Harmonica reed question?

kccj76

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I don't know from mill marks on harmonica reeds, but I do appreciate some harmonica work. Here's an ethno-musicological viewpoint:

"The story of the harmonica begins with the Chinese Emperor Nyn-Kwya, who in 3000 B. C. invented a free-reed instrument called the "sheng' (sublime voice) which is considered the forerunner of the modern harmonica.

The sheng was brought to Europe in the 18th Century, where the idea of the free-reed principle was used in the creation of the reed organ, the accordion, the concertina, the saxophone, and the harmonica.

The modern harmonica was invented in 1821 by a German clockmaker named Christian Buschman who put fifteen pitch pipes together to create an odd little instrument. At first harmonicas were produced by clockmakers as a sideline, but in 1857 Matthias Hohner decided to manufacture them on a large scale and went into production in Trossingen, Germany.

The harmonica spread all over Germany, and with the mass emigration of Germans in the latter half of the nineteenth century, all over the world. By the time of the American Civil War, the harmonica was well established in the United States and many soldiers on both sides played them. At first the repertory in this country for harmonica consisted of folksongs, fiddle tunes, marches, hymns and the like, but somewhere along the way it was taken up by the black man, and its potential as a blues instrument came to light.

The origins of blues harp in the South remain obscure in spite of all the musicological research that has been done with blues. W.C. Handy recalled hearing train imitations played on the harmonica as early as the the 1870's, and this was a likely sources of blues harp..." The harmonica-an introduction by Glenn Weiser

I've not yet seen a photograph of a Civil War participant blowing on a harp.

I do feel that the obliterated person in this photo might have had one, at one time...8-)


The Thirties was another colorful era for Harmonicats. I'll leave you with the Yarraville Mouth Organ Band.

...The fellow in the Dag,has a concertina,we do find the reeds from them in 1850's sites....harmonica reeds....negative....
 

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Howdy kuger,

I believe she's a lady with concertina. I was speaking of the no longer visible entity to her left, never mind.

EmilyLitella01-1368122774.webp
 

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Ah,Surf,not to be argumentative,as your astute attention to detail and awesome knowledge of hisory astounds me.....I do beleive our Negro friend is a boy?I do see know our harmonica player....I think it may be an American Indian :dontknow::laughing7:
 

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From: Daily Life in the Quarters of Ashland Belle Helene Plantation

The slaves' musical instruments were usually homemade. The banjo was an instrument of African derivation. The fiddle, which also had West African counterparts, was probably the most popular instrument throughout antebellum rural America among slaves and whites. However, the popularity of most folk wind instruments fell victim to the harmonica, often called a "French Harp" in the deep South. Hand-manufactured harmonicas, imported from Germany, were introduced in America before 1830. Costing 10 cents in 1850, harmonicas were already common in the United States prior to the Civil War and were even frequently traded to Native Americans on the frontier. The instruments began to be mass-produced in 1867, and one could be bought for 5 cents until about 1900. The Ashland Plantation store sold harmonicas. Several harmonica reed plates were found during excavation at both Cabins 1 and 2.


 

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Narrative from Bud Jones about his days as a young slave in Texas:

Old master would come in at night though, and say, Bud , come here and cut me a step or two. He liked to see me dance. I had to dance for all the company. I could do the ground shuffle, the pigeon wing and the back step. I can still do them. Then he taught me how to play the Jews harp and the French harp and the macordion.
 

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I am always curious about these statements regarding the popularity and availability of harmonicas during the 1850's and 1860's , since during that time frame ALL harmonicas were apparently hand made. All the reed plates were hand cut and all the reeds themselves were hand hammered, hand cut and hand filed. According to the book, "Harmonica Makers of Germany and Austria," which was published by the Deutsches Harmonika Museum in Trossingen, Germany, James Berthold of Klingenthal, Germany, was the inventor of the harmonica reed milling machine, first patented in 1878, and first used by the Andreas Koch Harmonica Company in Trossingen, Germany, in 1876.
 

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I'm not making this stuff up. I'm simply showing what I find on the internet. So... If you belive what is posted on the internet...

