![]() For harmonicas with double rows of holes (called ‘tremolo’ harmonicas, see the third, fourth and fifth instruments in the gallery), each channel is fitted with only a single free-reed. For such an harmonica, the tuned metal reeds on a given plate are attached in such a way that they will sound only when air is drawn over them in one direction (the reeds on the plate seen in the first detail image sound when the player exhales/blows air into the instrument’s wind channels the reeds on the plate seen in the second detail image sound when the player inhales/sucks air into the instrument’s wind channels). ![]() For diatonic harmonicas with a single row of channels (such as the first two harmonicas pictured, called ‘vampers’), there are simply vertical partitions separating the wind channel holes-the top and bottom of each channel is enclosed by the reed plates, the far end of the channel is closed with a wood panel (see the first and second detail images, which show the top and bottom reed plates of the same vamper harmonica). Each wind channel has an open and a closed end, the open ends (called ‘holes’) located along one of the long edges of an instrument’s casing. At the core of any harmonica is a thin rectangular-cube-shaped body the top and bottom faces of which are metal reed plates separated from one another by one or two rows of small wind channels the partitions of which are made from wood. Of the six harmonicas pictured in the gallery, the first five are diatonically tuned and the sixth is chromatically tuned. A few ‘academic’ composers have created a small repertoire of works, even a few concertos, for the harmonica (third audio clip). The second audio clip, recorded in 1950s South Africa, illustrates one such adaptation. Like many instruments, the harmonica has traveled far and wide in the hands of sailors, soldiers and settlers and in the process it has been introduced to musicians in other cultures who in turn have adapted the instrument to their own sensibilities. The first audio clip illustrates the utilization of the harmonica into one stylistic genre of American music, the blues. ![]() It has become a popular instrument on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, incorporated primarily, although not exclusively, into folk and popular music traditions. ![]() The harmonica is a free-reed aerophone developed in mid-19 th century Germany. ![]()
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