By the 2020s, three types of harps are typically found:
There are two distinct traditions: the arpa llanera (‘harp of the Llanos’, or plains) and the arpa central (‘of the central area’). The harp arrived in Venezuela with Spanish colonists. In southern Mexico (Chiapas), there is a very different indigenous style of harp music. The arpa jarocha is typically played while standing.
Mexican jarocha harp music of Veracruz has also gained some international recognition, evident in the popularity of " La Bamba". One of the most famous performers on the Andean harp was Juan Cayambe ( Pimampiro Canton, Imbabura Province, Ecuador ) It usually accompanies love dances and songs, such as huayno. It is relatively large, with a significantly increased volume of the resonator box, which gives basses a special richness.
The Andean harp (Spanish/ Quechua: arpa), also known as Peruvian harp, or indigenous harp, is widespread among peoples living in highlands of the Andes: Quechua and Aymara, mainly in Peru, and also in Bolivia and Ecuador. Detailed features vary from place to place. They are derived from the Baroque harps that were brought from Spain during the colonial period. Such important centres include Mexico, the Andean region, Venezuela, and Paraguay. In the Americas, harps are widely but sparsely distributed, except in certain regions where the harp traditions are very strong. 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. Jacob Hochbrucker was the next to design an improved pedal mechanism around 1720, followed in succession by Krumpholtz, Nadermann, 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. The first primitive form of pedal harps was developed in the Tyrol region of Austria. In the 18th century, a link mechanism was developed connecting these hooks with pedals, leading to the invention of the single-action pedal harp. In Germany in the second half of the 17th century, diatonic single-row harps were fitted with manually turned hooks which fretted individual strings to raise their pitch by a half step. By the Baroque period in Italy and Spain, more strings were added to allow for chromatic notes in more complex harps. Development EuropeĪ medieval European harp (the Wartburg harp) with buzzing bray pins.Īs 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. A similar harp, the gonghu was played in ancient Korea, documented as early as the Goguryeo period (37 BCE – 686 CE). The Chinese konghou harp is documented as early as the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE), and became extinct during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 CE). The harp was popular in ancient China and neighboring regions, though harps are largely extinct in East Asia in the modern day. The ancient veena survives today in Burma, in the form of the saung harp still played there. Some Samudragupta gold coins show of the mid-4th century CE show (presumably) the king Samudragupta himself playing the instrument. Iconographic evidence of the yaal appears in temple statues dated as early as 600 BCE One of the Sangam works, the Kallaadam recounts how the first yaaḻ harp was inspired by an archer's bow, when he heard the musical sound of its twang.Īnother early South Asian harp was the ancient veena, not to be confused with the modern Indian veena which is a type of lute. Variants were described ranging from 14 to 17 strings, and the instrument used by wandering minstrels for accompaniment. The works of the Tamil Sangam literature describe the harp and its variants, as early as 200 BCE. An arched harp made of wooden brackets and metal strings is depicted on an Indus seal. Mesolithic era paintings from Bhimbhetka shows harp playing. At the height of the Persian tradition of illustrated book production (1300–1600 CE), such light harps were still frequently depicted, although their use as musical instruments was reaching its end. In the last century of the Sasanian period, angular harps were redesigned to make them as light as possible ("light, vertical, angular harps") while they became more elegant, they lost their structural rigidity. īy the start of the Common Era, "robust, vertical, angular harps", which had become predominant in the Hellenistic world, were cherished in the Sasanian court. 1A Sassanid era mosaic excavated at BishapurĪround 1900 BCE arched harps in the Iraq-Iran region were replaced by angular harps with vertical or horizontal sound boxes.