Name: Arpa Paraguay; or Paraguayan harp
Type: Chordophone, plucked, harp; 36-stringed specimen.
Region: South America, Paraguay.
Maker (Luthier): Solomon Samabria
Tuning: 36-strings. Paraguayan harps are tuned 5 half tones higher then the classical harps. The red strings are tuned to F and the blue strings are tuned to "B flat (somtimes or C#'s). 11-14mm string spacing.
Acquisition Date: 2007-01-07 Sunday, Rufus Guitars.
Description: Although the specimen featured here is my Paraguayan harp, this instrument is not the only harp featured in South America continentally speaking. Harps are present, all the way from Paraguay, Peru, Equador and Venesuela. And also in Veracruz Mexico. The harp has a a regional influence on much of the musics present. Be it technique of playing (for example: on guitar, a guitarist would use a technique dirived or inspired from the playing or compositional style of the harp or harpist). As the harp has an important "national" symbolism in Paraguay it is the national musical instrument of Paraguay.
Regional Harps from (Latin to South America): Peruvian Harps are often tuned in E-Minor, (depends on the region of where the harp is made and played). For example, in Quzco, Apruimac, Ayacucho, there are three different tunings of Peruvian harps (the more commonly used tunings). In Northern Peru, the harp is tuned to pentatonic scale and uses nylon-strings along with animal gut strings (for bass). In Cuzco, and Auacucho the use of the tunings are diatonic and or chromatic. In Equador the harp is tuned to the Antara or Sikus panpipes.
In Venesuela the playing technique for the harp is quite interesting rather then the use of metal tuning or "sharp" levers, the Indigenous populations who adopted the harp use the method of bending the string with their thumb nails, to "bend" the tone. This technique has something of a mufling type of sound and is used in accenting the music. The harp in Mexico is popular especially in Vera Cruz (jorocho).
2007.02.19 Monday ~ Personal Observation: By Graeme Gibson (author of this web site); I am a very pleased and proud owner of such a wonderful musical instrument. I would have to agree with the author of "Paraguayanharps.com" regards' when it comes to playing this harp. The sound or timbre is very rich indeed. I am not sure as to the woods used in the Paraguayan harps. But I am also sure this makes for the contribution of the sound when it comes to playing the harps.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, this instrument is very universal in many genres of music; the instrument is quite expressive and there for suitable for many playing techniques, many genres, or melodies ETC. The construction of the harp is quite interesting since the tention forms from the center unlike the Irish harps. This allows for the harp's weight to be very light, and and not have to worry about "balancing" the weight of the instrument regards to stringing the arpa Paraguay.
Citation: http://www.paraguayanharps.com/ ~ That was how everything started for us, Paraguayan harpists. Since then the harp became the national instrument in Paraguay. Of course, the models changed year after year until the first half of our century, when the Paraguayan harp got its particular shape and design. I understand that it is the only harp with strings coming out from the middle of the neck. Félix Pérez Cardozo is responsible for this invention and for adding two more strings to the harp, now with 36 strings normally. Abel Sánchez Jiménez raised it to 38 strings and added little "taquitos" (wooden rods) to make sharps by pressing strings against them. He also built double-strung harps of 74 strings with naturals at one side and sharp notes at the other. Some harpists use 43 strings. Other harpists use special devices to produce sharps. Nicolás Caballero plays sharps by pressing the string at the right place with the metal tuning key and with a metal ring for fast chromatic scales. To play Paraguayan harps requires unique and specific techniques.
2007-02-19 Monday: It is good to remember the great contribution made by Jesuit priests in the Parana Basin. Among those priests, I would like to mention in chronological orden, a priest from Belgium named Juan Vaseo, a music master teacher from Rudolph II´s court, who came to the Paraguayan missions in 1610 and remained here until his death in 1623. I must mention father Antonio Sepp.
To who was a very cultured man, who taught Guarani indians how to play the citara, organ, flute, trumpet, guitar and the harp. Father Sepp built, in the Candelaria region, the first Paraguayan organ. In Yapeyú he built the First Paraguayan harps now known throughout the world as the best sounding harp. The handcrafting was done with local wood entirely, copying the models brought from Europe. Father Sepp was a German missionary born in Tirol in 1655, and after missioning for 41 years he died in San Juan, in 1733 (No wonder a century and a half later in the same city of San Juan, Agustín Barrios Mangoré, the best Paraguayan guitar composer/player, was born and started his marvelous career).
