The use of music to comfort those who are ill or dying is an ancient practice. In medieval times, monks would stand vigil at the bedside of people approaching death to chant, pray and sing psalms.
Meg Mann, an Everett piano and harp teacher, is always moved when she and a few of her music students play for Alzheimer’s patients at Alterra Clare Bridge at Silver Lake.
And "I hear about it for days afterward," said Pepper Brown, Alterra’s life enrichment coordinator.
Residents may have difficulty remembering conversations and events, Brown said, but they respond well to music. Although they might not recall singing, they do join in.
"If they know the words they just start singing along," she said.
The music relieves residents’ agitation and when students stop to shake hands with members of their audience after the performance, it makes a difference to the patients.
"It develops friendships," Brown said.
Mann, 47, also takes her harp to schools in Snohomish County. She recently talked to students at Lowell elementary in Everett. There’s "something about a harp that’s really enchanting," Mann said.
Most students had seen a harp, but not many of them get to put their hands on the ancient instrument.
"It’s a pretty neat thing to put the harp in the hands of a bunch of kids," Mann said.
The origins of the harp — harp means to pluck — goes back about 5,000 years. In one form or another they have been popular throughout the ages in Egypt, Spain, Greece and other countries. Early harps held up to 12 or 15 strings whereas modern pedal harps hold 46 or more.
Mann says that although King David is said to have played a harp, the instrument was probably a lyre, a relative of the harp.
In Scotland and Ireland, the harp, or clarsach, as it was also known, is said to date back to the 9th and 10th centuries. Pictish stone carvings, found in Scotland’s east coast, show what appear to be some of the first small Gaelic or folk harps. In the 17th century the Gaelic harp was made bigger, up to about 60 inches tall.
There are many kinds of harps including folk, Celtic, pedal and lever. Strings are usually made from nylon or gut, or wire and nylon wrapped together. A full-size folk harp typically has 36 strings, Mann said.
When Mann asks students where they’ve seen a harp before they tell her on cartoons like Elmer Fudd or sometimes at the symphony. Students are captivated by the sound of the harp when Mann begins to play.
"It’s such a neat thing," Mann said. "It makes me really happy to share that wonder with kids."
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