The Sicilian marranzano, also called “marranzanu” has many other names across the globe, the most common colloquial one being “jew’s harp,” which originated from the french word for trumpet, “jeu-trompe.” It has no relation to the Jewish people. Such instruments can also be found throughout China, Melanesia, Indonesia, Nepal, Tibet, India, and other regions of Southeast Asia, commonly made of bamboo. Metal variants, such as this particular instrument, can be found in Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, Afghanistan, and sparingly in Europe, and are Asian in origin.

The 16th century is the earliest that marranzano can be traced back to in Italy, although similar “trump” or trumpet-like European instruments can be linked back to the 13th century. On the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, however, there is less information regarding their local history. By the 16th century the instrument had spread throughout Italy, but the earliest traceable evidence of marranzano in Sicily and Sardinia is the 18th century. Yet, those islands are some of the only places the instrument is commonly made today.

The first instance of its musical use is in Giuseppe Pitrè’s “Canti popolari siciliani,” or “Sicilian Folk Songs,” published in 1870. By then marranzano had become ingrained in Sicilian culture, and even today Sicilian marranzano are made according to traditional patterns compared to the rest of Italy and Europe. Marranzano represent Sicily to a large extent, perhaps because their making and use has died out across the rest of the world. They have typically been made by blacksmiths or gypsies, although in the 20th century there was a sharp decline in the blacksmiths who had made them for so long. The making of marranzano is also often a family enterprise, and in-house revitalization along with new makers emerging in the last decade has allowed for the instrument to bounce back as a staple of Sicilian musical history.