Picture 2.19
| Angular harp |
Modern reconstruction of the Japanese kugo. This harp has 23 strings. De tuning cords hanging down from the string arm look like those on the old Assyrian angular harp [see 2.08]. This kugo is now at the Sho-sho-in Repository in Nara, Japan.
Picture 2.01 Small drawing on a wine-cask from the dynasty of Larsa [1900 – 1600 BC] in Babylonia. The instrument looks rather big with regard to the player. How many strings it really has is not clear, the drawing being too small. It is one of the first pictures of the angular harp. |
Picture 2.02 Terra-cotta relief from Larsa, Babylonia, dating from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. This instrument has a big sound-box and seven strings, fixed with tuning-cords. The sound-box was made of wood, covered with cloth or leather. |
Picture 2.03 Wooden statue, found in Egypt but from Hettite origin. The Hettite people came from a northern region to Mesopotamia and settled there around 2000 BC. Enlarging their territory they met the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II who was doing the same in the opposite direction. Ramses won the battle and so the little lady with her harp landed in Egypt. |
Picture 2.04 Harpist with an angular harp, found in Egypt in a tomb from the 19th dynasty [1200 BC]. It is probably from Assyrian origin and brought to Egypt as spoils of a victory. It is now in the British Museum in London. |
Picture 2.05 Horizontal angular harps played with a plectrum by martial looking men in de palace of king Sennaherib [704 – 681] in Nineveh, Assyria. Pairs of these harps provide the music for sacrifices and festivities. This fragment is now in the British Museum in London. |
Picture 2.06 Garden party at the palace of king Assurbanipal [661 – 631], the grandson of Sennaherib [see 2.05]The king celebrates a victory with music of the vertical angular harp. A tall instrument with many strings and long tuning-cords hanging down the string arm. As a reminder of his conquest the head of the slain ennemy, king Teumman of Elam, has been put on the tree near the harpist. This relief is now in the British Museum, London. |
Picture 2.07 Fragment of an Assyrian musical procession with angular harp, double-flute and another stringed instrument. It could be an horizontal harp but the relief was damaged and somewhat wrongly repaired. It could be a psaltery. It is now in the British Museum, London. |
Picture 2.08 A parade of angular harps from Elam after the conquest of their land by the Assyrian king Assurbanipal [661 – 631]. The defeated people try to appease the conqueror with their music. Relief from the palace in Nineveh, Assyria. Now at the Britisch Museum in London. |
Picture 2.09 Horizontal harps accompany a libation for a killed lion. King Assubanipal of Assyria [661 – 631] was a famous lion hunter. After killing the animal, Assurbanipal honoured the lion with a libation. Relief from the palace in Nineveh. Now in the British Mueum in London. |
Picture 2.10 Fragment of a sculpture found in Israel during excavations in Yanneh Yam. It shows part of an angular harp and is from Greek/Hellenistic origin. It dates from the 2nd century BC. After Alexander the Great who conquered the whole known world, Greek trade and culture dominated the Eastern Mediterranean coasts. |
Picture 2.11 Greek angular harp painted on an Attic red-figure vase. Greek vases of this period, 5th century BC, had red figures on a black background or black figures on a red background. On this vase Muse Terpsichore plays an angular harp with a tall sound box and about 12 strings. The vase is now in the British Museum in London. |
Picture 2.12 Greek vase from Apulia [Italy], a Greek colony. During the 5th and the 4th centuries Athens and its neighbours were constantly fighting each other. Artists and merchants left Greek for Italy to be able to work in peace. On this vase the story of Helena is painted. Menelaos, Helena and small flying Eros above have music from the harpist with the Apulian angular harp. This vase is now in a Museum in Boston, USA. |
Picture 2.13 Attic vase from Apulia [Italy] with a Maenad as harpist, on the couch a man resting and behind him a Satyr. Maenads and Satyrs were the followers of Dionysos, the god of wine. The Apulian angular harp has a row of spikes along the sound box. The meaning of these spikes is obscure. The vase dates from the 3rd century BC en is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA. |
