Andreas Vollenweider is a Swiss harpist. He is generally categorised as a new-age musician and uses a modified electroacoustic harp of his own design. He has worked with Bobby McFerrin, Carly Simon, Luciano Pavarotti and in 1987 received a Grammy Award for the album Down to the Moon. Vollenweider's style has been described by The New York Times as "swirling atmospheric music, which evokes nature, magic and fairy tales".
Vollenweider in 2004
Image: A Vollenweider
Image: Vollenweider symphonic
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or concerts. Its most common form is triangular in shape and made of wood. Some have multiple rows of strings and pedal attachments.
Harp
The Harps of Chogha Mish Iran are considered to be the world's oldest surviving stringed instruments, 3300-3100 B.C.E
The Queen's gold lyre from the Royal Cemetery at Ur; Iraq Museum, Baghdad
Lyres of Ur