The harp is what an instrument. History and acoustic characteristics of the harp

The harp, as already mentioned, is a type of plucked musical instrument in which vein and metal strings of increasing length are stretched between a resonator body with a soundboard, and the so-called. neck. Strings are pulled onto the frame, on average 45-48 strings of different lengths and thicknesses can be used, which form a transparent mesh, but in different times and at different peoples their number was from 7 to 30. Unlike the guitar, it does not have a fingerboard, the pitch is determined by a fixed string length. The harp can weigh up to 20 kilograms.

To consider the design of the harp in more detail, let's take an orchestral harp as an example (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1.

1 -- column

2 -- resonator with deck

3 -- side bar

5 -- neck (arc)

6 -- top (capital)

7 -- metal plates enclosing the mechanics

8 -- pedal discs

9 -- plinth (pedestal)

10 -- pedal box

11 -- pedals

12 -- legs

The design of the harp is a rigid and durable frame, on two sides of which strings of different lengths and thicknesses are stretched parallel to the third. The frame consists of a resonant body with a flat soundboard (1); a column, inside which are placed the transmission connectors of the pedal mechanism (2) located at its base; upper arc with pegs and discs (3). The mechanism of sound production includes the transfer of mechanical energy to the strings by a pinch (generator), the excitation of vibrations of the strings (vibrator) and the amplification of vibrations due to the transfer of energy from the strings to the soundboard and resonant body (resonator).

A modern double-pedaled harp usually has 44-47 strings (small harps have 30). The strings are gut (now often nylon); on the bottom eleven bass metal strings use winding for greater rigidity. The strings are fixed at the bottom of the deck, in the upper part of the frame they are inserted into the pegs (special double screws). The strings of the harp are tuned to the diatonic scale in Ces-dur. The lower string has a length of 1503 mm, a core diameter of 1.6 mm, a winding diameter of 0.5 mm. It is stretched with a force of 410 N, its tuning frequency is 30.87 Hz (C1). Top string 69 mm long, 0.5 mm diameter, 37 N tension and 2960 Hz tuning frequency (G7).

A special double pedal mechanism is used to change the tuning of the harps to a semitone and a tone. This mechanism, when pressing the pedals placed at the base of the harp frame, with the help of special metal connectors passing inside the tubular vertical column (the third side of the harp frame), activates a system of paired disks with pairs of rods (“fingers”) attached to them. When the discs are turned, the string is shortened either by 1/18 or 2/18, while the pitch of the sounds it produces rises by a semitone or a tone. This mechanism is designed in such a way that when one of the seven pedals is pressed on one notch in the hole, the disks for all the strings of the same name (for example, for all the "do" strings, or the "re" strings, etc.) turn; accordingly, all these strings are shortened, and the sound rises by half a step in all octaves. A deeper depression of the same pedal, lowering it two notches, sets in motion the second discs lying below, the fingers of which will shorten all the corresponding strings; at the same time, the sound of these strings will increase by another semitone, and in total - by a whole tone.

Rice. 2.

Thus, with a single press of all seven pedals, all seven steps of the scale in all octaves will rise by half a step; the harp will then sound in C major. Pressing all seven pedals to the second notch gives the Cis-dur tuning (that is, raises it another half step). By combining different depths of pressing different pedals, you can get the major and minor scales used in modern music.

Rice. 3.

The underside of the frame is a resonant body, serving to amplify the sound of the strings; it has the shape of a cone-shaped box with a segment cut off at the top.

The surface of the body is covered with a soundboard made of resonant spruce with a transverse arrangement of fibers in the form of an elongated isosceles triangle, the width and thickness of which increase towards the bass strings, respectively, from 100 to 300-400 mm and from 2 to 8-10 mm.

Rice. 4.

Two longitudinal wooden planks are glued along the middle line of the soundboard from the upper side, to which the lower ends of the strings are attached, transmitting vibrations to the soundboard. To increase the strength of the deck on its lower half inside the body, two longitudinal spring ribs are glued symmetrically with respect to the center line.

From the bottom, the case is equipped with five large oval holes through which the main sound radiation occurs. The forms of resonant oscillations of the soundboard of the harp are shown in Fig. 5.

Rice. 5.

For a small Scottish harp (with a deck 930 mm long, 100 to 300 mm wide), the first resonances turned out to be 170 Hz, 288 Hz, 583 Hz. The resonances of the internal volume of the box are consistent with the resonances of the soundboard (for example, for the same harp, the first resonance of the air volume is 190 Hz), which allows the sound to be amplified in the coincidence region.

