The Dital Age
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:21 pm
No, it's not a typo, but a way obscure topic. As I understand it so far, a dital is a now-obsolete sharping mechanism found on earlier European concert harps and so-called "dital harps" (which were a lyre-like lap instrument invented in the 19th century). Ditals were known to be in use in at least the 1800s, but that's about as precise as I can come up with. A bit of background: I learned that John Egan (active 1804-38), the acknowledged father of the modern Irish harp (we can discuss the debatably "Irish" part of it later if we need to), made it his mission to reinvent the fast-disappearing Gaelic harp and so keep harp playing alive within the Irish and Scottish traditions. To accomplish this he notably introduced the Continental elements of gut strings, and for greater chromaticism, the dital sharping mechanisms that were in use in Europe at the time (it is this word that piqued my curiosity and which brings me here); the general direction he took with these harps - more portable than the concert monsters and more versatile than the fixed-tuning Gaelic wire-strung harp - proved to be a resounding success in keeping traditional harping alive, even if out of practical necessity it had to be redefined, rather than preserved in its original form. Nowadays folk harpists favor synthetic strings over gut, and the latest sharping levers are no doubt markedly different from their (presumed, at this point) predecessor, the dital (otherwise I wager we would have kept the name), but the basic concepts remain the same, and as we can see, Egan's influence is a legacy that endures, so the dital must have done its job well enough for people to care to improve on it.
Now to my question: Just what the heck, then, IS a dital? I've done a lot of searching (and that's another thing: Google insisted that surely I must mean "digital". No? Then surely I must mean "detail". No? Then surely I must mean "distal". Let me tell you, it's been a slog thru the muck) and all I can find is that it is acknowledged that ditals exist/have existed, are/were sharping mechanisms, and that's pretty much it. Not much other detail is to be had, and it's not clear that the ditals used on harps and the ditals used on the dital harp/harp lyre are even the same thing. There's nothing on how they work in either case. It's easier to find info on the still yet more primitive sharping hooks.
It's become clear that this will be a long shot indeed, but does anyone here have any experience with or knowledge of ditals, particularly harp ditals?
Now to my question: Just what the heck, then, IS a dital? I've done a lot of searching (and that's another thing: Google insisted that surely I must mean "digital". No? Then surely I must mean "detail". No? Then surely I must mean "distal". Let me tell you, it's been a slog thru the muck) and all I can find is that it is acknowledged that ditals exist/have existed, are/were sharping mechanisms, and that's pretty much it. Not much other detail is to be had, and it's not clear that the ditals used on harps and the ditals used on the dital harp/harp lyre are even the same thing. There's nothing on how they work in either case. It's easier to find info on the still yet more primitive sharping hooks.
It's become clear that this will be a long shot indeed, but does anyone here have any experience with or knowledge of ditals, particularly harp ditals?