The harp is by common consent supposed to be the musical
instrument of the angels, and many a clerical metaphor has
been made regarding “the celestial harps,” “the golden harps,”
etc. The metaphor is probably taken by very few as a fixt
truth, but is nevertheless to the musician an interesting and
also a reverential one. At the time that the Scriptures were
written the harp was the finest instrument possest by man, and
in ascribing it to the angels an effort was made to represent
the music of heaven by the noblest tones of earth. Were we to
imagine celestial music to-day it would be the roll of heavenly
orchestras, and some of the old Italian painters scarcely made a
musical error in depicting their angels as playing on violins.
The violin is the noblest earthly instrument, and is far beyond
the harp in its representation of bliss. Meanwhile, Schumann and
Berlioz (in Faust) have used the harp to picture celestial joys,
while Wagner has used the violins in a soft tremolo in highest
positions, combined in sweet tones of wood wind. Nevertheless,
association of ideas is much in music, and the harp must always
call up the idea of heaven in the minds of many. (Text.)--Boston
_Musical Herald_.
(1354)