jew’s harp

jew’s harp, musical instrument consisting of a thin wood or metal tongue fixed at one end to the base of a two-pronged frame. The player holds the frame to his mouth, which forms a resonance cavity, and activates the instrument’s tongue by either plucking it with the fingers or jerking a string attached to the end of the instrument. The notes produced are limited to the fourth through tenth tones of the harmonic series (in relative pitch, c–e–g–b♭ [approximately]–c′–d′–e′). The tongue produces only one pitch; altering the shape of the mouth cavity isolates the individual harmonics that are components of the tongue’s sound. In 18th-century Europe virtuoso players used instruments with two or more tongues of different pitch, thus allowing a complete musical scale.

Jew’s harps are widely distributed in Oceania and Asia, especially in tribal cultures, and in Europe, where they were introduced from Asia by the 14th century. The characteristic European form, also found elsewhere, is a pear-shaped metal frame with a metal tongue affixed. Many non-European forms are narrow instruments cut from a single piece of bamboo or wood.

The delicate, barely audible sound of the jew’s harp led in Asia to its frequent association with contemplation and to its use in Thailand and 19th-century Austria as an instrument for lover’s serenades. The jew’s harp is one of several idiophones (instruments whose sounding parts are resonant solids) vibrated by plucking rather than by percussion.