Comments on: Exploring the Roots of Harmonica Invention http://www.harmonica.com/blog/268-origin-of-harmonica.html Learning to Play the Harmonica - Made Fun! Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:14:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Valentino G. Saunders http://www.harmonica.com/blog/268-origin-of-harmonica.html/comment-page-1#comment-1029 Valentino G. Saunders Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:22:48 +0000 http://www.harmonica.com/blog/?p=268#comment-1029 The origin of the harmonica is generally accepted by musicologists to come from a Chinese wind instrument called a "sheng" (or "cheng") circa 3000 B.C. Despite the fact that these two instruments' shapes differ greatly, both use a free-reed mechanism in a very similar manner. In 1636, Marin Mersànne introduced Europe to the sheng through his letters describing it as "an Asian free-reed wind instrument." In 1776, French Jesuit missionary Pare Amiot shipped several shengs from China to Paris, France. By the 1780s, European instrument makers were experimenting with free-reeds. In 1816, a free-reeded keyboard instrument called a "terpodion" was introduced by Johann Buschmannn, a German organ builder. This instrument would later become the predecessor to both the harmonica and the harmonium. His sixteen-year-old son, Christian Friedrich Buschmann, would invent and register in 1821 for the first European patent of a free-reeded mouth organ, which he called the "aura," or "mundaeoline." That leaves clearly, that Christian Buschmann did not invent the Harmonica. Working to search the truth, brings justice, union and peace. Valentino G. Saunders The origin of the harmonica is generally accepted by musicologists to come from a Chinese wind instrument called a “sheng” (or “cheng”) circa 3000 B.C. Despite the fact that these two instruments’ shapes differ greatly, both use a free-reed mechanism in a very similar manner. In 1636, Marin Mersànne introduced Europe to the sheng through his letters describing it as “an Asian free-reed wind instrument.” In 1776, French Jesuit missionary Pare Amiot shipped several shengs from China to Paris, France. By the 1780s, European instrument makers were experimenting with free-reeds.

In 1816, a free-reeded keyboard instrument called a “terpodion” was introduced by Johann Buschmannn, a German organ builder. This instrument would later become the predecessor to both the harmonica and the harmonium. His sixteen-year-old son, Christian Friedrich Buschmann, would invent and register in 1821 for the first European patent of a free-reeded mouth organ, which he called the “aura,” or “mundaeoline.” That leaves clearly, that Christian Buschmann
did not invent the Harmonica.

Working to search the truth, brings justice, union and peace.

Valentino G. Saunders

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