Editing Harp (section)

=== Development ===

==== Europe ====
{{See also|Origin of the harp in Europe|Medieval harp}}
[[File:DupplinHarper.jpg|thumb|left|The harper on the [[Dupplin Cross]], Scotland, {{circa|800 CE}}]]
[[File:Archive-ugent-be-F10D9E4E-7E68-11E5-B44A-58F8D43445F2 DS-4 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Individual sheet music for a seventeenth century baroque harp<ref>{{Cite web |title=Muziek voor barokharp |url=https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:F10D9E4E-7E68-11E5-B44A-58F8D43445F2#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-3926,0,12970,7241 |access-date=27 August 2020 |website=lib.ugent.be}}</ref>]]

While the angle and bow harps held popularity elsewhere, European harps favored the "pillar", a third structural member to support the far ends of the arch and soundbox.<ref name="Montagu 2002 564">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2002 |title=Harp |encyclopedia=[[The Oxford Companion to Music]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=London, UK |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198662129/page/564 |editor-last=Latham |editor-first=Alison |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198662129/page/564 564] |isbn=0-19-866212-2 |oclc=59376677 |author-last=Montagu |author-first=Jeremy}}</ref><ref name="Boenig_1996">{{Cite magazine |last=Boenig |first=Robert |date=April 1996 |title=The Anglo Saxon Harp |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=290–320 |doi=10.2307/2865415 |jstor=2865415 |periodical=Spectrum}}</ref>{{rp|page=290}} A harp with a triangular three-part frame is depicted on 8th-century [[Pictish stones]] in Scotland<ref name="Montagu 2002 564" /><ref name=Boenig_1996 />{{rp|page=290}} and in manuscripts (e.g. the [[Utrecht Psalter]]) from early 9th-century France.<ref name=Boenig_1996 /> The curve of the harp's neck is a result of the proportional shortening of the basic triangular form to keep the strings equidistant; if the strings were proportionately distant they would be farther apart.

[[File:Wartburg-Harfe.JPG|right|thumb|A medieval European harp (the [[Wartburg harp]]) with buzzing bray pins]]
As European harps evolved to play more complex music, a key consideration was some way to facilitate the quick changing of a string's pitch to be able to play more chromatic notes. By the [[Baroque]] period in Italy and Spain, more strings were added to allow for chromatic notes in more complex harps. In Germany in the second half of the 17th century, diatonic single-row harps were fitted with manually turned hooks that fretted individual strings to raise their pitch by a half step. In the 18th century, a link mechanism was developed connecting these hooks with pedals, leading to the invention of the single-action pedal harp.

The first primitive form of pedal harps was developed in the Tyrol region of Austria. Jacob Hochbrucker was the next to design an improved pedal mechanism around 1720, followed in succession by Krumpholtz, Naderman, and the Erard company, who came up with the double mechanism, in which a second row of hooks was installed along the neck, capable of raising the pitch of a string by either one or two half steps. While one course of European harps led to greater complexity, resulting largely in the modern pedal harp, other harping traditions maintained simpler diatonic instruments which survived and evolved into modern traditions.

==== Americas ====
In the Americas, harps are widely but sparsely distributed, except in certain regions where the harp traditions are very strong. Such areas include [[Mexico]], the [[Andes|Andean]] region, [[Venezuela]], and [[Paraguay]]. They are derived from the [[Baroque]] harps that were brought from Spain during the colonial period.<ref name="Nicholls2013">{{Cite book |last=Nicholls |first=David |title=Whole World of Music: A Henry Cowell Symposium |date=19 December 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-41946-3 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wB9mAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA161 161] ff}}</ref> Detailed features vary from place to place.
[[File:Paraguayan harp 1.jpg|thumb|Paraguayan harp]]
The [[Paraguayan harp]] is that country's [[List of national instruments (music)|national instrument]], and has gained a worldwide reputation, with international influences alongside folk traditions. They have around 36&nbsp;strings, are played with fingernails, and with a narrowing spacing and lower tension than modern Western harps, and have a wide and deep soundbox that tapers to the top.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HkIqAQAAIAAJ |title=Folk Harp Journal |date=1999 |volume=99}}</ref>

