Arpa llanera

The Arpa llanera - Llanos harp - is a harp with diatonic strings . It is built in Venezuela and Colombia and mainly played in the lowlands of the Orinoco River - in the so-called Llanos near the Llaneros .

The instrument is on average 160 cm high and usually has 32 strings, sometimes also 33. The side distances are 1.4 cm and the sound openings are on the front of the instrument, on the soundboard.

The instrument spread at the end of the 19th century, belongs to the standard ensemble of Llanos music ( Joropo ) and achieved high popularity in Venezuela, especially between 1950 and 1980, through the harpist Juan Vicente Torrealba .

literature

• John Shepherd (Ed.): Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Vol. 2: Performance and Production . Continuum Books, London 2003, ISBN 0-8264-6322-3 , p. 432.