A musical instrument that has played a vital role in Latin American music cultures - the harp - is the subject of this work. John Schechter presents a history of the harp in Spain, traces its introduction into colonial Latin America, and describes its modern roles in the diverse cultural centres of Mexico, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Peru. He then turns his focus to his own field research in the Quichua culture of northern highland Ecuador, an area that has received considerably less scholarly attention tthan many of its Latin American neighbours. The reader will meet a community of harp maistrus on the slopes of Mt Cotacachi and become familiar with their culture, their particular instrument and its turning, and their performance practices. Numerous photographs, musical transciptions, and diagrams illustrate and enliven the text. "The Indispensable Harp" integrates aspects of music and cultural history, organology and performance practice, treating in depth both broadly established music-historical processes and specific music-ethnographical practices. It speaks to the conclusion that the vital role of the harp in Latin American music history has now been properly acknowledged and documented.