The harp is also found in Argentina,<ref name="Méndez2004">{{Cite book |last=Méndez, Marcela |title=Historia del arpa en la Argentina |date=1 January 2004 |publisher=Editorial de Entre Rios |isbn=978-950-686-137-7 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ivlekn7J8XkC&pg=PA36 36]}}</ref> though in Uruguay it was largely displaced in religious music by the organ by the end of the 18th&nbsp;century.<ref name="Schechter1992">{{Cite book |last=Schechter |first=John Mendell |title=The Indispensable Harp: Historical Development, Modern Roles, Configurations, and Performance Practices in Ecuador and Latin America |date=1992 |publisher=Kent State University Press |isbn=978-0-87338-439-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=59F-IxIgKOAC&pg=PA36 36]}}</ref> The harp is historically found in Brazil, but mostly in the south of the country.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ortiz |first=Alfredo Rolando |title=History of Latin American Harps |url=http://www.harpspectrum.org/folk/History_of_Latin_American_Harps.shtml |access-date=12 December 2014 |publisher=HarpSpectrum.org}}</ref>

[[File:Meg with Andean harp (4134119578).jpg|thumb|Andean harp]]
The [[Andean harp]] (Spanish/{{langx|qu|arpa}}), also known as the Peruvian harp, or indigenous harp, is widespread among peoples living in the highlands of the [[Andes]]: [[Quechua people|Quechua]] and [[Aymara people|Aymara]], mainly in [[Peru]], and also in [[Bolivia]] and [[Ecuador]]. It is relatively large, with a significantly increased volume of the resonator box, which gives basses a special richness. It usually accompanies love dances and songs, such as [[huayno]].<ref name="Torres2013">{{Cite book |last=Torres |first=George |title=Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music |date=27 March 2013 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-08794-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MX5BXxjwV9cC&pg=PA14 14]}}</ref> One of the most famous performers on the Andean harp was [[Juan Cayambe]] ([[Pimampiro Canton]], [[Imbabura Province]], Ecuador<ref>{{Cite web |title=Juan Cayambe |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/3491434 |work=Discogs |language=en}}</ref>)

The {{lang|es|arpa jarocha}} is typically played while standing. In southern Mexico (Chiapas), there is a very different indigenous style of harp music.<ref name="Schechter1992 a">{{Cite book |last=Schechter |first=John Mendell |title=The Indispensable Harp: Historical development, modern roles, configurations, and performance practices in Ecuador and Latin America |date=1992 |publisher=Kent State University Press |isbn=978-0-87338-439-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=59F-IxIgKOAC&pg=PA201 201]}}</ref>

{{anchor|Venezuelan harps}} The harp arrived in Venezuela with Spanish colonists.<ref name=hc202007 /> There are two distinct traditions: the {{lang|es|arpa llanera}} ('harp of the [[Llanos]]’, or plains) and the {{lang|es|arpa central}} ('of the central area').<ref name="Briceño1999" /> By the 2020s, three types of harps are typically found:<ref name=hc202007 />
* the traditional '''llanera harp''', made of [[Cedar wood]] and has 32&nbsp;strings, originally of the [[Gut string|gut]], but in modern times are of nylon. It is used to accompany both dancers and singers playing [[joropo]] music, a traditional form of Colombian-Venezuelan music, also known as llanera music.<ref name=hc202007 />
* the {{lang|es|arpa central}} (also known as {{lang|es|arpa mirandina}} 'of [[Miranda State]]’, and {{lang|es|arpa tuyera}} 'of the [[Tuy Valleys]]’) is strung with wire in the higher register.<ref name="Briceño1999">{{Cite book |last=Guerrero Briceño |first=Fernando F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xWBaAAAAMAAJ |title=El arpa en Venezuela |date=1999 |publisher=FundArte, Alcaldía de Caracas |isbn=9789802533756}}</ref>
* the Venezuelan electric harp<ref name=hc202007>{{Cite journal |last=Reese |first=Allison |year=2021 |title=Venezuelan Virtuoso <!-- Used the printed journal article as a source in July 2021; but this link to the article exists, but is behind a paywall: |url=https://harpcolumn.com/blog/venezuelan-virtuoso/ --> |journal=Harp Column |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=18–23}}</ref>

==== Africa ====
{{Main|African harps}}
[[File:Magpetu vona.jpg|right|thumb|A [[Mangbetu people|Mangbetu]] man playing a bow harp]]
A number of types of harps are found in Africa, predominantly not of the three-sided frame-harp type found in Europe. A number of these, referred to generically as [[African harp]]s, are bow or angle harps, which lack forepillars joining the neck to the body.

