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 THE
PARAGUAYAN HARP
by: Carlos Raúl González
Alborno
Por Carlos Raul Gonzáles Alborno
(Note: This article was
published by the Folk Harp Journal No.59, page 27, winter l987)
Used with authorization of,
Carlos Raúl González Alborno and
Bernardo Garcete Saldivar,
www.musicaparaguaya.org.py
#23 "The Paraguayan Harp"
It is good to remember the great contribution made by Jesuit priests in the
Parana Basin. Among those priests, I would like to mention in chronological
orden, a priest from Belgium named Juan Vaseo, a music master teacher from
Rudolph II´s court, who came to the Paraguayan missions in 1610 and remained
here until his death in 1623.
I must mention father Antonio Sepp, a very cultured man, who taught Guarani
indians how to play the citara, organ, flute, trumpet, guitar and the harp.
Father Sepp built, in the Candelaria region, the first Paraguayan organ. In
Yapeyú he built the First Paraguayan harps now known throughout the world as the
best sounding harp. The handcrafting was done with local wood entirely, copying
the models brought from Europe. Father Sepp was a German missionary born in
Tirol in 1655, and after missioning for 41 years he died in San Juan, in 1733
(No wonder a century and a half later in the same city of San Juan, Agustín
Barrios Mangoré, the best Paraguayan guitar composer/player, was born and
started his marvelous career).
That was how everything started for us, Paraguayan harpists. Since then the harp
became the national instrument in Paraguay. Of course, the models changed year
after year until the first half of our century, when the Paraguayan harp got its
particular shape and design. I understand that it is the only harp with strings
coming out from the middle of the neck. Félix Pérez Cardozo is responsible for
this invention and for adding two more strings to the harp, now with 36 strings
normally. Abel Sánchez Jiménez raised it to 38 strings and added little "taquitos"(wooden
rods) to make sharps by pressing strings against them. He also built
double-strung harps of 74 strings with naturals at one side and sharp notes at
the other. Some harpists use 43 strings. Other harpists use special devices to
produce sharps. Nicolás Caballero plays sharps by pressing the string at the
right place with the metal tuning key and with a metal ring for fast chromatic
scales. To play Paraguayan harps requires unique and specific techniques.
Paraguayan harps are tuned five halftones higher than classical harps thus
having red strings as F note and blue strings as B flat. (Sometimes C). There
still is controversy on this issue, but I think we should go back to the
international set with red Cs and blue Fs.
Nowadays, different models by many makers are sent all over the world and I must
say that the Paraguayan harp is probably the most widely used internationally by
players from all over the world. It has loud shiny sound used by many Paraguayan
groups "conjuntos" touring the world. I can name a lot of them, but this is
probably a matter for other articles. The truth is that not only Paraguayans
play the Paraguayan harp. Kings, princesses, famous actors, etc. have started
learning to play it. We now have many Japanese, French, Dutch and German
harpists who play professionally. One American harpist using a Paraguayan harp
is Miss America 1985, Sharlene Wells, a beautiful girl from Utah who studied
paraguayan harp since childhood and played and sang live for millions of viewers
at the Miss America Beauty Pageant, and won the contest. Paraguayans really
scored by having such a wonderful woman play our national instrument. We were
very proud and we gave her a great reception when she came to Asunción shortly
after she became Miss America. Harpists, singers, famous composers, authorities,
friends, etc., cheered her at her arrival.
That´s all for now. I hope I can send you more articles in the near future about
the Paraguayan harp, harpists, music, typical groups, and everything related to
us.
For now, SO LONG and ROHAIHU.
More about the Paraguayan Harp
The Paraguayan harp is the national instrument of the country of Paraguay. This
instrument has several unique features that make it an outstanding harp.
The harp neck is designed so that the strings come from the center of the neck,
eliminating the tendency for the neck to roll over to the left because of string
tension.
Since the pillar and soundbox don't need to be extra strong to accommodate this
unbalanced tension, the whole instrument weighs far less than a comparable Irish
harp. The Paraguayan harp weighs just around 12 pounds if not equipped with
sharping levers, and about 16 pounds with sharping levers.
The
Paraguayan harp is lightly strung, and has the largest bass volume of all harps
played today. The upper register is very bright. Contrary to popular belief,
virtually any type of music can be played on this harp, especially if it has
sharping levers.
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