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Human Migration and African Harps
Klaus Wachsmann
Journal:

Journal of the International Folk Music Council / Volume 16 / January 1964

Published online by Cambridge University Press:

07 March 2019, pp. 84-88

Print publication:

January 1964
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According to a widely used definition a harp is “an instrument in which the plane of the strings lies at right angles to the sound-table, and a line joining the lower ends of the strings would point towards the neck.” In Africa this definition embraces many varieties of harps, and the variations in form may indicate different human migrations.
Perhaps the most important structural feature by which the various types are differentiated is the assembly of neck, resonator, and string holder. In the manufacture of harps many practical problems centre on this point and this is the basis of my classification of African material. At the same time I shall in this paper disregard many other criteria, such as the shapes and proportions of components, and the tuning pegs, etc. The net result is that it is possible to group present-day harps in Africa into three types.

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