harp

Harp

There were two primary designs for Egyptian harps - the arched harp and the angular harp. The arched harp was made with a sound box which was joined smoothly to a curved rod encircled by collars for individual strings. The strings stretched between their collars and a rib in contact with the skin over the box. When the collars were rotated, the tension and thus the tuning of the attached strings changed. Most of the arched harps have fewer than ten strings, and some as few as three. The angular harp had a rod that was stuck through a hole in an oblong box. This arrangement resulted in a sharp angle between the rod and box. Angular harps typically had twenty-one and as many as twenty-nine strings.

Egyptian harps were strung with hair, animal gut, or plant fiber, and usually had a pharaoh or falcon head at the base. Many harps were finely made with precious materials. For example, we know that King Ahmose possessed a harp made of ebony, gold, and silver, while Tuthmosis III commissioned "a splendid harp wrought with silver, gold, lapis lazuli, malachite, and every splendid costly stone."

Harp players, like most of the musicians in ancient Egypt, were mainly women. However, on occasion men did play the harp - but curiously, many male harpists are depicted as blind, or even blindfolded. An obscure deity known as //Horkhenty-Enirty// ("Blind Horus" - the god Horus was temporary blinded by his rival Set), has been identified as the "harp god", or "patron of male harp players."

Musical Instruments