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The Horizontal Forearm Harp: Assyria's National Instrument1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2014

Jack Cheng
Jack Cheng*
Affiliation:
165 Paulson Road, Waban, MA 02468, USA, [email protected] , [email protected]
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Abstract

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A horizontal harp, strung with seven to nine strings and usually decorated with a finial in the shape of a human forearm, is likely to have been a symbol of the Neo-Assyrian state. Various features distinguish this musical instrument from contemporary Elamite harps, and from other harps in Mesopotamian history. The horizontal forearm harp was the most frequently depicted musical instrument on Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs and bronze doors; pairs of male Assyrians play the harp for the king in official duties of state or cult. The decorative forearm sometimes wears the rosette bracelet associated with royalty. Consideration of the iconographic significance of the forearm suggests possible Neo-Assyrian attitudes toward music.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 74 , 2012 , pp. 75 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2012

Footnotes

1

This article is adapted from my dissertation, “Assyrian Music as Represented and Representations of Assyrian Music” (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 2001), which concentrates on the period from 883–627 B.C. The material presented has benefited greatly from the advice of Jülide Aker, Andrew C. Cohen, Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, David Roxburgh, John M. Russell and Irene J. Winter. Professor Kilmer was extremely helpful at the earliest stages of my research and I am grateful to her for suggesting the name of the instrument. Dominique Collon read an earlier draft of this article and suggested many helpful amendments. I am indebted to Julie M. Crosson for support of every conceivable kind.

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