Harmonica instrument

Harmonicas , and harmonicas or harmonics , are reed wind instruments , the breathing of the player or via a bellows are supplied with the necessary air flow, so aerophones .

Overview

The harmonica instruments include:

• Harmonica and mouth organs , pure wind instruments
• Brass accordions with keyboard, such as melodica , triola , harmonetta
• Concertinas ( accordions ) as the accordion (diatonic) and the Bandoneon
• Physharmonica and harmonium , concert instruments similar to organs, but technically they are full-reed instruments

function

Harmonica instruments are blown in order to use the Bernoulli effect to make the reed or tongue blown by the mouth (pure wind instruments ) or by pressing a key (keyboard harmonica, i.e. keyboard instruments ) sound.

The tongues are arranged in chambers , one opening of which the air stream flows in or out and the second opening of which is almost completely covered by a reed that is almost completely covered by the aforementioned effect, which leads to the characteristic sound pressure fluctuations of the air flowing through leads.

literature

• Thomas Eickhoff: Cultural history of the harmonica. Schmülling, Kamen 1991, ISBN 3-925572-05-8 .
• Josef Focht, Herbert Grünwald (Ed.): Konzertina, Bandonion, Akkordeon. The development of the harmonica instruments and their playing in Bavaria. With contributions by Dieter Krickeberg and Kari Oriwohl (=  folk music collection and documentation in Bavaria. No. E 12). Bavarian State Association for Home Care eV, Munich 1999.
• Karl M. Klier: Popular musical instruments in the Alps. (Comment: Hans Commenda. In: Institute for Regional Studies of Upper Austria: Österreichische Heimatblätter. Vol. 12, Issue 1/2, January – June 1958, pp. 74–79; pdf ).
• Helmut Kowar: Harmonica instruments. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-7001-3044-9 .
• Karl-Georg Schroll: Bandonion clubs. United - popular - forgotten. Workers' music between "Lust & Leben" and "Profitum". BlattFuchs-Verlag, Wiltingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-946652-26-7 (480 pages).

Web links

Wiktionary: Harmonica  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations