![]() The most widespread types of harmonicas are those based on the Richter and Knittlingen systems. Harmonica types are subdivided into those based on the diatonic and chromatic scales, including solo and orchestral types (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) and those made up of chords and bass chords there are also harmonicas with distinct national features. Related to this obsolete form are the celesta and glockenspiel.Ī musical instrument composed of freely moving metal reeds that are set vibrating by air sucked or blown through the mouth. 3 Strips of metal or glass, played upon with hammers or, later, having a keyboard, as described by Berlioz in his treatise on instrumentation. The instrument and the music for it has enjoyed a minor renaissance since the 1980s. Both Mozart and Beethoven, as well as a few lesser composers wrote works for it. A later form of the instrument had a keyboard. ![]() Contact of the player's fingertip with the moistened revolving edges of the bowls produced a penetrating, ethereal sound. As the spindle was made to revolve by means of a lever, the edges of the bowls passed through a trough filled with water. They were supported by a horizontal spindle passing through all of the bowls. Franklin's instrument, which he called an armonica, consisted of a series of glass bowls, graduated in size and fitting one inside another. ![]() 2 Musical glasses, introduced in Dublin in 1743 by Richard Pockrich, played upon in London by Gluck in 1746, and improved by Benjamin Franklin c.1761 also called the glass harmonica. The low cost and very small size of the harmonica adapt it well to class instruction among school children, and it is a common instrument in folk, rock, blues, and other forms of popular music. Commonly the instrument is diatonic, having a compass of about two octaves, but the comparatively few virtuoso harmonica players use larger instruments having the full chromatic scale. For each reed there is a hole, through which the player draws or blows air with the mouth. The reeds are set in a small, narrow case of wood or metal. The major production of the instrument has been in Germany since the early 19th cent. It was probably invented in 1829 by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, who called his instrument the Mundäoline. 1 The simplest of the musical instruments employing free reeds, known also as the mouth organ or French harp.
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