A number of harp-like instruments in Africa are not easily classified with European categories. Instruments like the West African ''[[Kora (instrument)|kora]]'' and Mauritanian ''[[ardin (harp)|ardin]]'' are sometimes labeled as "spike harp", "bridge harp", or [[harp lute]] since their construction includes a bridge which holds the strings laterally, vice vertically entering the soundboard.<ref name="Charry2000">{{Cite book |last=Charry, Eric S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8F5r27VBBm0C&pg=PA76 |title=Mande Music: Traditional and modern music of the Maninka and Mandinka of western Africa |date=1 October 2000 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-10162-0 |pages=76–}}</ref>

==== Armenia ====
{{see also|Angular harp#Steppe zone}}
In [[Armenia]], stringed instruments such as the lyre have been use since ancient times; the lyre was documented in artwork on a silver goblet from Karashamb, Armenia in the 22nd-21st centuries B.C.<ref name=PrehistArm>{{Cite journal |date=2015-04-28 |title=Music in Prehistoric Armenia |url=http://www.davidpublisher.com/index.php/Home/Article/index?id=7512.html |journal=Journal of Literature and Art Studies |volume=5 |issue=4 |doi=10.17265/2159-5836/2015.04.003 |quote=The mentioned data are confirmed by archaeological evidence on musical instruments (cf. Kushnareva, 2000; Khachatryan, 2001), according to which during Bronze and Iron Ages (ca. 3rd-2nd millennia B.C.) the following stringed, wind and percussive instruments were known in Armenia: lyre, harp, lute, pipe-flute, drum, and bell-shaped objects...The appearance of the harp/lyre must be connected to Near Eastern influences. }}</ref> The horizontal harp potentially dates back between 700 B.C. (when it appeared in Assyrian artwork) and the 5th-4th centuries B.C. (the date for examples dug up in the  [[Altai Mountains]], and then in [[Xinjiang]] in northwestern China).<ref name=xiejin2>{{cite web |title= Reflection upon Chinese Recently Unearthed Konghous in Xin Jiang Autonomous Region |author= Xie Jin |publisher= Musicology Department, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, China |url= https://musicology.cn/news/news_299.html |archive-date= 4 March 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083704/https://musicology.cn/news/news_299.html |quote=The konghous in Xinjiang are not only similar between themselves，but also alike with the ancient harps in Pazyryk (350 B.C, FIG. 4) [vii], Assyria (650 B.C, FIG. 5), and Olbia (400-200 B.C, FIG. 6)}}</ref><ref name=Lawergren3>{{cite web |url=http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/physics/faculty/lawergren/repository/files/AngularHarpsThroughtheAges.pdf |title=Angular Harps Through the Ages – A Causal History |access-date=12 August 2011 |author= |last=Lawergren |first=Bo |date= |format= |work= |publisher= |page= 264 |language=English }}</ref> The theory is that the instrument spread between the two locations (which would include Armenia), helped by such tribes as the Scythians.<ref name=Lawergren3/> 

Common usages included weddings and funerals.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tahmizyan |first=Narine |date=1997 |lang=hy |script-title=hy:Երաժշտության տեսությունը հին Հայաստանում |trans-title=Music Theory in Ancient Armenia |publisher=Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR. |page=41}}</ref> The "horn beaker with a feast scene", found inside a vessel in [[Nor Aresh]] and now preserved in the [[Erebuni Fortress]], depicts a lyre.{{sfn|Tahmizyan|1997|p=23}} Information about early medieval Armenian musical instruments has been found in Armenian translations of the Bible.<ref>{{cite book |last=Աճառյան |first=Հ․ |author-link=Hrachia Acharian |year=1926 |title=Հայէրեն արմատական բառարան |trans-title=Armenian root dictionary |location=Երևան [Yerevan] |publisher=Yerevan University Publishing House |pages=390}}</ref>{{sfn|Tahmizyan|1997|pp=60–61}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Harutyunyan |first=Gayane |year=2020 |lang=hy |script-title=hy:Հայկական տավիղներ |trans-title=Armenian Harps |journal=Երաժշտական Հայաստան [Musical Armenia]}}</ref> In the past, the stringed instruments such as lyres and harps were played in the royal residences, in the royal recreation rooms.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} Sometimes not only the royal musicians, but the kings themselves were depicted in artwork playing the instrument.

