvenient for performers; These shortcomings were largely eliminated by a pedal mechanism invented by Jacob Hochbrucker in 1720. This master attached seven pedals to the harp, acting on conductors that passed through the empty space of the beam to the fingerboard and there brought the hooks into such a position that they, firmly adhering to the strings, they produced chromatic enhancements throughout the entire volume of the instrument.

The role of the harp in the orchestra

The role of the harp in the orchestra not so much emotional as colorful. The harp often accompanies the various instruments of the orchestra; other times she is given spectacular solos. There are many of them in the ballets of Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, and in the works of Rimsky-Korsakov. Of the Western European composers of the 19th century, the harp was most widely used by Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Wagner and Liszt. The famous part of two harps in the “Waltz” from Berlioz’s “Symphony Fantastique” laid the foundation for the virtuoso style that has become leading in the last three centuries. Earlier, from the moment of its appearance in symphony orchestra 18th century until Berlioz, the harp imitated the sound (like Glinka’s in “The Aragonese Hunt”) or the harpsichord. The harp was also used in cases where it was necessary to evoke an association with antiquity. Examples include Gluck's Orpheus or Beethoven's Prometheus.

An orchestra usually uses one or two harps, but in some cases their number increases. Thus, in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Mlad” there are three harps, and in Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” there are six.

Famous harpists

Nikola Boxa
Marcel Grandjani
Vera Dulova
Marcel Tournier
Tatyana Tower
Nadezhda Tolstaya
Alphonse Hasselmans
Ksenia Erdeli
Olga Erdeli
Papisova Anastasia
Natalia O'Shea

Video: Harp on video + sound

Thanks to these videos, you can get acquainted with the instrument, watch a real game on it, listen to its sound, and feel the specifics of the technique:

Sale: where to buy/order?

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HARP is a type of plucked musical instrument in which gut and metal strings of increasing length are stretched between a resonator body with a soundboard, etc. neck.

The sound is produced by plucking the strings with the fingers or, very rarely, with plectrums attached to the fingers. Unlike a harp, zithers have strings stretched at right angles to the soundboard.

Story

The history of the harp, one of the oldest musical instruments, goes back many centuries. It appeared at the dawn of human civilization and became the progenitor of all stringed instruments.

Unknown contemporary artist Egyptian woman with a harp

It was perhaps like this: one day, while pulling the bow string, the hunter noticed that it was making a gentle melodic sound. He checked his impression and liked the sound even more. Then he decided to string another, shorter string next to it, and the result was two musical sounds of different pitches. It became possible to play a simple melody. It was a great discovery: the first plucked string instrument appeared.

As old as music is, so is the harp. Wherever there is music, there is a harp. True, under different names. Years, decades, centuries passed. They held it in their hands and played it, fingering the strings. The harp was loved in Ancient Egypt, in Phenicia and Assyria, in Ancient Greece and Rome.

Giovanni Lanfranco Venus Playing the Harp (Allegory of Music) 1630-34

Derived from the single-stringed musical bow, harps were used as ceremonial instruments in Sumerian and Egyptian art as early as the 3rd millennium BC. In another source I read that the first Egyptian harps - bents - appeared six thousand years ago.
Apollo's harp represents everything poetic and beautiful.
Harps are mentioned in the Bible.

Jan de Bry David playing the harp 1670

Initially, the harps were bow-shaped, then they gave way to angular ones (in the shape of a triangle), with a neck located obliquely to the soundboard. On such corner harps different sizes played in ensembles or solo, placing one end of the instrument on the ground or holding it on the shoulder. From the Middle East, the harp came to Java and China, as well as to Northwestern Europe.

Israel van Mekenem Lutenist and harpist 1490s

It was in the Middle Ages that the harp became widespread in Europe. The European-type harp can be found briefly mentioned in the works of Roman authors, but the oldest depiction of a harp is an Irish sculpture of the 8th century. By adding a front column to increase string tension, the Europeans (probably the Celts) increased the sonority of the eastern harp.
Irish harpists were especially famous for performing their tales - sagas - to the accompaniment of a small portable harp. Her image was even included in the national coat of arms of Ireland.

Harp on the coat of arms.

The coat of arms of Ireland is a golden harp with silver strings on a blue shield. The harp has long been the heraldic symbol of Ireland. In its modern form, the coat of arms was approved on November 9, 1945.

