The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. It is classified as a chordophone by the Harvard Dictionary of Music and only types of harps are in that class of instruments with plucked strings. All harps have a neck, resonator, and strings. Some, known as frame harps, also have a forepillar; those lacking the forepillar are referred to as open harps. Depending on its size (which varies considerably), a harp may be played while held in the lap or while it stands on the floor. Harp strings are made of nylon, gut, wire, or silk on certain instruments. A person who plays the harp is called a harpist or harper. Folk musicians often use the term "harper", whereas classical musicians use "harpist".
Various types of harps are found in Africa, Europe, North, and South America, and in Asia. In antiquity, harps and the closely related lyres were very prominent in nearly all cultures. The oldest harps found thus far have been uncovered in ruins from ancient Sumer. The harp also predominant in the hands of medieval bards, troubadors and minnesingers, as well as throughout the Spanish Empire. Harps continued to grow in popularity through improvements in their design and construction through the beginning of the 20th century.
The aeolian harp (wind harp), the autoharp, and all forms of the lyre and Kithara are not harps because their strings are not perpendicular to the soundboard; they are part of the zither family of instruments along with the piano and harpsichord. In blues music, the harmonica is casually referred to as a "Blues harp" or "harp", but it is a free reed wind instrument, not a stringed instrument, and is therefore not an actual harp.
Origins
Harps were most likely independently invented in many parts of the world in remote prehistory.[clarification needed] The harp's origins might lie in the sound of a plucked hunter's bow-string or the strings of a loom.
A type of harp called a 'bow harp' is nothing more than a bow like a hunter's, with a resonating vessel such as a gourd fixed somewhere along its length. To allow a greater number of strings, harps were later made from two pieces of wood attached at the ends: this type is known as the 'angle harp'.[citation needed]They can also come in different colours.
The oldest depictions of harps without a forepillar are from 4000 BC in Egypt[citation needed](see Music of Egypt) the sumerian harp of Ur 3500 BC,and 3000 BC in Persia (see Music of Iran).[citation needed] Other ancient names for harps include magadis and sambuca. The kanun is a descendant of the ancient Egyptian harp and was introduced to Europe by the Moors during the Middle Ages but is like the beforementioned Aeolian harp not a harp but a member of the zither family.