Picture 2.14 Angular harp from Baktria, once lying between Afghanistan and Iran [Persia]. The Baktrian culture was a mix of Greek and Persian styles in the 1st century BC. This fragment of a limestone frieze was found in a monastery and is now in the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia. |
Picture 2.15 Terracotta statue with a Chinese angular harp, the Kong Hou. It was found in a grave from the Sui dynasty [589 – 918 AD]. The Chinese kong hou has a support for resting it on the ground or in the girdle of the player. |
Picture 2.16 Ensemble in procession with lutes, flutes, kong hou harp and bells. It is a wall painting in the Dunghuan caves from the time of the Sui and Tang dynasty [581 – 918 AD]. |
Picture 2.17 Tall Chinese kong hou harp, played at the court. It is a fragment from a big screen representing festivities at the court. It dates from the Ming dynasty [16th century AD]. It is now in the British Museum in London. |
Picture 2.18 Japanese angular harp, Kugo, painted on a roll-up book. It is more like a painter’s view of a harp. It dates from the 14th century AD. |
Picture 2.19Modern reconstruction of the Japanese kugo. This harp has 23 strings. De tuning cords hanging down from the string arm look like those on the old Assyrian angular harp [see 2.08]. This kugo is now at the Sho-sho-in Repository in Nara, Japan. |
Picture 2.20 Bronze statue of the “Flying angel with harp” from the 10th century AD. This angular harp could well be the model for the reconstruction of the modern kugo [see 2.19]. |
Picture 2.21 Modern Japanese angular harp, kugo, which is an existing musical instrument as the harpist playing it shows.It doesn’t look really easy to handle. |
Picture 2.22 Indonesian angular harp. This instrument is used by the Dayak people on Borneo/Kalimantan. A small instrument with about 5 strings. It dates from the 19th or 20th century AD but the tradition in folkmusic is much older. |
Picture 2.23 Angular harp used in the folkmusic of Georgia, south of Russia. A simple sound box with 6 strings, fastened to the string arm with tuning pins. This string arm has gaps to have a better grip on the instrument while playing and walking at the same time. |
Picture 2.24 Reconstruction of an angular harp found in pieces during excavations of a tomb in Pasyryk, Altai in West-Siberia. It dates from the 5th century BC. The shape of the instrument seems to be the same as that of angular folk harps in Asia, which made reconstruction possible. |
Picture 2.25 Byzantine angular harp in an ensemble on a mural, painted in a church in Prizren, Slovenia. It is from c. 1300 AD. It looks as if it has a pillar but that is a piece of the wooden panel behind the musicians. The harp has c. 12 strings. It has a nice sound box, rather similar to the Persian harps. |
Picture 2.26 Angular harp from Cyprus, but the picture was printed in Istanbul, Turkey. It shows a beautifully made harp on a high stand. No date mentioned on the picture but more or less from the time of the Persian miniatures, c. 15th century AD. |
Picture 2.27 Persian angular harp. Persia is now Iran. This picture from the 15th century AD shows singing and playing figures celebrating Spring. The big harp has c. 12 strings and a stand that fits in the waistband of the player. |
Picture 2.28 Persian angular harp. Detail from an illustration in the ‘Book of Kings’, a manuscript from the 16th cent. AD. It shows a wedding festivity. This MS is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA. |
Picture 2.29 Persian angular harp, detail of a Persian miniature. It shows that harp-playing while riding on a horse must be possible. This harp has 10 strings.The picture dates from the 17th cent. AD. it is now in the National Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. |
Picture 2.30 A Spanish/Moorish angular harp. The harpist is a Mussulman. He sits in the right corner. This dates from the 13th cent.AD when the south of Spain was governed by sultans. The friendship between South and North, Islamic and Christian rulers created a unique cooperation in the time of king Alfonso el Sabio [1221 – 1284]. He ordered Islamic, Jewish and Christian artists and musicians to create two books: a cancionero or songbook, the ‘Cantigas’ and a book of plays, the ‘Libro de los Juegos’.These books are in the Escorial in Spain. |
Picture 2.31 Female harpist with an enormous angular harp from Constantinople [now Istanbul]. It is a woodcut by Melchior Lorich [c. 1558]. No data of harp and harpist. This picture is now in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany. |