Coat of arms of Ireland

Legend has it that the first Gaelic harp was given by the gods to the ruler of Dagda, but the gods of cold and darkness stole it, after which the good gods of light and sun found it and returned it to the owner so that he could play, bringing joy to people with music. The harp has been recognized as a symbol of Ireland since the 13th century.
Ireland is the only country in the world whose state symbol is a musical instrument; the harp symbolizes the importance of music in Irish culture and the antiquity of its traditions. Archaeologists have found Celtic harps dating back to the 12th century in Ireland. The surviving ancient specimens date back to the 15th century. The harp was featured on Irish coins under King John and Edward I.

It was first used to symbolize Ireland in the Royal Flag of King James VI of Scotland (aka King James I of England), and has since appeared in all the Royal Flags of England, Britain and the United Kingdom, although the style of the design has varied over time.
As a symbol of the new Kingdom of Ireland formed by Henry I of Ireland, the harp was adopted in 1541, and appeared on the currency of the state. Following the unification of Ireland, England and Scotland under James I of England in March 1603, the harp appeared on the third quarter of the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti La Ghirlandata 1873

Since 1922, the Irish Free State has continued to use the harp as a state symbol, featured on the Great Seal of Ireland, the coat of arms, the Presidential Flag and the Presidential Seal, as well as on a number of other state symbols and documents. The harp is also depicted on Irish coins, from medieval ones to modern Irish euro coins.

Harp and Russia.

In Russia, the history of the harp began in the middle of the 18th century. In 1764, Catherine II founded the legendary Smolny Institute, and in 1765 the queen purchased a harp for the Smolny women. A graduate of the Smolny Institute, Glafira Alymova became one of the first Russian harpists. Her portrait by Levitsky is kept in the Russian Museum.

D. G. Levitsky. Portrait of G. I. Alymova. 1776

Soon the harp became fashionable both among the court nobility and among the wider nobility. Serfs were specially trained for home orchestras and theaters. But gradually the harp became an aristocratic instrument.

Andrey Vokh Sounds of the harp. 17th century 2000

The only one who plays the harp is
Who is free and noble,
She never sounds
Under the hand of a slave...

Thomas Sally Lady with a Harp. Portrait of Eliza Ridley 1818

Rose-Adelaide Ducret Self-portrait with a harp 1790

Jacques Antoine Marie Lermont Portrait of Mademoiselle Dute with a Harp

Since then, the harp has retained its significance as a typically female instrument, enriching the orchestral palette with its warm color and often brilliance.
In the 19th century, it was believed that every well-bred girl from “decent society” should be able to play the harp. Leo Tolstoy in “War and Peace” tells how Natasha Rostova played the harp.

Charles Monignier Kittens on a Harp

The harp was richly decorated - with gold, mother-of-pearl, and mosaics. It was played, as a rule, by women. Poets who admired its gentle sounds called the harp a “magical instrument.”

Harp in music

The art of playing the harp has developed and improved over several millennia, absorbing the traditions of the world's multinational musical culture.

John George Brown Musicians 1874

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the triangular harp, with 7 to 30 strings, was a common accompaniment instrument. Later, with the spread of the louder and easier-to-use harpsichord, the harp lost popularity and returned only at the end of the 18th century, when the piano, in turn, prevailed over the harpsichord.

Daniel Gerhart Whispers of Heaven

The harp was widely used as a solo and as an accompanying instrument by leading Russian composers: A. Verstovsky, A. Alyabyev, M. Glinka. And there was someone to perform the most complex parts: after all, harp classes were opened at the St. Petersburg (1862) and Moscow (1874) conservatories.
A. Dargomyzhsky, M. Mussorgsky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, P. Tchaikovsky, A. Rubinstein, Ts. Cui, A. Glazunov, A. Lyadov, S. Taneyev, A. Scriabin, S. Rachmaninov, S. Prokofiev – all these composers used the harp in their opera, ballet, and symphonic music.

Daniel Gerhart Mom's Harp

It can be heard in the “Waltz of the Flowers” from “The Nutcracker”, in a scene from “Swan Lake” and in the Adagio from “The Sleeping Beauty” by Tchaikovsky. A variation was written for harp in Glazunov's "Raymond". Soviet composers R. M. Glier and S. N. Vasilenko wrote concertos for harp and orchestra. Many works were created for the harp as a concert solo instrument. Arrangements for it were made by outstanding master performers on this instrument, in particular, the wonderful Soviet harpist Vera Dulova.

