Angular harp

With horizontally held harps, the strings are played by plucking or with a plectrum or pick in ancient representations.

The defining feature of the harp is that the plane of its strings is—unlike from lutes—perpendicular to the sound-radiating surface (sound board) of the instrument body.

[4] The body of the harp is an elongated, trough-like shape carved out of wood, the opening of which is covered by a thin skin or wooden sound board.

The strings are thus aligned roughly vertical, and the neck projects outward at the bottom of the instrument.

[7] At the beginning of its history spanning thousands of years, the vertical harp had a robust structure, a straight, columnar body widening upwards, and a stout neck.

This extension often continues in a tail-like manner even after the point of connection of the neck; this supports the instrument when played in a seated position.

[1][7] In the ancient Greek vase paintings, angle harps with curved bodies appear from the second half of the 5th century B.C.

[7] During excavations on the edge of the Eurasian steppe zone—at the site of Pazirik in the Altai Mountains, and then in Xinjiang in northwestern China—several harps in relatively good condition have been unearthed from the 5–4th century B.C.

According to assumptions, this type of Assyrian harp may have spread across the steppes through the mediation of the Scythians and other equestrian nomadic peoples.

[10] Music played a particularly important role in the Iranian-centered Sassanid Empire, partly in connection with the Zoroastrian state religion.

Among the harps, the form prevalent in the Hellenistic era was the dominant one, but towards the end of the era, around 600 A.D., the "light" type of harp was already formed, which later as the chang became dominant during the conquest of Islam, and then spread throughout the Muslim world from Iran to Spain.

During the Han dynasty, China joined the Silk Road, the western part of which passed through the areas where the harp was established at that time.

In China, Korea, and Japan, the harp had different names, but the instrument itself was essentially the same, and everywhere it was connected to the Buddhist religion.

The relegation of the harp to the background probably stemmed from the difficulties of tuning the many strings and the fragile and vulnerable nature of the instrument.