JEW’S HARP: Italian musical instrument

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 4^th 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.