Why is it called a harp?

In many parts of the American South, the harmonica is called mouth harp, French harp or just plain harp. The term is partly inspired by the Aeolian harp, a stringed instrument that is left outdoors to be played by the wind, whose name was taken from Aeolus, the god of the wind. Early names for the harmonica were Aeolina, Aeolian and Mund-Aeoline, which stressed this link with the Aeolian harp. As the earliest harmonica-like instruments were little more than a few reeds attached to a reedplate that was held to the players lips, the resemblance to a harp was quite pronounced. The introduction to Instructions for the Aeolina, or Mund-Harmonica, published in New York in 1830 proudly boast:

THE AEOLINA from the originality of its construction and the beauty of its effects, is a decided novelty in the musical art; the expressive sweetness of its tones, the richness of the harmonies it renders, and the contrasts of its exulting swells and dying cadences, realize the poetical descriptions of the harp of Aeolus and greatly surpass its practical results; while the regularity of its scale gives it advantages of the most important kind, which that instrument does not possess. From the close resemblance of its tones to those of this harp of the winds and from the analogous circumstances under which the sound is produced in both instances, the name of the Aeolina has been derived.

The word harp has also been used to describe many instruments other than the stringed harp, including the Jew's Harp (also called Jaw Harp or Mouth Harp and often known in some parts of Germany by the name MundHarmonika) and the Aeols Harfe (literally air harp). This latter instrument was also known as WindHarmonika or AeolsHarmonika and was a funnel-shaped device which was mounted on tops of houses in 19th century Germany, directed the wind though a set of free reeds tuned to produce a chord. Here is an illustration of one from a 1914 catalog of the Koch harmonica company:

They are still being made - see here.

"French" was often used in the US South to mean "European" and although harmonicas were mostly made in Germany, they wound up being called French Harps* (compare with the Irish Gaelic term below). This term was most popular in the South, with the term mouth harp being preferred in the "Midland" area (Indiana, Ohio and Illinois) and mouth organ in the Northern tier and Canada, with French speaking Canada often using the term musique a bouche.

In other parts of the world, the harmonica is known as:

ruines babines ("ruins the lips") - France
fidil fhrancach (Gaelic for "French fiddle") - Ireland
moothie - Scotland
gaita (also used to refer to bagpipes and various other instruments) - various Spanish/Portuguese-speaking countries
fotzhobel (literally "mouth plane", also used to denote the panpipes) - various German-speaking countries
muzicuta - Romania
Mississippi saxophone, Louisiana saxophone - various parts of the USA
harpoon - various parts of the USA
gob iron - various parts of the UK
tin sandwich - widespread

* In the late 1800s, the Carl Essbach company marketed a couple of harmonicas (model numbers 22 and 44) with the name "French Harp" on the covers.

Return to Fairly Frequently Asked Questions Return to Main Index