The Jaw Harp as a Musical Instrument

Jaw harps exist in a great many forms and variations. They differ in material, pitch and the character of the sound they produce, and musicologists have not yet settled on a single classification. It is one of the oldest folk and ritual instruments, but it has also enjoyed recurring periods of popularity in drawing rooms and concert halls.

The jaw harp is often regarded as an archaic national instrument used mainly by Turkic-speaking peoples. In fact it was also widespread in medieval Europe and again during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly in Austria.

Great composers valued the jaw harp, and it stands in the ancestry of several modern instruments. Friedrich Buschmann invented the harmonica in 1821; it later became one of the foundations for the accordion family. In the eighteenth century Johann Georg Albrechtsberger—the composer, theorist and friend of Haydn and Mozart—lectured on the jaw harp's construction and unusual musical qualities. The jaw harp virtuoso Bruno Glatzl performed his works. Albrechtsberger wrote four concertos specifically for jaw harp; manuscripts have been held in the Hungarian National Library in Budapest since 1949, while a score of one concerto is also held by the Khomus Museum.

The Church, however, often opposed the instrument's popularity, and at different times the jaw harp was officially restricted in Europe and Russia. It also received little support from the Soviet authorities.

One of Russia's most important centres for studying the jaw harp and preserving its traditions is Yakutia. The composer and musicologist Mark Nikolayevich Zhirkov, an Honoured Artist of the RSFSR and member of the Union of Soviet Composers, was a major scholar and populariser of the khomus. Adam Vasilyevich Scriabin was another important composer active around the turn of the twentieth century; in 1931 he formed Russia's first jaw harp ensemble. The instrument entered the world of the Russian classical orchestra in the 1960s. Nikolai Berestov wrote the symphonic overture Hello, Moscow! and the cantata for choir, soloists and symphony orchestra The Tale of the Khomus.

International congresses of jaw harp music have repeatedly been held in Yakutia and other Russian regions. Russia is also home to the M. I. Danilov International Khomus Music Center. Vladimir Vasilyevich Ksenofontov returned to the instrument in several works, including the opera Saaschaana and Sardaana, the mono-opera Manchaary, and Folk Songs for Khomus and Piano. Serious classical music continues to be written for jaw harp today.

Jaw harps differ not only in material but also in pitch and playable overtone range. A Kyrgyz jaw harp, for example, may yield as many as fourteen distinct pitches, while an average instrument may make five or six overtone notes readily available.

The jaw harp combines characteristics of reed, plucked and wind instruments. In the earlier Hornbostel–Sachs classification it was assigned to the plucked idiophones. Detailed study of its construction, acoustics and sound production, however, shows important differences from the other instruments in that group.

A traditional metal jaw harp consists of a curved frame and a steel reed attached to it; the reed is the sounding body. The player's finger supplies the impulse that sets it in motion. The resonator is the entire articulatory system: mouth cavity, lips, teeth, tongue, airways, larynx, diaphragm and skull. Some classifications compare the jaw harp reed to the player's vocal folds moved outside the body. A player may also use the free hand as an additional resonator, continually altering its shape. Airflow from breathing strengthens and colours the sound, while the articulatory system controls that flow. Volume also depends greatly on the force with which the player strikes the reed.

The vibrating reed produces one fundamental tone, often perceived as a drone. Its pitch depends on the instrument's dimensions, the reed's thickness and the distribution of mass towards its tip. The fundamental is commonly in a low register and is accompanied by a series of harmonics. These overtones arise from divisions of the vibrating reed into halves, thirds and so on. Together they form the jaw harp's natural scale. In general, a lower-tuned instrument gives access to a broader and more closely spaced range of overtones.

Perceived volume depends on the player's technique and command of the articulatory system. Musicians often call the process of isolating harmonics “catching the overtones.” The finer the control, the more varied and expressive the playing becomes. A useful first principle is to shape every vowel clearly without actually voicing it. In virtuoso performance, the jaw harp can express a very broad range of feeling and invite the listener to share it.

Traditional jaw harp music is frequently pentatonic, a trait common to many ethnic musical cultures and particularly to Siberian traditions. Pentatonic organisation creates a kind of sound cloud containing several available notes and does not demand the equal-tempered precision of later Western tonal systems.

Archaic rhythmic practice may likewise avoid a fixed metre and regular interval structure, placing greater emphasis on intonation and timbre. This sonic quality is one reason why the jaw harp has attracted not only folk ensembles and trance musicians in recent decades, but jazz players as well.

Helga Bruce / Oberton Pro