Abraham Lincoln - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica." - Abraham Lincoln (from a letter written by Lincoln during his
presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany"​


From: Harmonicas & Accessories - Hohner | Lee Oskar | Seydel | Suzuki | Kay - Harp Info (Powered by CubeCart)

Harp Info
Early harmonicas
The harmonica first appeared in Vienna, where harmonicas with chambers were sold before 1824 (see also Anton Reinlein and Anton Haeckl). In Germany, Mr. Meisel from Klingenthal bought a harmonica with chambers (Kanzellen) at the Exhibition in Braunschweig in the year of 1824 Meisel und Langhammer. He and Langhammer in Graslitz copied the instruments and by 1827 they had produced hundreds of harmonicas. Many others followed in the same region of Germany and nearby in what would later become Czechoslovakia. In 1829 Johann Wilhelm Rudolph Glier also began making harmonicas. Richter tuning was in use nearly from the beginning. In 1830 Christan Messner , a cloth maker and weaver from Trossingen, copied a harmonica brought from Vienna by his next door neighbour. He had such success that eventually his brother and some relatives also started to make harmonicas. From 1840, his nephew Christian Weiss was also involved in the business. By 1855 there were at least three registered harmonica-making businesses in existence, C. A. Seydel SöhneChristian Messner & Co. and Württ. Harmonikafabrik Ch. WEISS. See German wikipedia page about Christian Messner, Of those only C.A. Seydel is still in business.

Europe and North America
Shortly after Hohner began manufacturing harmonicas in 1857, he shipped some to relatives who had emigrated to the United States. Its music rapidly became popular, and the country became an enormous market for Hohner's goods. President Abraham Lincoln carried a harmonica in his pocket,[SUP] [/SUP]and harmonicas provided solace to soldiers on both the Union and Confederate sides of the American Civil War.
 

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I'm not making this stuff up. I'm simply showing what I find on the internet. So... If you belive what is posted on the internet...


I enjoy reading it Matt .. Thanks for taking the time to compile it! The seeming contradictions, possibilities, impossibilities, etc is what I find to be the most intriguing about the whole thing.
 

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I enjoy reading it Matt .. Thanks for taking the time to compile it! The seeming contradictions, possibilities, impossibilities, etc is what I find to be the most intriguing about the whole thing.

I must admit that the shear number of harmonica reeds coming out of the ground is a little suspect. I think we can safely say there were harmonicas or French harps or mouth harps in the camps of soldiers during the Civil War. But were there THAT many?

I think we have to consider the campsites. A good campsite during the war was still a good campsite for many years after. With the nostalgia for the Civil War from the 1880's into the early 20th C, we know that veterans returned to these places and surely brought their music with them. I don't know how to date a harmonica reed. So for me it comes down to the same thing as all those "Confederate" flat buttons and flower buttons we find in the camps. They may or may not be from the war but I'm going to display them in my relic case right next to the bullets and brass bits that are KNOWN war relics.

DCMatt
 

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Ah,Surf,not to be argumentative,as your astute attention to detail and awesome knowledge of hisory astounds me.....I do beleive our Negro friend is a boy?...

Hello kuger,

You are, of course, quite right. I went back to the page, and what I had read as "lass" was most definitely "lad." I can only plead under caffeination...

Not only that, but I've spent the better part of the last hour searching, in vain, for an identifiable Civil War harmonica player; in camp, in a band, on the march. but nope... I did see a plethora of bugles, fifes, cornets, and the ubiquitous saxhorn. None, not even in the famed 1864 Marine Band.

PresidentsOwn1864band.webp

Several post war images presented themselves, not the least of which is here:

n028232.webp
 

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I've spent the better part of the last hour searching, in vain, for an identifiable Civil War harmonica player

Finding a picture of a CW harmonica player may be nearly impossible as most of the pictures of the era were staged. There may be a few "casual" shots of camp life, but even those were setup so the subjects could stand still for the exposure.

I seem to recall seeing a group shot of Union soldiers and one seated in the front row had an object in his hand that looked like a harmonica (on his knee, not at his mouth). But I have NO idea how to even look for it again.

I've thought about trying to search through Harper's Weekly but can't figure out how to narrow the search appropriately.

DCMatt
 

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Great topic guy's,one that has puzzled me for some time
 

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Photo of Civil War era soldier or soldiers, Union or Confederate, with harmonica wanted!
 

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I was recently doing some research on reeds found in camps and this thread came up......great thread for those like myself.
 

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