Jaw harp – two tunes
In this video, Richard Tipping plays two tunes on jaw harp: Waltzing Matilda and a kind of Scottish jig. Recorded as a part of his poetry performances in Germany in 1985, including the city of Wuppertal and its famous university. The jaw harp has a history as old and mysterious as the flute and the drum – appearing in many different places, made of many materials, but with a distinctive sound.
The jaw harp is sometimes called the ‘jews harp’ – an English mishearing of the Scottish saying jaw harp back in the eighteenth century, according to a dictionary of musicology.