It appears that Aeolian principles were known to the ancient Greeks. Legends from around 800BC ( Homer) describe how Hermes invented the Lyre by letting the wind blow over dried sinews in a tortoise carapace. In later legends such as that of David's harp, "God-sent wind" blows upon and sounds an already invented instrument. Like David, St. Dunstan, AD988, also had his harp sounded by God. The harp's technological development began with Kirchner's rediscovery of the Aeolian Harp in 1652. He called them "musical autophones". J J Hoffman's Lexicon Universale ( Basle 1677 ) appears to be the first source employing the Aeolian adjective to describe the harp.

Aeolus was the Greek God of Wind. He was the chap who kept the wind in great big bags, and would open one whenever he wanted a wind to blow.
Hence the expression " Wind Bag ".

The harp did not become fashionable until the 1780's. The accumulation of Alexander Pope's Commentary of Eusthasius, James Thompson's Castle of Indolence, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Aeolian Harp 1795, and the report on the structure of the Aeolian Harp in the Gentleman's Magazine 1754 encouraged commercial exploitation of the Aeolian phenomenon. Development has continued ever since, but we are still not that much closer to understanding exactly how the sounds are produced.

 

I make two versions of the harp

The first is a single sided arrangement with 12 strings stretched over a sound box. The front edge of the box is set at an angle to facilitate air flow. The top cowl is mounted over the sound box and is held in place at each end by case latches. This instrument sits nicely on the sill of a sash type window, also the angled wings of the sound box and cowl enable it to be mounted in sliding windows.

The second instrument has a symmetrical sound box mounted in a separate cowl. The sound box slides in an out of the cowl to allow access to the strings, which are stretched over both sides of the box. In this case there are 16 strings. This instrument does not sound any better than the single sided one, but it will stand upright on it's own and is perhaps a little more elegant.
It is however more difficult to make and so, a little more expensive.

Also on this site are a Psaltery and a Tone Box, which I call a "Funundrum"

The Psaltery is a simple plucked instrument of mediaeval design, it is tuned in the key of C and does not have the capacity for accidentals. It ranges over 2 octaves, from middle C, ascending. It has a sweet tone and is fun to play.

The Funundrum is a percussion instrument, with 10 different tones which are produced by the different lengths of the individual tongues which are cut into the solid top of the box. It is really quite fascinating

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