Jew’s harp: musical instrument of American Samoa
Jew’s harp is an African musical instrument which is in the category of musical instruments found in the Hornbostel-Sachs system of musica...
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Jew’s harp is an African
musical instrument which is in the category of musical instruments found in the
Hornbostel-Sachs system of musical instrument. This musical instrument made up
of a bendable metal or bamboo tongue or reed attached to a frame. The reed is
positioned in the player’s mouth and plucked with the finger to bring forth a
note.
The frame is fixed
securely against the player’s teeth or lips by the use of the jaw and mouth as resonator,
and it greatly increases the volume of the instrument. The teeth must be
separated enough for the reed to vibrate freely and the fleshy part of the
mouth is not meant to come in contact with the reed to prevent it from damping
of the vibrations. The note will produce a constant pitch also by changing the
shape of the mouth and the amount of air that is contained in the player can
cause or generate different overtones to sound and that could create or give
birth to melodies. The volume of the note can be differed by breathing in and
out while playing the instrument.
The instrument is known in
many different cultures by many different names. The common English name is
jew’s harp and this name may be provoking strong disagreement and as such is
always avoided by some speakers. Another name with which this musical instrument
is known by scholarly literature is the older English name which is “trump” or
the French name which is “guimbarde”. This instrument is judged to be the
oldest musical instrument in the world. The first to be seen playing this
musical instrument was in a Chinese drawing from the 4th century BC.
This musical instrument has no connection with the Jewish or judaism people
despite the English name that calls it jew’s harp. It is believed that this
musical instrument is a native of Asia among whom it is well-known as a temir
komuz, agiz komuzu, gubuz or doromb.
The temir komuz is a
product of iron normally with a length of 100-200mm and with 2-7mm wide. The
range of the instrument differs with the size of the instrument. The Kirgiz
people have a high degree of skill in the playing of the musical instrument and
popularly done by the little children of the society. This musical instrument
which is known as “morsing” in the southern part of India has been part of the
rhythmic section in a Carnatic music ensemble.
