Harmonica (harmonica): history, video, interesting facts

Harmonica (harmonica)

The rich world of musical instruments is very diverse. What only representatives you will not meet in this kingdom. There are so many that it is simply impossible to list. Indeed, in addition to the internationally recognized, every nation has its own musical instruments, which are national symbols and reflect the identity of a particular culture. Musical instruments differ in their method of sound, timbre and size. The largest and most important, of course, is the organ that is called His Majesty. It is so huge that it is installed only in large halls. But among the musical instruments there is one that looks more like a child's toy and can easily fit in your pocket. The name of this instrument is a harmonica or harmonica. It is compact, simple, but at the same time very elegant. Despite its small size, this funny instrument is absolutely complete and has an interesting and attractive sound.

From the very beginning of his amazing story, he became interested in performers and still continues to delight people in different parts of our planet.

The peculiar sound of the harmonica makes it a participant of many ensembles playing in various styles and genres. It is not the main musical instrument, but its melodic inserts make the music more interesting and vivid.

The history of the harmonica and a lot of interesting facts about this musical instrument, read on our page.

Sound

The harmonica, which belongs to the wind reed musical instruments, has a thick and rich sound, which arises under the pressure of the air stream, which causes the sound tongues to oscillate. The harmonic has no keyboard, lips and tongue are used to select the appropriate hole for the note. The performance requires a certain skill of skill, the beautiful bright sound of the instrument depends largely on the skill of the musician. For example, to play any melody on a harmonica that has a diatonic structure, it is necessary to master a difficult technique of the game, which has the name of a band.

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Interesting Facts

• In different countries, harmonica has similar names, having in its composition the words lip, mouth or harmonica. In Russia, a harmonica, in France, harmonica a bouche, in Germany, Mundharmonika, in England, a mouth organ, harmonica, harp or French harp, in Italy, armonica a bocca ", in Spain -" armonica ".
• The harmonica performer is called harper.
• In the United States of America, the harmonica has funny nicknames: pocket piano, Mississippi saxophone, blues harp, light-hearted tramway, tin sandwich.
• In cinema, harmonica was first seen at the end of the 19th century.
• For the first time a sound recording of a harmonica performance was made in 1920.

• The first mouth organ firm "Hohner" was founded in 1857. Currently, it produces about 100 different versions of this tool. To date, Honer harmonicas are in great demand among performers, with a fairly low price, they have excellent quality and beautiful sound.
• In the 1930s, when Hitler came to power in Germany, Hohner received a large order for the supply of harmonicas for the German army, based on each instrument sold.
• During the 1st World War, the accordion brightened the rest of the soldiers from opposite sides. Suppliers supplied the British and German armies with tools.
• In the German city of Trossingen under the auspices of the company "Hohner" are held world festivals of harmonica, which are of interest not only among performers, but also admirers of the instrument.
• The 16th American President Abraham Lincoln, who was fond of playing the harmonica, loved his instrument so much that he constantly carried it in his pocket. Also on the list of presidents who were not indifferent to the harmonica Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan.
• During the Second World War, due to the shortage of wood and metal that went to the needs of the front, the worker-entrepreneur Haakon Magnus developed a plastic harmonic. She did not have a beautiful sound, but later became a very popular children's toy.
• The largest ensemble of harmonics, which fell into the Guinness Book of Records, included 6131 performers. He performed in Hong Kong in November 2009, performing a musical composition with a string orchestra for 7 minutes.

• In the United States, they are so fond of the harmonica that in 1925 the Christmas tree in the White House in Washington was decorated with 50 instruments.
• At one time, a significant contribution to the growing popularity of harmonics was made by a radio program from New York called Honor Harmonica Hour, which was intended to teach students how to play this instrument.
• The fastest harmonica player listed in the Guinness Book of Records is Nicky Shane from Santa Barbara (USA). In 20 seconds he managed to play 103 notes.
• Harmonica, the first of the musical instruments, has been in space. In 1965, on December 16, the American astronaut Wally Schirr played the famous Christmas song "Jingle Bells" on a harmonica in space orbit.
• Harmonica is the best selling musical instrument. By 1887, the Honer company produced 1 million harmonics annually. In 1911 - 8 million a year, in 1986 she released her one billionth instrument.

Design

The harmonica design is pretty simple. The body consists of a top and bottom covers, which are made of wood, molded plastic, lycite or metal alloys. Under the top cover is a plate with slots and tongues for exhalation. Next is the so-called slotted comb. Under the comb is another plate, but with tongues for breath. Closes all the bottom cover. The whole structure is fastened with small cogs.

Varieties

There are quite a few varieties of harmoniums, but all of them are divided into two types, which differ significantly from each other: diatonic and chromatic.

The diatonic harmonic has several subspecies that have a diatonic structure and are made to be tuned in different keys.

• Blues is the most popular, although it has such a name on it you can play music in various styles. Usually has 10 holes.
• Tremolo - harmonic in the manufacture of tuned so that when extracting the sound creates a tremolo effect.
• Octave - a feature of it is that the tongues, which should sound simultaneously tuned to the octave. This gives the instrument greater sonic richness and bright timbre color.
• Bass harmonic - bass register notes are extracted on it.
• Chord - with each exhalation or breath, not one note sounds, but a whole chord.

