Angular harp is a category of musical instruments in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument classification. It describes a harp in which "the neck makes a sharp angle with the resonator," the two arms forming an "open" harp. The harp stands in contrast to the arched harp or bow harp in which the angle is much less sharp and in which the neck curves away from the resonator (and can curve back above it in some harps). It also stands in contrast to the frame harp which is a "closed harp" and in which there is no opening between the resonator and the upper tip of the harp, but has a third side forming a triangle.
The first angular harps appeared in Mesopotamia around 1900 B.C. and spread throughout the ancient East. They existed almost unchanged until the 17th century as the standard type of harp in Asia. Both vertical and horizontal versions are known; the vertical or horizontal describes the direction to which the strings are oriented. In vertical harps, the harp is traditionally plucked with the fingers. With horizontally held harps, the strings are played by plucking or with a plectrum or pick in ancient representations.
Description
Classification
Open harps include the arched harp and the angular harp. Frame harps are closed harps. The harp is a composite chordophone instrument; it belongs to those stringed instruments that have a distinguishable string-carrying neck and a body that receives the vibrations of the strings and emits them as sound, and its strings are stretched between the neck and the body. The defining feature of the harp is that the plane of its strings is—unlike from lutes—perpendicular to the sound-radiating surface (sound board) of the instrument body. If the body and neck are connected by a column, it is a frame harp, otherwise it is an open harp.
The angle harp is a variant of the open harp, along with the bow harp. The neck of the bowed harp is like an extension of its body, forming a continuous arc with it; in contrast, the straight neck of the angular harp fits the body at right angle or at an acute angle.
Structure
The body of the harp is an elongated, trough-like shape carved out of wood, the opening of which is covered by a thin skin or wooden sound board. A thin stick runs along its center line in the trough's opening, and the strings are anchored to the stick. The other end of the strings is connected to the neck, tied to the neck or to tuning pegs. The straight neck of the harp is attached either into the instrument body itself or into its extension. In a simpler case, the neck has a cylinder cross-section; the strings are connected to the tuning rings looped on it, and tuning can be achieved by rotating the rings. In later ages, the use of tuning keys was also widespread.
Variations
Depending on how it is held and used, there are vertical and horizontal angular harps.
On a vertical harp, the sound box is vertical, resting against the musician or leaning forward. The strings are thus aligned roughly vertical, and the neck projects outward at the bottom of the instrument.
The sound box of the horizontal harp is held in a horizontal position. The neck extends vertically at the far end, in relation to the musician.
The vertical angular harp has 15–25 strings and is usually plucked with the fingers. The horizontal angular harp has less than 10, and in the illustrations it is sometimes played with a plucker or beater.
With vertical angular harps, the musician has both hands free to play the instrument, as the instrument rests against their body. With horizontal ones, the instrument is held under the left arm and played with the right hand. The left hand can dampen strings.
At the beginning of its history spanning thousands of years, the vertical harp had a robust structure, a straight, columnar body widening upwards, and a stout neck. The body of the instrument changed over time, curving forward from the musician.
The structure of the entire instrument grew lighter. In the case of the "light" type of harp, the neck was thinner and no longer connected directly to the sound box; instead it tapped into an extension that grows downward from the sound box. This extension often continues in a tail-like manner even after the point of connection of the neck; this supports the instrument when played in a seated position.