Boy - am I glad you asked...
The Jew's Harp is a small musical instrument which is held against the teeth or lips, and plucked with the fingers.
Its appearance in many cultures of the world,and ancient roots, attest to the magical essence of this simple instrument.
Very little early history is available.
The Jew's harp is known world-wide by many different names, depending on the country of origin.
Some examples are:
England - Gewgaw
Germany - Maultrommel (which means mouth drum)
Japan - Koukin
Russia - Vargan
Siberia - Khomus
Philippines - Kumbing and kubing
Italy - Scacciapensieri
Norway - munnharpa or munnharpe
France - guimbarde
Bali - genggong
For over 400 years the instrument ... has been connected in English with the Jews ...
Whether any derogation was originally intended is not known but it is apparently believed that some might now be felt, for the instrument is invariably referred to in radio and television programs as a juice harp.
Considering the drooling that often accompanies amateur performances on the thing - it makes sense.
The earliest known written citation of Jew's harp in 1595, in England.
Prior to that it was called Jew's trump (earliest spelling: jewes trump).
Before that it was known as trump in Scotland and northern England; the origin of the "jewes" preceder is obscure.
However, there is no indication that the origin was connected with Judaism or the Jewish people.
It probably came from some other word -- one possibility is the Old English word gewgaw - and was then, many years later, "fixed," resulting in the current form.
Jaw harp is a 20th century creation.
It was first suggested as an origin of Jew's harp as pure conjecture - there is no evidence of that name ever being used in common parlance before then.
From that point, several different music historians indulged in sloppier and sloppier research, until jawharp as an origin progressed from baseless conjecture to absolute "truth".
An important fact to consider is that the name Jew's harp in not considered a slur only because of the historic persecution of Jews.
It is also because of the negative image the instrument has endured in the United States.
(If, say, French toast were used only for hog feed here, the French might well be insulted by the term).
And even though aficionados of the Jew's harp are aware that in most of the world - perhaps even most especially in Europe -- the instrument has been revered, not reviled, the fact remains that perceptions can be as important as fact.
A perceived slur can hurt as much as an intended one.
English is a fluid, flexible, and capricious language.
Whether Jew's harp, trump, jawharp, or something else enters popular usage cannot really be dictated.
Some vaguely interesting historical data...
Found throughout Europe, Asia and the Pacific, except Australia, no pre-Columbian traces have been discovered in the Americas.
Until introduced as a trade item by Europeans, none were found on the African continent.
It is found everywhere in Russia.
Bamboo and wooden lamellate types are found in the Pacific, SE Asia and in China except in Northern China (where the classical form of the Jew's Harp was an iron idioglot lamellate type).
Through European colonization, the bow-shaped metal Jew's Harp was introduced into the Americas, Africa and Australia mainly by the Dutch and English for North America.
In Siberia and Mongolia, the Jew's Harp was used to both induce trance and to heal the sick. Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer is said to have used the Jew's Harp therapeutically in psychotherapy.
Iron Koukins - Found in Japan in 1990 (1000 years old) In those times it has been determined that iron=power (not toys)
Old frames found in Germany.
These instruments are often mentioned as the oldest known from Europe, but there are large numbers excavated from earlier dates, some Anglo-Saxon and some Carolingian.
Several are claimed to come from the Roman era, but there are those who dispute this.
Jew's harps were a common peddler's goods during the 16th century (as well as earlier and later).
Documents show that on May 8, 1593, a Spanish exploratory party was involved in a transaction of 500 Jew's Harps with the natives of NE South America.
In a letter to Richard Bentley, Horace Walpole writes, "This very morning I found that part of the purchase of Maryland from the savage proprietors (for we do not massacre, we are such good Christians as only to cheat) was a quantity of vermillion and a parcel of Jew's Harps!"
The iron works at Saugus, Massachusetts (which is near Boston) were producing Jew's Harps as early as about 1650.
The June 24, 1660 Parliament lists them among the products requiring an import rate in the colonies. At the turn of the century, 10 gross of Jew's Harps are found in the inventory of three Dutch New York merchants alone.
These instruments are also listed in Virginia newspaper advertisements during the middle of the 18th century (the Virginia Gazette is one example).
One land deed of 1677 lists 100 Jew's Harps among the items given as payment for a tract of Indian land. In fact, the use of Jew's Harps as a barter item with the Indians continued till as late as 1815 and 1820.
During the period from approximately 1765, Austrian composer and organist and one of Beethoven's music teachers, Johann George Alberchtsberger, wrote a number of concerti for the Jew's Harp.
17th and 18th Century Archaeological research uncovers Jew's Harps from Maine to Florida throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.
More than 120 have been recovered from one site in Michigan alone.
Conclusive evidence of the use of the Jew's Harp is by no means abundant, except for the fact that practically all of the Jew's Harps which have been archaeological finds have been in dis-repair, which means the tongues were broken and missing.
Which says, if they were not playing them and were using them only for barter, then the tongues would not have been broken.
Breakage means usage.
The majority of the Jew's Harps are found in rubbish heaps and down wells, obviously discarded as useless.
Jew's Harps were not only present in the North American colonies, they were being used, and broken, in substantial numbers.
"Woman is said to be like a Jew's Harp because she is nothing without a tongue and must be pressed to the lips...Then she is music for the soul."
Vaya,
Scouts Out!