The upper curved side of the frame of a modern harp bears, firstly, the nut and pegs that serve to stretch the strings when they are tuned, and secondly, a complex disc mechanism enclosed in a special box for changing the pitch of sounds.

Lyra- this is the instrument of Apollo, Hermes was considered its inventor.

3.

The muse of Terpsichore plays the harp / Attic Red Figure. Neck amphora. Painter: Attributed to Peleus Painter. Date: ca 450-420 BC. British Museum, London. Catalog Number: London E271. via

Harp but it was considered in Hellas an instrument brought from Asia, it was sometimes treated with distrust. The harps were played predominantly by women and in private settings. The harp was associated with love experiences and adventures. Professional harpists were hired to please the feasting husbands.

4.

King David plays the harp/psaltery. Psalter. 12th century, Mantova, City Library, Italy / King David performing the lyre surrounded by musicians, miniature from a medieval Psaltery, Italy 12th Century

To the family harp applies to " psaltery". The name of the instrument is not specific, but generic - for the Greeks it is simply a "plucked" musical instrument. In different eras, they were called completely various tools. In the classical period in Greece, harps were predominantly called psaltery. The Greek writer Athenaeus (border of II-III centuries AD) describes it as a plucked, multi-stringed, triangular in shape.

What is what?

Lyra

Greek images on reliefs and vase painting make it possible to distinguish four main types of Greek liras: lira-helis, barbiton, light cithara - the so-called cithara-"cradle" and professional cithara.

5.


Lyra helis / London E 271. London, British Museum. Side A: Terpsichore with Mousaios and Melousa (by clicking on the picture). Side B: Youths and a woman. Attic Red Figure. Painter: Attributed to the Peleus Painter. Context: From Vulci. Date: ca. 450 BC - ca. 420 B.C. Dimensions: H. 0.585 m. Shape: Neck amphora. via

Lyra-helis and light cithara could be called "forming". Various strings were also called the term "lyre" /lÚrh, lÚra, although by the turn of the 6th-5th centuries. BC. so they began to call mainly an instrument with a body made of tortoise shell and handles made of reed, otherwise called "forming" and lyre-"helis".

6.


Barbiton/Toledo 1964.126 (Vase). Side A: man playing lyre, upper half. Toledo Museum of Art. Tondo: komos: singing youth and dancing man. Side A: five figures moving right. Side B: five opposing figures. Attic Red Figure. Painter: Attributed to the Foundry Painter. Date: ca. 480 B.C. Dimensions: h. 12.5cm; d. of rim 28.8cm; w. with handles 37.0 cm; d. of foot 12.0 cm. Primary Citation: Para, 370, no. 12bis. Shape: Kylix. Period: Late Archaic. via

Another stringed instrument, which in the Athenian and Attic dialect was called "bάrbitos" or "bάrbiton" /b£rb‹toj, b£rb‹ton, differs from helis in a slightly larger resonator body and significantly longer handles, curved in the shape of a heart. In Lesvos, the instrument was called b£rmoj / "lyre for drinking" (cf. baršw - "to be weighed down, intoxicated"). The barbitone was often played by young men who wanted to captivate women's hearts. By the 5th century BC. barbiton, along with aulus, became the main instrument at feasts and feasts.

7.

Kithara / Amphora, ca. 490 B.C. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. classical; red figure. Attributed to the Berlin Painter. Greek, Attic. Terracotta; H. 16 5/16 in. (41.5cm). Fletcher Fund, 1956 (56.171.38). . By clicking on the picture - a full view of the amphora

Kifara appears at the end of the 8th century, and in iconography at the end of the 7th century. BC. Compared to the light helis and barbiton, it was a massive instrument up to a meter or more high. The resonator box of the cithara was made of wood and could be decorated with ivory and gold. Kifara is a concert instrument and was played by professional musicians who, competing in solo singing, accompanied themselves. They played the cithara with a plectrum. The shape of the cithara has not changed for several centuries, and only starting from the end of the 4th century. BC. its diverse simplified varieties appear, for example, a smaller type of cithara, sometimes called a "cradle", possibly coming from the Hittites.

Harps

8.

Harp. Figurine from the island of Keros, Cyclades. Athens, National Museum. . In the burials of the so-called Cycladic culture, figures of seated musicians (c. 2800-2700 BC) were found playing harps with a frame in the form of a capital Greek letter “delta”. The resonator of such an instrument is located below. Greek written sources speak of harps from the 7th century BC. BC, images on vases appear in the second half of the 5th century: at first these are harps without a column (as in ancient Asia and Egypt), and from the middle of the 4th century. already with a column.

Although the harp was used in the Cyclades as early as the 3rd millennium BC, in the classical period the Greeks did not perceive them as their national instrument. Aristotle's student Aristoxenus (354-300) called harps - pectida, magadida, trine and sambika - "foreign instruments" [Athenaeus. Feast of the Wise Men IV, 182f Gullick: έκφυλα όργανα. Wed 182e, 183d, 634f, 635ab, 636ab].

In the large and ancient family of harps, resonator-topped instruments are a minority, distinct and rather late group, so tracking such strings reveals cross-cultural influences. Such influences took place because music was one of the most important aspects of religious life in ancient societies.

9-10.

It is very likely that this kind of Assyrian-Babylonian harp served as a prototype for triangular harps with a resonator in the upper part, which are depicted on Greek vases in the classical period. Unlike the ancient samples, the resonator of the harps has become the upper one.

11.

Such instruments survived the era of Antiquity, preserved by the Arabs, who spread them around the world and passed them on to subsequent cultures.

12.

Upper resonator harps can be seen on medieval miniatures from Persia, from where they penetrate into Transcaucasia (cf. Azerbaijani chang), China (6th century frescoes from the Buddhist monastery of Qianfodong in China), Korea and Japan, on illustrations of medieval manuscripts of Andalusia (XIII century BC). ). Speaking of Assyria and Babylon, it is important to note the characteristic bulky portable corner harps. The shape of a harp is similar to latin letter L, if it is written with an inclination.

Europe, Middle Ages

The importance of the psaltery grows immeasurably among Christian Greek-speaking authors. For them, it is a biblical instrument that belonged to King David.

The stable binding of the psaltery to David appears in the Greek Bible - the Septuagint - translation Old Testament into ancient Greek, made in the III-II centuries BC. in Alexandria. The Hebrew Bible does not mention the "psaltery", where King David plays the "kinnor" and "nevel". Kinnor- beveled harp; nevel- a small harp with an upper resonator.

The term "psantir" (pl. "psanterin") appears only in the Aramaic text of the Book of Daniel. In modern Hebrew, the word “psanter” means “piano”, since the forerunner of the piano, the harpsichord, appeared in the 15th century as a result of the addition of a keyboard to the “kanun” - one of the varieties of the medieval psalter.

There is a fragment describing the psalter in the interpretation of the pseudo-Athanasius Psalter, i.e. attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria (c.298-373) - one of the Greek church fathers:

"Psalter- This ten-string musical instrument that produces response from the upper parts of the body and the singing voice harmoniously accompanying the sounds. The Jews call it impossibly, and the Greeks call cithara. It is made from direct, an uncurved tree on which ten strings are strung. Each of the strings is tied separately to the edge of the psaltery. The ends of the strings are passed from top to bottom. Ten pegs or hooks rotate on the handle of the psaltery: they tighten and loosen the string to a harmonious tuning and according to the desire of the musician. And this is what Basil the Great says, etc."

Since the text contains quotations from (c.330-379), the text should be dated later..

Pseudo-Athanasius gives the first detailed description of the construction of the psaltery, describing it as a corner harp with an upper resonator.

What did King David play?

Miniature "David composes psalms" from Vespasian's Psalter, made in Kent in 730-740. This is the earliest known Anglo-Saxon manuscript depicting David composing psalms. David, seated on a throne, plucks the six strings of the lyre with his hands.

14.

David plays the lyre. Northumbria, about 730 / Durham Cassidorus, 81v. Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B. II. 30. The manuscript was produced in Northumbria in about 730, containing Cassiodorus's Explanation of the Psalms. The manuscript contains two surviving miniatures of King David, one of David as Victor and one of David as Musician. A third miniature is known to have existed, but does not survive. The codex has 261 surviving folios. It is the earliest known copy of the commentary written by Cassiodorus in the sixth century and the hands of six scribes have been identified within it.

This is another early medieval David with a lyre. From a manuscript created around 730 in Northumbria, one of the seven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy in northern Britain.

15.

Lira from Sutton Hoo, 7th-8th centuries. Reconstruction

Scientists have reconstructed a lyre from an ancient Anglo-Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo at the turn of the 6th and 7th centuries. It is interesting to compare archeological data with the iconography of the early illustrated psalms - images of the Psalmist, which used the style of late antique mosaics and jewelry art especially ivory items. This artistic heritage enjoyed great success at the court of Charlemagne /Charlemagne (742/747/748-814) and his grandson, Charles the Bald (823-877).

16.

King David plays the harp. Vivian's Bible /another name First Bible of Charles the Bald, f. 215v. 845 (dated by P. E. Dutton, G. L. Kessler) Paris, National Library. The book was created in the monastery of St. Martin in Tours under the direction of Bishop Vivian. It contains four dedicatory inscriptions, eight full-page illustrations, canon tables, and many initials. A few years after completion, the Bible was presented as a gift to Charles the Bald / Les Psaumes et leur auteur, le roi David. Bible. Date d "édition: IX, manuscrit. Langue: Latin. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 1, f. 215v.

In the Vivian Bible from the French national library we find the image of the dancing David, most likely dating back to Byzantine sources. David plays a small 14-string "triangle" harp.

17.


Chess and Harper / The Libro de los Juegos /"Book of games"/ or Libro de acedrex, dados e tables, /"Book of chess, dice and tables", in Old Spanish. Was commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile, Galicia and León and completed in his scriptorium in Toledo in 1283. Ms T.I. 6f. 22r. Biblioteca del Monasterio. San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain.

In a 13th century chess textbook created for Alfonso X the Wise (1221-1284), there is an image of a harpist, where the influence of Arabic iconography, known from Arabic and Persian miniatures, is evident.

Forms of musical instruments were endowed important meaning in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In particular, the location of the resonator box had a symbolic meaning: for lyres at the bottom, for harps at the top - more precisely, this is one of the vertical faces of the triangle of the instrument.

The sound of the lyre is coarser, the harp is softer.

18.


Kithara on a vase painting from the 6th century BC Attica. On click - an amphora in full glory / The kithara, an instrument of the lyre family. Terracotta neck-amphora (jar). Attributed to Exekias. Period: Archaic. Date: ca. 540 B.C. Culture: Greek, Attic. Medium: Terracotta; black figure. Dimensions: H.47 cm, diameter 24.8 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In the "State" of Plato, a place is given, among other things, to musical instruments. Music is used for educational purposes. In the Platonic state, only the lyre and the cithara are allowed. Simple instruments, flutes - behind the wall, for the shepherds, for the instruments of Apollo are higher than the instruments of Marsyas. This opposition is akin to opposing the masculine to the feminine, the rational to the unreasonable, the organized licentious, the virtuous to the voluptuous, the Apollonian to the Dionysian, and so on. In the state of Plato there is no place for harps, since they are multi-stringed, require technical skill and sound too delicate. Harps delight the ear. Young men must be ready for military service. Plato denies professional music.

Antiquity is characterized by such a contrast: the lyre and the kafara are immaculate, while the harp embodies their complete opposite.

How does this scale of values ​​change in Christian exegesis?

Kifara - from the kind of lyre and psaltery - a harp with an upper resonator - the instruments that King David played. God is praised on the cithara and the psaltery, but the cithara is less exalted, so there is an opposition.

The painting by the Flemish Jan van Eyck "Blessed Spring", circa 1423-1426, depicts an angel playing with a plectrum pen on a wing-shaped psalter, otherwise called "mycanon", which means "half of the eve".

At the end of the XV century. the trapezoid psaltery is modified, first in Northern Europe, into the "baroque psalter", "timpanon" or "dulcema", which was played with hammers. The earliest surviving instrument was made in Bologna in 1514. It fell into disuse with the end of the Baroque era, giving way to the harpsichord, but survived under the name santura where tradition was strong, for example, in Greece and Iran.

Organology

The study of musical instruments is called organology. Organological reasoning, theories of the appearance of instruments, have a long tradition dating back to Plato and Aristotle and remain relevant into the Middle Ages.

30.


Bible Porta, c. end of 13th century, U 964, 93r, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire de Lausanne.

It is difficult to find a description of musical instruments in the sources. The ancient treatises deal with harmony, rhythmology and cosmology, first about the path of the soul, and only then about how it is consonant with certain instruments. It is not until the 9th century that scarce descriptive information appears.

In antiquity, learning to play musical instruments had an educational function. In the Christian era, there was a shift in emphasis. The main goal of music and its teaching was the glorification of God, and not the education of youth, since music accompanies the Psalter.

Sources- used materials:

Notes:

1) In order to avoid confusion, the Book of Psalms is referred to in the publications of Valery Petrov as the Psalter, and the musical instrument as the Psalter, although in the original they correspond to the same word ψαλτή ptov, psalterium.
2) For 2012, the author brought his original exploration until about the Carolingian Renaissance.
3) Most of the illustrations from this post are used or mentioned in the publications of Valery Petrov; and numbers 2, 3, 18, 19, 21, 30 are not.

Other music and dance.

Stringed musical instrument. It is believed that the beauty of her appearance surpasses all her neighbors in the orchestra. Its graceful outlines hide the shape of a triangle, the metal frame is decorated with carvings. Strings (47-48) of different lengths and thicknesses are pulled onto the frame, which form a transparent mesh. At the beginning of the 19th century, the famous piano master Erar improved the ancient harp. He found a way to quickly change the length of the strings and thus the pitch of the harp.

The virtuoso possibilities of the harp are rather peculiar: wide chords, passages from arpeggios, glissando - sliding the hand along all the strings tuned to some chord, harmonics are excellent on it.

Origin

One of the oldest musical instruments of mankind. It originated from a bow with a stretched string, which sounded melodious when fired. Later, the sound of the bowstring was used as a signal. The man who first drew three or four bowstrings on a bow, which, due to their unequal length, made sounds different heights, and became the creator of the first harp. Even in the Egyptian frescoes of the 15th century BC, harps still resemble a bow. And these harps are not the most ancient: the oldest archaeologists found during excavations of the Sumerian city of Ur in Mesopotamia - it was made four and a half thousand years ago, in the 26th century BC.

In ancient times, in the East, in Greece and Rome, the harp remained one of the most common and beloved instruments. It was often used to accompany singing or playing other instruments. The harp appeared early in medieval Europe: here special art playing on it was famous for Ireland, where folk singers- bards - sang their sagas to her accompaniment.

Device

It has the shape of a triangle, which consists: firstly, of a resonant box-box approximately 1 meter long, expanding downwards; its former shape was quadrangular, while the present one is rounded on one side; it is equipped with a flat deck, usually made of maple wood, in the middle of which a narrow and thin rail of hard wood is attached along the length of the body, in which holes are punched for threading the gut strings; secondly, from the upper part (in the form of a large neck), snake-like curved, attached to the top of the body, forming with it sharp corner; pegs are attached to this part to strengthen the strings and tune them; thirdly, from the front beam, which is in the form of a column, the purpose of which is to resist the force produced by the strings stretched between the fingerboard and the resonant body.

Since the harp already in the past had a significant sound volume (five octaves), and the room for the strings of the full chromatic scale is not enough, the strings in the harp are stretched only to produce the sounds of the diatonic scale. A harp without a pedal can only play one scale. For chromatic rises in the old days, the strings had to be shortened by pressing the fingers against the fingerboard; later, this pressing began to be done with the help of hooks set in motion by hand. Such harps turned out to be extremely inconvenient for performers; these shortcomings were largely eliminated by the mechanism in the pedals, invented by Jacob Hochbrucker in 1720. This master attached seven pedals to the harp, acting on the conductors, which passed through the empty space of the beam to the fingerboard and there brought the hooks into such a position that they, firmly adjoining the strings, they produced chromatic enhancements throughout the entire volume of the instrument.

The role of the harp in the orchestra

The role of the harp in the orchestra not so much emotional as colorful. The harp often accompanies different tools orchestra; at other times, she is tasked with spectacular solos. There are many of them in the ballets of Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, in the works of Rimsky-Korsakov. Of the Western European composers of the 19th century, the harp was most widely used by Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Wagner and Liszt. The well-known part of two harps in the "Waltz" from the "Fantastic Symphony" by Berlioz laid the foundation for that virtuoso style, which became the leading one in three recent centuries. Previously, since its appearance in symphony orchestra From the 18th century until Berlioz, the harp imitated the sound (like Glinka's in The Aragonese Hunt) or the harpsichord. The harp was also used in cases where it was necessary to evoke an association with antiquity. Gluck's Orpheus or Beethoven's Prometheus are examples.

The orchestra usually uses one or two harps, but in some cases their number is increased. So, in Rimsky-Korsakov's Mlada there are three harps, while Wagner's in Rheingold Gold has six.

Famous harpists

Nicola Boxa
Marcel Granjany
Vera Dulova
Marcel Tournier
Tatyana Tower
Nadezhda Tolstaya
Alphonse Hasselmans
Ksenia Erdeli
Olga Erdeli
Papisova Anastasia
Natalia O'Shea

Video: Harp on video + sound

Thanks to these videos, you can get acquainted with the instrument, watch the real game on it, listen to its sound, feel the specifics of the technique:

Sale: where to buy/order?

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The harp is the oldest plucked stringed musical instrument. The harp has a triangular shape and consists of a resonant box, a narrow wooden lath with holes for strings, a front bar in the form of a column, and an upper body with pegs for attaching and tuning the strings.

From hunting to art

There are various legends that say that the first stringed musical instrument, thanks to which the harp and all others later appeared stringed instruments, was made from an ordinary hunting bow. Primitive people noticed that the tension of the bowstring affects its sound, then one bow maker tied several “strings” to one bow, emitting sounds of different heights.
Images of a bow harp are present not only in the cultures of Ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome, but also in excavations, which indicates the origin musical culture on a par with the birth of mankind itself.

ancient egyptian harp

In ancient times, harps were various forms and sizes. Egyptian harps were considered the best, and the very name of the musical instrument is translated as “beautiful”. Harps in Egypt were decorated very expensively, they were covered with gold and silver, strewn precious stones and decorated with ivory.
In the Middle Ages, the harp was used in churches, monasteries and cathedrals. Learned monks not only wrote works for harps, but also entered writings about the instrument in their inventories.

The appearance of the harp in Europe

The harp appeared in Europe in the 8th century. The wanderers were the first to appreciate the musical instrument, who needed a compact accompaniment suitable for performances. In the XV-XVII centuries, large floor harps appeared. Subsequently, its transformations followed, the purpose of which was to expand the range. There were even harps with two rows of strings - for the right and left hands. This model did not last long.

Together with external transformations there is also an expansion of the boundaries of the application of the tool. Now it is used in choral and orchestral works. To achieve an incredible sound transition, several harps are used at once in one work.

In 1660, a device was invented in the form of mechanics with keys, which allows you to stretch and release the strings of a harp, while changing the pitch. This mechanism was not particularly convenient, so in 1720 a mechanism with pedals appeared, which was invented by Jacob Hochbrucker. The pedals acted as conductors, affecting the hooks, which in turn pressed the strings.

In 1810, the French master Sebastian Erard invented new model"double harp". This instrument was able to sound in all keys and became a new word in the world of music. It is the mechanism invented by Erard that is also found in the modern instrument.

Sebastian Erar

In Russia, the harp appeared in the 18th century and immediately became widely used. The instrument is used not only for performances, but also for home music playing. Great Russian poets and sang the harp in their immortal works as the most elegant and melodic instrument.

HARP (German - Harfe, from common German - harpa; in the Old Icelandic epic - harpa, in Old English - hearpe; Italian - agra), a stringed plucked instrument (chordophone). Strings of different lengths are stretched between the body (resonator) and the neck extending from it. Typologically, harps are distinguished: arc, corner, frame. The 1st and 2nd types are divided into 2 types - vertical (more common) and horizontal (the tool body is parallel to the floor plane). Both types are characteristic of the cultures of Asia and Africa, the frame harp - for Europe.

The oldest type is the arc harp (the line of the body and neck forms an arc). The first images refer to the civilizations of Sumer (about 3000 BC) and ancient egypt(mid 3rd millennium BC). There is evidence of the existence of an arc harp in the Indus Valley Civilization (mid 3rd-mid 2nd millennium BC). From about the 3rd century BC, it becomes characteristic of the South and South-East Asia. In the 20th century, it is found in Afghanistan and Pakistan (the so-called kafir harp), Myanmar (saun gauk - Burmese harp), known among a number of African peoples.

The angular harp (the line of the body and the neck forms an angle), the first samples of which are also known from the materials of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt (2nd millennium BC), passed to Ancient Iran, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, to the Sarmatians, to the Caucasus. During the 1st millennium AD, it spread almost throughout Asia (specific species - in Central Asia, Altai, China, etc.). Until the 20th century, it was preserved among the Abkhazians, Circassians, Balkars, Karachays, Ossetians, Svans, Mansi, Khanty, Yakuts.

