A Diverse Miscellany

First, a wonderful concert by Joaquín Panadés and Daniele Sardone, both no-nailers:

Another splendid video of Carles Trepat and Carmen Jimenez. Again, both no-nailers:

I’ve been researching the harp and nails. The concert harp (from the Classical period onwards) has always been played without nails, but historically nails were sometimes used, especially in Ireland and Scotland. This led to a clever punishment for a particularly obnoxious ‘harper’, according to this 1807 account:

O’Kane, a celebrated Irish harper … valued himself on having his nails nicely trimmed in this manner. Being naturally rude, and low bred, he was frequently apt to forget himself, and to insult his superiors, even ladies of quality, with the grossest and most abusive language. On these occasions, the gentlemen of the Highlands found the best method of punishing him was, to order his nails to be cut quite short, and then send him away; being thus rendered incapable of playing on his harp until they grew again to their former length.

I can finally confirm that Ernest Shand (1868-1924) played without nails. He was the best British guitarist at the time, both as a performer and composer, but the times did not favour the guitar and so he made his living as a music-hall singer. There are no extant recordings of his guitar playing, but, for a change of pace, we do have some delightful recordings of his singing: