Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann

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Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann

Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann (born June 17, 1805 in Friedrichroda , † October 1, 1864 in Hamburg ) was a German musical instrument maker and pioneer of the harmonica .

harmonica

“The legend seems ineradicable that the Thuringian Friedrich Buschmann invented the harmonica. This thesis does not stand up to examination. Because [...] Buschmann speaks in a letter of 1828 about his invention that has just been made. Commercial production in Vienna had already started years earlier. [...] There is evidence that "harmonica [...]" were sold in Vienna in 1825. "

- Conny Restle

Relatively much has been preserved about the family history of the Buschmanns because a descendant (Prof. Heinrich Buschmann, Esslingen) wrote a paper about it (1938 M. Hohner AG). The documents and sources are very impressive, but he, too, owes the evidence of the invention of the harmonica.

biography

Buschmann's father, Johann David, was a trimmers at first , but later he dealt with the repair of musical instruments as he was a musician himself. He stayed for some time in Friedrichroda in Thuringia . By 1816 he developed the Terpodion , a friction keyboard instrument with wooden sticks, based on the principle of the glass harmonica . It was first called "uranium".

Buschmann fountain
with memorial plaque (right)
on Marktstrasse in Friedrichroda

Even if no evidence can be found that Friedrich Buschmann was the inventor of the harmonica, this should not detract from the outstanding achievements of the young instrument maker. Friedrich must have worked with his father Johann David at a very early age, otherwise it would hardly be conceivable that at a very young age, almost independently, he built a Terpodion and one or more Aeolines while traveling with his father . After 1831 he built independently in his Hamburg workshop. Almost all 25 pieces that have ever been built are from Friedrich's hand. His brother Eduard mainly worked on wood inlays and was therefore primarily responsible for the external finishing of the instruments, but at least in 1828 and 1829 they did not work in the same place. Eduard was in Berlin at this time and manufactured instruments or parts for Terpodions that father David and son Friedrich could not make themselves on their travels or made by carpenters on site. Correspondence during these two years shows that Friedrich probably made several small aeolines with a range of two octaves.

to travel

“Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann 1805–1864” (front), collective grave instrument maker , Ohlsdorf cemetery
  • In 1819 Friedrich accompanied his father on trips at the age of 14.
  • At the age of 16, in the first half of 1821, he was allowed to accompany his father on a trip to London.
  • The Buschmann family then moved to Berlin and set up a new workshop there. The fact that they had orders for new Terpodions to be built probably also contributed to this. The 1000 pounds they received for a license from Mr. Löschmann in England perhaps made this possible in the first place.
  • 1828–1830 Father Johann and brother Friedrich Buschmann continued this travel and advertising activity through Germany and Holland. In addition to their performances, they also had to wait for the instruments that were sold because they did not work particularly reliably for a long time.
  • Mentioned whereabouts: Aachen , Barmen (is a district of Wuppertal ), Elberfeld , Lüdenscheid , Werben , Altena , Breckerfeld , Förde , Langenberge , Düsseldorf , Cologne , Minden and Rinteln .
  • After Friedrich's wedding to Sophie Volkmar, the young couple went on concert tours with the Terpodion to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland and Belgium. On a business trip to London they were able to sell Prince Albert a Terpodion for 700 Thaler and Sophie was received by Queen Victoria.

Certainly they came into contact with all sorts of new developments in tone generation through their travel activities, which ultimately led Friedrich to take on the further development of the physharmonica. In the end he turned completely to the suction wind principle, to which he remained true until his death.

In Hamburg, in the Ohlsdorf cemetery , the instrument maker of the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery commemorates Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann, among others.

Aeoline

It is possible that Buschmann's first attempts at aeolines were made in 1824. According to oral tradition, Buschmann is said to have built a tuning aid in front of the Aeoline , which he called "Aura". The device is said to have been 4 inches tall and had 15 reeds. It is also interesting that aura is also used as a name for jew's harps , which were also called harmonica, when several jew's harps were combined into one larger instrument.

In 1828 Friedrich Buschmann developed an instrument, he attached various metal tongues to a piece of wood so that these tongues could be blown with the mouth. He made experiments with resounding reeds. In a small box with the dimensions "4 inches in diameter and so high" (excerpt from December 28, 1828) - a cube about 10 cm on a side. In it he fastened 21 tones, which he blew through as many tone hole chambers (cavities) in order to make them vibrate. He called the instrument created in this way aeoline , which, as he imagined, is well suited as a substitute for a singing voice or as an accompaniment with up to six simultaneously sounding notes for a harmony. A tuning aid with reeds is probably not mentioned in the known letters during the travels, but it is more likely that such a tuning aid was already carried. A tongue instrument without keys is only mentioned in connection with the "invention".

