The harp lute (also called the dital harp) is a plucked string instrument that combines features of the harp and the lute. It was invented around 1795 by Edward Light (c. 1747–c. 1832), a British musician and instrument maker based in London, though an earlier form appears in Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1500).
Description
The instrument consists of a pear-shaped body with a curved neck supported by a front pillar or arm that springs from the body, reminiscent of a harp. It typically has twelve catgut strings. The curved fingerboard, almost parallel with the neck, is fitted with frets and includes a thumb-key (dital) for each string. When depressed, the dital acts upon a stop-ring or eye that draws the string down against a fret, mechanically shortening its effective length and raising the pitch by a semitone. The fingers stop the strings over the remaining frets in the usual manner.
The name "harp lute" refers to this mechanism for shortening the strings; the alternative name "dital harp" emphasizes that the stops are worked by the thumb (from Latin digitus — finger/thumb), as opposed to the pedals of a harp, which are worked by the feet.
History
Edward Light invented the harp lute in 1795 (some sources cite 1798) as one of several attempts to revive the popularity of the guitar and extend its compass. A further improvement was patented in 1816 as the "British harp lute." Other contemporary hybrid instruments of less practical merit included the lyra-guitarre (Germany, early 19th century), the accord-guitarre (mid-19th century), and the keyed guitar.
Construction
The body is typically made of wood such as mahogany, spruce, or maple, often with decorative gilding and lacquer. Surviving examples in museum collections (including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Cleveland Museum of Art) show dimensions around 85–90 cm in length, with a body width of approximately 35 cm. The fingerboard is usually ebonized wood with ivory frets and nuts.
Related Instruments
The term "harp lute" is also used more broadly to describe similar hybrid instruments from other cultures, such as the West African kora and the Senufo korikaarive (a six-stringed harp-lute with a calabash resonator and carved anthropomorphic bridge). The modern gravikord is also related in concept.
