Harfe#

Harp, one of the oldest stringed instruments, since the Middle Ages traditionally played by jesters and travelling musicians, influenced the Alt-Wiener Harfenisten (Old Vienna Harpists) ( Baenkelsaenger). Today the harp has almost completely disappeared from traditional folk music, it is, if at all, only played in western Austria. Tirolean instrument makers developed the hooked harp towards the end of the 17th century, a forerunner of the pedal harp still built in the Tirol today. As an instrument of art music, the harp became generally accepted in Austria mainly in the late 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century. In the Biedermeier period the harp was particularly popular with upper-class women and girls.