The correspondence also shows that an Aeoline, roughly the size of a very small desk, was built in 1829 during the music tour in 1829. They originally did not take Aeolins with them on their musical tours. The Buschmanns knew about the Aeoline that Bernhard Eschenbach made together with his cousin Johann Caspar Schlimbach . Eschenbach shared his experience with everyone who visited him, and so others subsequently registered his invention as a patent in a modified form. In a letter dated October 30, 1829, Buschmann's father Johann Buschmann also considered applying for a patent in Bavaria for the Aeoline with improved bellows. On October 28, 1815, a very detailed report about the claveoline that was built by Bernhard Eschenbach himself appears.

Own workshop

As can be seen from the correspondence, Friedrich and his father stayed at least 8-15 October 1829 in Rinteln in the inn "Deutsches Haus", where he probably also met his future wife Sophie Volkmar. Her brother the theologian and classical philologist Gustav Hermann Joseph Philipp Volkmar was a high school teacher in Rinteln from 1833. Sophie's family had lived in Rinteln since 1817, where father Adam Valentin Volkmar had become a music teacher at the newly built grammar school; at the same time he was the organist at the Nicolaikirche. In the letter of September 10, 1829, one reads: “Herr Volkmar, who made the trip here with us, is hurrying because otherwise the night will take us by surprise. Many compliments to H. Volkmar. "

In 1833 Friedrich Buschmann married Sophie Volkmar and moved to Hamburg, where he opened a workshop. After all, he also called his instruments the physharmonica . He built almost exclusively suction air instruments. Each of the instruments had its own large keyboard (manual). In a later letter dated June 21, 1838, his wife wrote to her brother Gustav: “[…] business is going well […] only recently four physharmonicas were sold. Friedrich also buys used fortepianos which he repairs and sells again. Now, after hiring a skilled craftsman, fortepianos are also being built. ”She also mentions:“ The tuning aids can be sold at good prices, only recently one was sold to Paris and another is in the works and will be sent to Petersburg. Recently Friedrich was publicly praised for the voice aids ”. Friedrich was visited by well-known musicians in the Hamburg suburb of St. Georg.

Licensing

In addition to the license that was awarded to Löschmann in London in 1821, the piano and organ builder Johann Georg Gröber from Innsbruck also acquired a license to replicate the Terpodion from his father Johann David Buschmann in 1835 .

Great gold medal

For a physharmonica with a built-in terpodion, he received a large gold medal at the art and trade exhibition in Hamburg in 1838.

Mentioned in the Wiener Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung

"(Friedrich Buschmann) in Hamburg, whose father, as is well known, invented the Terpodion, has currently completed a Physharmonica according to a new, peculiar construction, which makes this instrument, which is otherwise difficult to handle, usable for every concert music, and performs quite extraordinary as an accompaniment to the chants."

- August Schmidt, Ferdinand Luib

literature

Web links

Commons : Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to current knowledge, the invention of the harmonica cannot be attributed to any individual.
  2. ↑ 700 Thaler at that time corresponded to a little more than the annual income of a weaver.

References

  1. ↑ Conny Restle (Ed.): On everyone's lips: harmonica, harmonica, harmonium; a 200-year success story. Musikinstrumenten-Museum, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-922378-20-X , p. 43.
  2. ↑ Armin Fett, Maria Dunkel, SL:  Harmonikainstrumente. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, subject part, volume 4 (Hanau - Carthusians). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1996, ISBN 3-7618-1105-5  ( online edition , subscription required for full access); NGroveD 10 (2001) [Harmonica]; H. Buschmann, Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann, the inventor of the mouth and hand harmonica in 1938.
  3. ^ Copy of a letter dated June 23, 1841 from mother Volckmar to her son theology professor Gustav Volkmar. The original letter is owned by the Volkmar family. Wilhelm Lohmar (night watchman wvr).
  4. ↑ Weekly bulletin for art and craft industry in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Volume 1, 1815, pp. 227-234 ( Klaväoline, description of the Klaväolin by Bernhard Eschenbach ).
  5. ^ Wiener Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung. Volume 3 by August Schmidt, Ferdinand Luib 1843, p. 628 ( digitized in the Google book search
personal data
SURNAME Buschmann, Christian Friedrich Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musical instrument maker and inventor of the harmonica
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1805
PLACE OF BIRTH Friedrichroda
DATE OF DEATH October 1, 1864
Place of death Hamburg