=====Lyres and harps in Armenian artwork=====
Artwork in the gallery below shows a variety of Eastern and Western styles as well as some that could be from either.

<gallery>
Տավիղ եղջերեգավաթի վրա, Էրեբունու թանգարան.jpg|Circa 4th century B.C. Horn beaker found at Nor Aresh district near the Erebuni Fortress. Contains feast scene of a man and three women. One woman has a lyre. [[Erebuni Museum]]  
Տավիղ, Էրեբունու թանգարան.jpg|Circa 4th century B.C. Woman with [[lyre]] from horn beaker, found in excavation at the Nor Aresh district.Erebuni Museum.

Արքայական ծագում ունեցող տավղահար.jpg|An Armenian royal harpist. Style similar to Chinese [[konghou]] and Persian [[Chang (instrument)|chang]].
Տավիղ միջնադարյան արծաթե գավաթի վրա.jpg|A harp on a medieval Armenian silver cup. Style resembles [[:File:Utrechts-Psalter PSALM-67 instruments.jpg|harps from Utrecht Psalter]] (Western Europe) or the [[Rotte (psaltery)|rotte]].
File:Նկ․ 5.jpg|[[Medieval harp|European style harp]] in Armenian artwork

File:Group of Musicians,, XVIth or XVIIth century.jpg|Armenian manuscript showing musicians, including harper. Resembles Persian or Central-Asian chang, as well as Chinese konghou.
</gallery>

==== South Asia ====
In India, the B''in-Baia'' harp survives about the [[Padhar]] people of [[Madhya Pradesh]].<ref name="ShepherdHorn2003">{{Cite book |last1=Shepherd |first1=John |title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World |last2=Horn |first2=David |last3=Laing |first3=Dave |last4=Oliver |first4=Paul |last5=Wicke |first5=Peter |date=8 May 2003 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-84714-472-0 |volume=Part&nbsp;1 Performance and Production |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=x8KvAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA435 435] ff |author-link5=Peter Wicke}}</ref> The [[Kafir harp]] has been part of [[Nuristanis|Nuristani]] musical tradition for many years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alvad |first=Thomas |date=October 1954 |title=The Kafir Harp |journal=Man |publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=54 |pages=151–154 |doi=10.2307/2795578 |jstor=2795578 |id=233}}</ref>

==== East Asia ====
[[File:Saung harp musician.jpg|thumb|left|Saung musician in 1900]]
The harp largely became extinct in East Asia by the 17th&nbsp;century; around the year&nbsp;1000, harps like the ''[[vajra]]'' began to replace prior{{clarify|date=December 2014}} harps.<ref name="Agnew2010 a">{{Cite conference |last=Neville Agnew |date=28 June – 3 July 2004 |title=Conservation of ancient sites on the Silk Road |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n8YAyXzJE2IC&pg=PA121 |conference=The Second International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites |publisher=Getty Publications |publication-date=3 August 2010 |pages=121ff |isbn=978-1-60606-013-1 |place=Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, People's Republic of China}}</ref> A few examples survived to the modern era, particularly [[Myanmar]]'s ''[[saung]]-gauk'', which is considered the national instrument in that country. Though the ancient Chinese ''[[konghou]]'' has not been directly resurrected, the name has been revived and applied to a modern newly invented instrument based on the Western classical harp, but with the strings doubled back to form two notes per string, allowing advanced techniques such as note-bending.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

[[File:Womanperformingwithaharponthestreet-motomachi-yokohama-2022-9-4.webm|thumb|A woman playing a harp on the street in [[Yokohama]], Japan]]