Igor Grabar Portrait of V.G. Dulova 1935

Nowadays the harp is used both as a solo instrument and as one of the instruments of the orchestra. Of course, it is very different from its medieval ancestors.

Elena Mukhina Harp 2000

It has forty-five to forty-seven strings stretched over a triangular metal frame of an elegant shape, decorated with carvings. With the help of seven pedals that shorten the strings when necessary, the harp can play all the sounds from D counter octave to F fourth octave. The harp sounds very poetic.

Oleg Ildukov Touch 2008

Composers use it when they need to create fantastic images, pictures of calm, peaceful nature, or imitate the sound of folk string instruments.

I took materials for the post from Wikipedia And encyclopedia "Around the World", as well as and .

To draw a harp with a pencil you need, of course, pencils. At first you won’t be very good at sketching, so to speak, but then when you’ve practiced drawing a harp several times, the result will be immediately visible. In order to draw a harp, you need to draw flexible lines in the form of the instrument itself.

There is also a video that can help you draw a harp:

How to draw a harp

Harp- a beautiful and elegant instrument, this must be shown in the drawing, especially since drawing this musical instrument is not difficult. Using detailed drawing steps, even a beginner can accurately depict it.

And here is our final drawing, after coloring:

We will draw a harp with a pencil.

The whole process will take only three steps.

First draw the base of the harp, draw the bends of the tree,
Then finish drawing the little things, draw the strings with a ruler,
The third stage is the final one. A couple more strings and the harp drawing is ready.

Step-by-step photo instructions:

First of all, we begin to draw an arc - the base of the harp.

Now all that remains is to add the handle, and then draw the strings after it. Our drawing is ready - you can decorate it if you wish.

You can draw a harp like this: first a sketch, then the details of the harp drawing (base, gracefully curved arc, strings).

Also, step-by-step video instructions for drawing a harp will help you get the image right.

I offer the following options for drawing a harp with a pencil step by step:

Now that I have told you and shown the male harpists, it’s time to return to the charming ladies who have been delighting us for centuries in paintings, concerts, and records with the wonderful sounds of the magic harp...
I myself am glad that there is a weighty gallery of harpists, painted entirely by famous painters of the 18th-19th centuries.

Harpist
(From the series "For Musician Friends")

Between the strings of sonorous strings
Fingers fly very quickly.
About the world that is eternally young
A young harpist is playing.

Palm, describing a circle,
Only touches the harp in the middle,
And from under the swing of hands
Sunny notes will be born.

And you hear: streams are ringing,
Paving the way under the melted snow,
It’s someone’s (it’s unclear whose),
The glasses move, clinking;

It seems that from high fears
The drops beat loudly on the puddles,
That melodic female laughter,
That's the cry of a capricious child...

What a miracle in the sounds of strings!
How light and pure your soul is!
About the world that is eternally young
A young harpist is playing.

Richard Cosway (English, 1742-1821) Marianne Dorothy Harland (1759-1785), Later Mrs. William Dalrymple.

William Hoare (British, 1707-1792) Lady Frances Seymour Conway (1751-1820), Countess of Lincoln The University of Nottingham

Joshua Reynolds (English, 1723-1792) Countess of Eglinton. 1777

Etienne Aubry (French, 1745–1781) A Portrait of Madame Victoire playing the Harp. 1773

James Northcote (British, 1746-1831) A Young Lady Playing the Harp. 1814 Gallery Tate

Francois Guerin (French) Mme. de Genlis playing a Harp. 1791

***
Holds the harp
Proudly and directly.
How ceremonial
Noble lady.
Wandered with a harp
Troubadour on the roads,
Only she was
A little less.
To every harpist
It is known for sure
Harp adagio
Closer than presto.
Just dating
Strings and hands
And they fly away
Butterfly sounds.
I'm watching
Beyond that for now.
I'm missing
Pinch forces.

Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748-1825) Potrait of Juliette de Villeneuve, niece of Julie et Désirée Clary, wife to Joseph Bonaparte. 1824 The Louvre, Paris

Jean-Frédéric Schall (French, 1752-1825) Woman playing Harp, Maybe Hortense de Beauharnais. 1806 Château de Malmaison, France

Robert Home (British, 1752-1834) Portrait of a Young Woman playing the Harp. 19th century

Charles Emmanuel Leclercq (Flemish, 1753-1821) Madame Elisabeth jouant de la harpe. 1783

Michel Garnier (French, 1753-1819) La jeune musicienne. 1788

William Beechey (British, 1753-1839) Sarah Curran (1782-1808) playing the Harp.

