New article on the history of the autoharp

17 June 202214 May 2025 stringbedLeave a comment

NOTE: The initial version of this post appeared before a publication date had been set. It has been revised to reflect the actual release.

I am pleased to announce that my article “Northern European Contributions to the Development of the Autoharp” has been published in the The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 76 (2023). As noted in an earlier post, that is where my first research article appeared fully fifty years ago and I contributed to the journal regularly for a long while thereafter. Readers of this blog who are interested in the history of musical instruments but are unfamiliar with that publication will find it worthwhile to visit the website of The Galpin Society.

Here is the abstract of the article:

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Musical Instruments

Tin whistle, penny whistle

7 June 202228 November 2025 stringbed1 Comment

A cylindrical metal whistle with six finger holes was found together with pottery dating from the 14th and 15th centuries underneath the floor of a medieval house excavated in North Berwick, Scotland, in 1907. It is referred to as the “Tusculum whistle” and is now part of the collections of the National Museum of Scotland. Here is a photograph of it from the museum’s online catalog.

And here is one of its current display.

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