The chromatic harmonic has a corresponding structure, which as a result, in comparison with the diatonic instrument, gives it broader repertory possibilities. It is larger in size, since there are actually two harmonics in its body. On the side of such a tool there is a button - a switch - a slider, the switch of which makes it possible to extract semitones. Used in jazz and classical music.

Application and Repertoire

Since the beginning of its existence, harmonica has been used in a wide variety of musical genres. At present, it is rightly called a universal instrument, the sound of which adorns the compositions in many musical styles, but mainly in those whose homeland is the American continent. Classical music, jazz, country, bluegrass, chord-rock, folk-rock, pop, hillbilly, rockabilly, reggae, ethnic music and, of course, blues - this is an incomplete list of areas in music where the harmonica has found a worthy use.

It should be noted that since the appearance of the chromatic harmonic, the possibilities of the instrument have greatly expanded, in its repertoire there have been transcriptions of works by classical music composers. Among the authors who composed specifically for harmonics, special mention should be made of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Millau, Arthur Benjamin and Jimi Reed.

Performers

Harmonica - a tool whose popularity has grown very quickly since its inception, constantly

attracted the attention of talented musicians. Performers appeared in various musical directions, which left a noticeable mark on the art of performing on the instrument.

• Classic Blues: S. B. Williamson II, H. Wolfe, B. U. Horton, D. Wells, D. Cotton, L. Walter, W. Clark.
• Country blues: D. Bailey, S. Terry, M. Vladimirov, A. Yakhimovich.
• Folk Rock: Bob Dylan.
• Contemporary Blues: D. Mayall, J. Milto, D. Portnoy, S. Blue, C. Masselwhite, C. Wilson, S. Harpo, A. Gassow, D. Ricci, C. Dzhanko, R. Piazza, U. Clark , S. Chigrakov
• Rock / Hard Rock: D. Popper, B. Springsteen, I. Gillan, M. Dick, M. Jagger, S. Tyler, R. E. Plant, T. Lindemann, V. Shakhrin, V. Kuzmin, A. Stepanenko, B. Grebenshchikov.
• Jazz: H. Levy, F. Yonnet, I. Prenet.
• Irish Folk: B. Power.
• Country Music: C. McCoy.
• Klezmer: D. Rosenblatt.

Story

The history of the harmonica began long ago, from the time when, in Ancient China, around the 3rd or 2nd century before the birth of Christ, a reed brass musical organ, sheng, was invented. The instrument, which was a case with circular bamboo or reed tubes with copper tongues inside, was considered sacred by the Chinese and used in religious ceremonies. When and how the instrument came to Europe is not exactly known, but in the twenties of the nineteenth century, a talented sixteen-year-old German, master for repair and tuning of piano and organs Christian Bushman decided to invent a mechanism-tuning fork that would help him in his work Chinese organ. The inventor placed the sound tabs in chromatic order in the channels of the metal plate, while receiving a new musical instrument, which in 1821 patented under the name "Aura".

The invention of H. Bushman quickly attracted close attention. Soon, two German businessmen F. Hotz and Christian Messner, independently of each other, purchased the tools of H. Bushman and began their production, making some changes to the design. The musical instrument has received a new name - Mundaeoline.

A little later in England, Charles Wheatstone received a patent for a model of an instrument called the "symphony", in which the tongues were controlled using a small keypad keyboard.

A lot of music masters who showed great interest in the brass organ improved the instrument in their own way, introducing their own solutions into the device. However, the most important constructive option, which later became the benchmark for European instruments and received the name "Mundharmonika" was the instrument of the Czech master Joseph Richter. D. Richter's version had 10 holes with 20 tongues diatonically tuned and fixed on two separate plates that were installed in a cedar wood case. The production of harmonics was gaining momentum; entrepreneurs, one after another, created firms for their manufacture. However, Matthias Honer, a watchmaker from Trossingham, turned out to be the most successful and enterprising. He began to make harmonics in 1857 at home and in the first year he produced and sold more than 600 instruments. Honer’s business grew at a staggering rate and after a while he became a leader in the production of harmonics. As an enterprising businessman, M. Honer set a plate with his name on the instruments as a marketing ploy. Having such a distinctive sign and having a beautiful sound quality, the harmonics of Honer were easily recognizable and had a good demand.

In the second half of the 19th century, the instrument crossed the Atlantic Ocean and, due to the growth of the emigrant population from Germany, firmly settled on the American continent. In the USA, adults and children were all interested in playing the harmonica. She even participated in the civil war of the North and the South. Moreover, the soldiers of both opposing sides did not deny themselves the pleasure of music on the instrument during the hours of rest from the battles. The popularity of harmonics grew very quickly, as evidenced by textbooks on how to play the instrument, released by music publishers in the 80s of the 19th century. Harmonics were widely available and the hobby for playing music on them reached its peak, which later led to the fact that the instrument played an important role in the appearance of blues music, and then became an indispensable participant in various musical styles.

The harmonica is a truly unique instrument. She has always been at the forefront. Having survived more than one war, falling under shelling and bombardment, reminding soldiers of their home, the harmonica raised their fighting spirit. In youth cultural riots, she was always in the avant-garde ranks and was born again in new musical styles. And now she is very popular among performers of various genres and music lovers of different ages.