Melville Clark was an American harpist, inventor, author, and music merchant who led the Clark Music Company in Syracuse. He designed portable and Irish harps, developed nylon harp strings, performed thousands of concerts, wrote a harp textbook, founded the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and contributed to the musical life of central New York.
Background
Melville Clark was born on September 12, 1883, in Syracuse, New York, to George Waldo Clark and Lillie L. Becker Clark. He grew up in a musical and entrepreneurial family. His father founded the Clark Music Company in Syracuse in 1859 and promoted the harp alongside the company's broader trade in musical instruments.
Clark's early life developed within Syracuse's expanding commercial and cultural environment. The city's music businesses supplied instruments, sheet music, and instruction while local theaters, orchestras, schools, and civic organizations created opportunities for public performance. Clark later entered the music business in 1899 and became associated with the family company as both a performer and executive.
Education
Clark received an education that included high school, business college, and study at Syracuse University. His business training corresponded to the commercial responsibilities he later assumed at the Clark Music Company, while Syracuse University provided a local institutional setting for higher education in the city where his professional life was centered.
Syracuse University, founded in 1870, developed as a comprehensive university serving central New York and became especially associated with professional, artistic, and civic education. Clark's later work connected the university city with musical performance, instrument manufacture, and cultural organization.
Career
Clark entered the music business in 1899 and built a career that combined harp performance, instrument design, publishing, broadcasting, and music retail. He became president of the Clark Music Company, a Syracuse business founded by his father in 1859, and operated from the company's building at 416–420 South Salina Street. The company manufactured and sold instruments, including Clark harps, and Clark's executive work placed him at the intersection of musical commerce and instrument innovation.
As a harpist, Clark performed more than 4,000 appearances in the United States, Canada, and England. He gave concerts in major American and Canadian cities, appeared on radio programs carried by the National Broadcasting Company, Columbia, and Mutual, and broadcast harp programs over Syracuse station WFBL. He also accompanied major singers and performed command concerts for Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House.
Clark designed and promoted portable and Irish harps. The Clark Irish harp, manufactured in Syracuse and also associated with the Chicago instrument trade, was a compact instrument intended to be easier to transport and play than a full concert harp. A Clark Irish harp in the Smithsonian collection incorporates his patented improvements to harps, including United States Patent 1,005,157, issued in 1911.
His later technical work included the development of nylon harp strings in association with DuPont scientists and the creation of a plastic-and-nylon harp designed to resist weather. He also developed improved pedal mechanisms for concert harps and promoted instrument designs suitable for broader public use. These projects reflected the wider twentieth-century movement toward new materials and improved manufacturing in musical instruments.
Clark wrote How to Play the Harp, issued by Theodore Presser in 1932 as an instructional book of more than one hundred pages with illustrations. He also delivered a series of musical-appreciation lecture concerts for the Syracuse Board of Education, attended by approximately 15,000 people. In civic and cultural life, he helped found the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and served for twelve years as secretary of the Central New York Music Festival Association.
Achievements
Clark designed and popularized portable and Irish harp models, including a Clark Irish harp represented in the Smithsonian Institution's musical-instrument collection.
He developed improved pedal mechanisms for concert harps and helped develop nylon harp strings in association with DuPont scientists.
He performed more than 4,000 harp appearances in the United States, Canada, and England, including broadcasts and White House command performances.
He founded the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and contributed to the development of Syracuse's cultural and musical institutions.
He presented musical-appreciation lecture concerts for the Syracuse Board of Education that were attended by approximately 15,000 people.
Works
instructional book
How to Play the Harp
(A harp-instruction book by Clark, issued by Theodore Pres...)
1932
Views
Clark's documented work expressed a practical philosophy of widening access to music through portable instruments, public concerts, instruction, and improved manufacturing. His harp designs and educational activities treated instrument design and musical appreciation as complementary parts of public cultural life.
Membership
Clark belonged to the National Press Bureau, the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, the Inventors' Congress, Phi Mu Alpha, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Masonic organizations including the Scottish Rite. He also participated in the Junior Chamber of Commerce as an honorary member and was associated with the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs in Syracuse.
His professional associations connected music retail and instrument manufacture with civic, fraternal, veterans', and business institutions. He served on the advisory board of the National Association of Music Merchants and was identified in contemporary accounts as a former president of that organization, which represented businesses involved in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of musical instruments.
Member.
National Press Bureau
,
United States
Member.
Syracuse Chamber of Commerce
,
United States
Honorary member.
Junior Chamber of Commerce
,
United States
Member.
Inventors' Congress
,
United States
Member.
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
,
United States
Honorary member.
Veterans of Foreign Wars
,
United States
Director and first vice president of the Syracuse club.
Rotary International
,
United States
Former president of the Syracuse club.
Kiwanis International
,
United States
Member of the Scottish Rite.
Freemasonry
,
United States
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
A contemporary account described Clark as a major contributor to Syracuse's cultural life and praised his role in making musical activity more visible in the city.
Interests
Rare musical instruments, music education, civic cultural activities, invention, and instrument collecting.
Music & Bands
Harp performance and the development of harp instruments were central to Clark's professional interests.
Connections
Clark was the son of George Waldo Clark, founder of the Clark Music Company, and Lillie L. Becker Clark. His family background connected him directly with Syracuse's music trade and with the development of the family business.
He married Dorothy Speich, a pianist, on January 8, 1921. Their marriage linked his performing and business career with another professional musician.
Father:
George Waldo Clark
Founder of the Clark Music Company in Syracuse in 1859.
Mother:
Lillie L. (Becker) Clark
Spouse:
Dorothy Speich
A pianist whom Clark married on January 8, 1921.
References
Pulling Strings: The Legacy of Melville A. Clark
Linda Pembroke Kaiser's biography of Clark examines his musical family, leadership of the Clark Music Company, harp inventions, nylon strings, public performances, and civic cultural work.
2010
Clark Irish Harp, Smithsonian Institution
Museum record for a Clark Irish harp made in Syracuse around 1913–1920 and incorporating Melville A. Clark's patented improvements.
Music Trade Review, May 1932
Trade-publication notice concerning Clark's book How to Play the Harp and his position as head of the Clark Music Company.
