History

The oldest harp pictures come from Mesopotany and Egypt. They were of different shapes and sizes, but most often consisted of Harp of the concerted body and shoulder bent like a bow. Strings were made of hair, horsehair, plant fiber.

From Cyclades (2,500 BC), a large number of statuettes of musicians playing instruments similar to harps come in, but it is often unclear whether they are lyre or harp.

In Europe, the first harps with a column are already in place, although they do not know exactly when they started to use them. For the first time they are recorded in the 9th century in the Utrecht Psalter. Mostly, it was the portrayal of King David. There are also pictures of harp in Scotland on the Piktic stones - most of them on the east coast.

From the 10th and 11th centuries are already known illustrations in which the harps have a larger and deeper body and a rounded shoulder. The Scottish stone engravings have a similar shape and from this century are the oldest preserved pictures of the Irish harp in manuscripts and decorated crosses. It is generally assumed that the harp as we know it today appeared earlier in Scotland.

A little later in the 12th century, the illumination of the harp with the finer form appears in the books. The neck is now drawn into the curve to shorten the middle strings. Geraldus Cambrensis mentions that the Irish are playing harps with bronze strings.

The very word "harp" comes from the Anglo-Saxon and Old-German words whose stem means something like barking or jerking and is used only for the angular shape of a harp - that is to say, a column.