The Art Shop Chapel in Market Street, Abergavenny provided an attractive venue for a presentation on ‘Lady Llanover and the Triple Harp’ by Elinor Bennett on Friday June 24.

Augusta Hall, Lady Llanover was an enthusiastic supporter of the triple harp. This instrument, with three rows of strings, had come from Europe to Wales but by the 19th century was being replaced by more modern pedal harps.

Lady Llanover championed the triple harp as a national symbol of Wales. A harpist was employed at Llanover House to play for the family, guests and special occasion; the first of these harpists was John Wood Jones, whose grave in Llanover churchyard was restored this year.

Prizes were also awarded for harp-playing at the Abergavenny Eisteddfodau organised by the Cymreigyddion between 1833 and 1854. Lady Llanover also insisted that estate workers and visitors should wear the Welsh national costume, but the diary of a guest in the 1850s recorded that the fashionable ladies rebelled when they were presented with uncomfortable and unfashionable clothing which their host demanded them to wear when visiting the Eisteddfod.

Elinor illustrated her talk with performances on the triple harp, including a sonata by the 18th century Welsh composer, John Parry, and the traditional Welsh tunes ‘Toriad y Dydd’, and ‘Pant Corlan yr Wyn’.

Elinor explained that different harps suit different types of music; the triple harp lends itself to classical and folk music, while a pedal harp can be more suitable for modern chromatic music.

Elinor’s own harp was made in Wales by John Weston Thomas. Also on display on the stage was another, very special triple harp: made by Basset Jones in the 19th century for Lady Llanover, it is now owned by her descendent, Mrs Elizabeth Murray. It was renovated several years ago by Christopher Barlow and has recently been partially restrung and revived by Gerald Fentler of the GF Harp Workshop in Monmouth.

At the end of the evening, Elinor was joined on the stage by young harpist Gareth Swindail-Parry, who played ‘Y Bibddawns Sipsi Newydd’ (New Gypsy Hornpipe), one of the tunes passed down by John Roberts, ‘Telynor Cymru’, the 200th anniversary of whose birth is celebrated this year.

Gareth, aged 15, has been attending the ‘Telynor Cymru’ workshops led by triple harpist Robin Huw Bowen in a project to teach the style of the Welsh Gypsy harpists to harpists all over Wales.

The evening was organised by a Llanover Community group (with representatives from St. Bartholomew’s Church PCC, Llanover Community Council, Mrs Elizabeth Murray, the business community of Llanover and the Lady Llanover Society) which is raising money for the local appeal for the National Eisteddfod 2016. This group also organised the Harpathon at St. Bartholomew’s church, Llanover in April, and is sponsoring the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize (Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen) for an unpublished novel, in the National Eisteddfod.