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Enclosed harp
Instrument "invented" by the alien musician Barsak Gh. Therwent of Canopus XII, from the humor article "Extracts from the Galactick Almanack: Music Around the Universe," by Larry M. Harris (pseudonym of Laurence M. Janifer) and published in the June 1959 issue of Galaxy. It was illustrated by MAD magazine's own Don Martin.
When the first Earth piano (a spinet) was brought to Canopus XII for a collector and neighbor, harpist Gh. Therwent was one of the first to try it. However, a Canopian's secondary arms are too thin and weak to depress the keys. Gh. Therwent discovered his arms could go between the cracks of the keys and pluck the strings inside. Thus, the "enclosed harp" was born.
Gh. Therwent's subsequent virtuosity on this instrument, and composer Wladislaw Wladislaw's Concertino for Enclosed Harp (dedicated to Gh. Therwent), assured the popularity of the instrument across Canopus XII.
See also
- Barsak Gh. Therwent
- Wladislaw Wladislaw
- Timmis Calk
- Silla
- Hum-drum
- Ratling
- Wilrik Rotha Rotha Delk Shkulma Tik
- Treth Schmaltar
- Ludwig Hrrshtk
- Fenk