The frame harp (triangular in terms of construction is formed by the body, the neck and the bar connecting them) is also known from antiquity: the first image found in Megiddo (Syro-Palestinian-Phoenician region) dates back to 3300-3000 BC. The same type is recorded in the Cycladic culture (2800-2600 BC). It appeared in Europe around the 8th century among the Celtic population of the British Isles (see Celtic harp). The name "harp" seems to have originally referred to a variety of lyre (see Mole). The written use of the word harpa is first attested in Latin around 600 in the hymn Venantius Fortunatus, where the harp is contrasted with the Roman and Greek lyre as a "barbarian" instrument. The interchangeability of the concepts of "harp" and "lyre" has been preserved for centuries [recorded, for example, by S. Wirdung in the "German Treatise on Music" ("Musica getutscht", 1511)].

The frame harp came to continental Europe around the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. Its shape changed over time, and initially a small but massive instrument acquired an elegant modern silhouette by the 18th century. The Medieval-Renaissance harp had a diatonic tuning. The search for possibilities of chromatic change in sounds (from approximately the 16th century) led to the invention of a pedal mechanism in 1720: the German master J. Hochbrucker created the so-called hooked harp with pedals. new period in the development of the art of playing the harp began after 1801, when the French master S. Erard invented an instrument with the so-called double-action pedals (patent of 1810): such a harp can be tuned into all keys. Modern harps (height about 180 cm) have 46-47 strings; the levers of the adjustment mechanism connected with the pedals are located in the straight bar-column. The initial system is a diatonic scale of C-flat major, each of the 7 pedals, which increase the system by a semitone or a tone, affects all strings of the same name (with the exception of 2 upper and 2 lower ones). The full range is from “to (-flat)” of the counteroctave to “sol (-sharp)” of the 4th octave. Music for harp is recorded on 2 staves (as for piano).

The harp is widespread in Western Europe since the Middle Ages, but until the 18th century, she did not have an independent repertoire, sharing it with lute and keyboard instruments. In the opera orchestra of the 17th-18th centuries (for the first time with C. Monteverdi) it was used to give the music an "antique" or "biblical" flavor. It has become stronger in the symphony orchestra since G. Berlioz, in Russia - with M. I. Glinka, it sounds most effectively in orchestral solos (ballets by P. I. Tchaikovsky, A. K. Glazunov, operas and symphonic works by N. A. Rimsky - Korsakov). For the harp, K. F. E. Bach, J. K. Bach, G. F. Handel (Concerto for organ or harp and orchestra, 1736), W. A. ​​Mozart (Concerto for harp and flute and orchestra K299) , many harpist composers of the 18th and 19th centuries. In connection with the development of solo performance in the 20th century, playing the harp was enriched by a number of special techniques; works for harp were created by C. Debussy, M. Ravel, P. Hindemith, B. Britten, A. Casella, J. Taifer, concertos for harp and orchestra were written by R. M. Gliere (1938), A. V. Mosolov ( 1939), E. Vila Lobos (1953), A. Jolivet, D. Millau, E. Kshenec, A. Ginastera and others. The largest harpists: R. N. Sh. Boxa, E. Parish-Alvars, A. Renier, M. Tournier, V. Posse, C. Salcedo, M. Granjani, N. Sabaleta; representatives of the Russian school: A. G. Tsabel, I. I. Eikhenvald, E. A. Walter-Kühne, A. I. Slepushkin, I. G. Parfenov, N. I. Amosov, M. A. Korchinskaya, K. A. and O. G. Erdeli, V. G. Dulova, E.A. Sinitsyn, E. A. Moskvitina, N. Kh. Shameeva.

Lit .: Polomarenko I. Harp in the past and present. M.; L., 1939; Erdeli K. Harp in my life. M., 1967; Yazvinskaya E. Harp. M., 1968; Rensch R. The harp: its history, technique and repertoire. L.; N.Y., 1969; idem. Harps and harpists. L., 1989; Zingel H J. Neue Harfenlehre. Lpz., 1969. Bd 1-4; Dulova V. G. The art of playing the harp. M., 1974; Pokrovskaya N. History of performance on the harp. Novosib., 1994; Shameeva N. The history of the development of domestic music for harp (XX century). M., 1994.

N. Kh. Shameeva, M. V. Esipova, O. V. Frayonova.