Wales has an unbroken tradition of harp playing. It was used as a dance instrument and for playing tunes and airs.
The tradition owes its survival to the gypsy families of Wales who kept harp playing alive, and Nansi Richards, the famous harpist Telynores Maldwyn.
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BBC Radio Wales, The Traditional Music of Wales
In Wales the triple harp was popular, an instrument with three rows of strings as opposed to the conventional harp which has one row.
It has been the tradition in Wales to play the harp on the left shoulder with the right hand playing the lower strings and the left playing the higher ones. This style of playing is possibly unique to Wales.
The growth in popularity of the singly strung classical harp at the beginning of the 20th century had a negative impact on the popularity of the triple harp, with the result that today there are few triple harp players in Wales.
