Harp: structure, history, and role in music

Overview

The harp is a plucked string instrument with a frame supporting strings of varying lengths and pitches. It is the largest plucked string instrument commonly used in Western orchestras and chamber groups. Its resonant, harp-like timbre has made it a distinctive voice in classical, folk, and popular music traditions. For a basic introduction to the instrument category, see instrument.

Construction and types
A concert harp typically has a triangular frame, a sounding board, and about 47 strings tuned diatonically. Pedal harps include a foot-pedal mechanism that alters string pitch, while smaller lever harps use hand-operated levers. Ethnic harps vary widely in shape and size and appear across cultures. Related categories are listed under string instruments.

History and origins
The harp family is ancient: early harps and lyre-like harps appear in art and archaeology from the third and fourth millennia BCE in regions such as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Over centuries the instrument evolved in Europe, Africa, and Asia, adapting to local musical styles and construction methods. Harps often appear in religious and mythic imagery, including depictions of angels, linked to ideas of celestial music and paradise; see also visual traditions related to heaven.

Role and repertoire
In orchestral settings the harp provides color, glissandi, and accompaniment effects; composers from the Classical era through modern times have written solo and ensemble parts for it. The harp also features in folk repertoires—Celtic lever harps, West African kora-like instruments, and East Asian variants illustrate its broad cultural reach. Harpists must coordinate hand techniques and, on pedal models, footwork to change keys.