***
In the symphonic storm of the orchestra
Sometimes there is silence,
And then, after a passionate presto,
Sighing slightly, she rumbles.

The sound lasts, now distant, now close,
And under the splash of dozing lagoons
Swan hands of a harpist
Wandering in the grove of silver strings.

Fading and growing again,
Leaving the mysterious grotto,
White-winged Moonflight
Floats in the shining waters...

This is how a string phrase is woven,
Remembering something in a dream,
With the iridescent fabric of the story
From times long past.

And, taking the snare into yours,
Sparkling rain falls
From the shady oaks of Walter Scott
To the Slavic spreading groves.

But the timpani's growing trembling,
The roar of copper in the rolling waves
Silencing baby babble
Antiquity awakened for a moment.

And, husband in the growing topic,
Where metal argues with violins,
Stormy Time is a menacing roar
Collapses into the hall deafeningly.

And rushes at a crazy pace
A waterfall falling from the mountains,
In the whirlwind and whirlwind of symphonies
To a space torn to shreds.

Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky

Henry Raeburn (Scottish, 1756-1823) The Marchioness of Northampton playing a Harp. 1820

Louis-François Aubry (French, 1770-1850) Portrait de la Baronne de Benoist. 1810

Karl Gottlob Schmeidler (German, 1772-1838) Dorette Spohr, née Scheidler, playing the Harp.

Joseph-Denis Odevaere (Belgian, 1778-1830) Portrait of Mother and Son (Madame Vigier and her Son). 1805

Thomas Sully (American, 1783-1872) Mademoiselle Adéle Sigoine. 1829

Unknown British Artist Portrait of a Young Girl in Welsh Costume with a Harp (thought to be Augusta Charlotte Elizabeth Hall, d.1912, daughter of Lady Llanover). 1836 University of Cambridge

***
The distant ancestor of the harp is the bow.
Although it's hard to believe,
But the bowstring's trembling sound
Was the very first string sound.

And in that short moment,
When the arrow flew off the vein,
Like a musical instrument
The weapon served the shooter.

But hardly in our times
We recognize the formidable bow in the harp,
When is she
In the hands of a lovely lady in a scarf.

Unknown British Artist Lady Willoughby de Broke with a Harp. 1882 Bodelwyddan Castle Trust

Moritz von Schwind (Austrian, 1804-1871) Harp Audition. 1855

Alfred Émile Léopold Stevens (Belgian, 1823-1906) Lady with a Harp.

Alfred Émile Léopold Stevens (Belgian, 1823-1906) Woman with Harp. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

John George Brown (English, 1831-1913) The Harpist 1870 Palacio Real, Madrid

Jacob Henricus Maris (Dutch, 1837-1899) The Harpist. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Canada

***
You know, my harp, that rings at hand,
In unforgettable days she was the Virgin of the Sea,
And sometimes in the evening, infinitely tender,
She fell in love with the young wanderer.

But, alas, the singer was not captivated, in turn,
The maiden cried in vain all night long,
And I had to stop the torment,
Turn it into a mellifluous harp.

This is how the heavens of old took pity on her;
Her hair became the strings of a harp,
But the blissful chest still rose,
To breathe the spell of love into the chimes.

So love and sorrow ring at hand
Harp in the image of a wondrous sea naiad:
You told her to tell her about the caresses of love
And about the pangs of separation when I'm away!

Thomas Moore, translated by Golemba A.

In the last lesson we talked about. At the request of our reader Katerina Mikhailovna, today I will tell you about the volume. I found a lot of pictures on Google and chose this one. Attracts with simplicity and elegance:

Let's start by drawing two oval shapes. The first one is a little smaller. We connect them with lines. Look at the picture:
Next we move on to drawing the details of the violin. Let's add a tailpiece, bridge and neck. I marked with arrows in the picture necessary elements:
Having outlined the main lines, we outline the contours:
Let's move on to the strings. Please note that they are not straight and should not be drawn under a ruler. The fracture occurs at the level of the stand. And let's add pegs.
It remains to add a few realistic details:
When finishing the work, I traced the contours of the drawing, having previously removed the extra lines with an eraser. The result is this picture:
I told everything I could. Sorry, but I am completely unfamiliar with musical instruments, despite my great love for music. She inspires me to new creations, makes me think, gives me new ideas. See next.

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Inspiration is the source of our soul. But where can I get it? I find it in music. I usually listen to rock, or when I write my