Unlike later autoharps, the shape of the instrument was symmetrical, and the felt-bearing bars moved horizontally against the strings instead of vertically.
There is debate over the origin of the autoharp.Ī German immigrant in Philadelphia by the name of Charles F. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. The autoharp is a musical stringed instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers which, when depressed, mute all the strings other than those that form the desired chord. But, the day has come, and I now await my little Oscar Schmidt Chord Autoharp pictured below ….
