DATE: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 10:13:32 CST From: WY~egacy.Calvin.EDU Subject: question for dick
What a wonderful quick account, Dick: got to get "Harp Handbook". Now another question. What about the labeling of "positions"--when did it start, and how? I just talked with the orchestra/band director at Calvin and says there is no real analogue to positions on any other instrument. On guitar "positions" are just different ways of playing the same chord; etc for other uses. I am finding a great beauty and usefulness in the circle of fifths way of ordering positions; but who started this? Did the person who first called cross-harp "second position" really have this fifths-logic in mind, or was it just "a second position"--and ditto for "third". And then someone found you could extend it to all 12 in a logical way. The guy here wondered if, as a folk instrument, this nomenclature just evolved. Any info?
