In 2019, filmmaker Theo Schear and harpist Mary Lattimore co-wrote a proposal to the Unicode Consortium, asking the group to create the first-ever harp emoji. That request has now been approved, and the emoji will officially be yours to use later this year or early next.
"I'm a fan of Mary Lattimore's music, and her music inspired me to take harp lessons back in 2019," Schear told Pitchfork over email. "I had co-authored a handful of emoji already, and I'm always looking for new emoji to propose."
Lattimore's involvement in the project was more of a co-sign, with Schear explaining to Pitchfork, "Her authorship was more of an endorsement really, in the way that producers attach big-name executive producers to movies."
In a statement, Lattimore said, "I was delighted when Theo asked me to endorse this emoji proposal. We harpists have been waiting for this moment!"
As reported by Harp Column, Schear and Lattimore's original proposal noted, "The harp is an egregious omission to the musical instruments represented. The harp is one of the most recognizable instruments worldwide."
It continued: "Furthermore, angels are often depicted with harps, and we should all aspire to be angels."
The new harp emoji will be included in the beta version of the Unicode 16.0 emoji catalogue. The emoji design was created by Emojination's Aphelandra Messer.